I:' ;.> . 






vr;n-. 






^,,*'>1•"-'■-' 









W.'*' ' ''"■ ' ' 



.•.•li'AV.'. ■-.•■ 

;.V'^.'-'-'iV.v'.",. -•-■ 

.'i*iJ«i''»%;*''.*i'.V' 'I'l^ •.■ 

.■„•',■ A,-" '^;v. \':- ■ 

■,i<-AH,.\r.-''./','.';-'-!:'f *'■ 
(..■^-.•-,'.i.,i-. . . 

' ■ ''". V>i'.- ■'■, f'J'' " 



•,v 



•i: 





Book A.Z3_ 



PREFACE. 



County h,stories are not always the most entertaining readine in tl,e 
wor d, but they are far front being the least valuable of p I d oo 
In then, ,s found the record of the early, if „ot the earliest sett.^ntent 
of a eountry ne,v to its ocpupants; the transplantation of ei'v 1 t IT 

iLToTr "' '''^'''^'--- "^ -"^^e cont^unities and h 
■ growth of those comnntnities, ,n many cases, to prosperous cities 
Wh re that record rests upon tradition it is of littL J„rth, an the 
most p eas.ng narratives are entitled to small consideration „n ess tlev 
are fort.fied by tangible evidence. Thus any historical writin" hlw 
ever unpretentious, should be convincing to the reason and satistt J; 
to the understandmg, rather than .ratifying to the taste or the i^ali: 

In the work here offered to the pubhc no pain,, have been spared to 
venfy by more than one authority every statement of fact, an Jhe e 
an opm.on as been expressed the Judgment has been based upon in 
ormat.on that seemed to the writer preponderant if not decisive Of 
he many previous histories of Monroe county and of the region of 
Western New York all have been consulted carefully, and where error 
have been observed they have been corrected, recourse be.n/had 
whenever there was any room for doubt, to omcial documents whose 
author,ty was beyond question. This book, as will be seen is com 
posue ,n us character, the various divisions being the work of different 



iv PREFACE. 

persons. If this method be open to criticism, the objection is in this 
instance overcome as far as possible by the effort that has been made 
to secure harmony of treatment as well as accuracy of detail. While 
no claim is made that the whole ground has been covered, or that the 
last word on the subject has been said, it is hoped, with some confi- 
dence, that this volume will be accepted as not inferior to those that 
have preceded it on the same theme and as offering- a fair presentation 
of the " Landmarks of Monroe Countv." 



ERRATA. 

On paj^e 34, fourth line from the bottom, " 1795" should be " 179(5." 

On page 50, fourth hne from the top the same correction should be made. 

On page 105, sixth line from the bottom, " 1821 " should be " 1818." 



CONTENTS. 



A SKETCH OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Bv Wm. F. Peck 



102 



CHAPTER I. 

THE INDIAN OCCUPATION. 

The Earliest Residents-Seneca Traditions-Advent ui the Iroquois-The Gen 
tile Division-The Tribal Division-Formation of the League-The Council 
of the Long House-Descent in the Female Line-Rights of Women-Re- 
hgious Beliefs and Customs-The New Religion-Architecture-Trails- 
Indian Nomenclature— Conquests of the Iroquois— Their Cruelty to Prisoners 
—Population— Adoption of Captives— Extent of Territory j 

CHAPTER H. 

THE EXPLORERS AND THE JESUITS. 

Jacques Cartier-Champlain-His Wars with the Iroquois-Etienne Brule- 
Jesuit Missions Established-The Seneca Mission -Father Gamier and 
Father Raffeix— La Salle's Visits— Father Hennepin 15 

CHAPTER III. 

WARS WITH THE FRENCH. 

Jealousy between Canada and New York— The Iroquois incline to the English- 
Expedition of Governor Denonville — His Landing at Irondequoit— The 
March to the Interior— The Fight at Houghton's Hill— A Pyrrhic Victory.. 21 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE STRUGGLE FOR SUPREMACY. 

The Commission of Governor Andros— Extensive Cession from the Indians— The 
For tdes Sables— Charlevoix's Travels— His Description of the Genesee River 
—Attempts at Settlement— Other Indian Cessions— General Prideaux's Ex- 
pedition— Pouchot's Works 



2.) 



h 



29 



^ CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER \'. 

SULLIVAN'S CAMPAIGN. 

The Revolutionary War- Altitude of the Iroquois-The Confederacy Divided- 
Raids of the Indians-The Massacre at Cherry Valley-Reprisals Ordered- 
Washin^ton's Instructions t<. Sullivan-Advance of the Army— Destruction 
of Property— Atrocities on Both Sides— Killing of Boyd and Parker— Close 
of the Conflict - " 

IIIAI'TER VI 

SOVEKEUiNTV AND PRK-EMPTION. 

Surrender of Northwestern Territory— Dispute between New York and Massa- 
chusetts— C(.nflictinif Royal Charters— Rights of Conquest from the Dutch- 
Commissioners Apix)inted— A Settlement Effected 35 

CHAPTER VII. 

TMK PURCHASE FROM TlIK INDIANS. 

The Les.sees— Conspiracy to Defraud Massachusetts- Phelps and Gorham— They 
Contract f<.r Western New York— They E.xtinguish the Indian Title— The 
Mill- Yard Piece— Remarkable Errors in the Survey— The Reversion to Mas- 
sachusetts—Sales to Robert Morris— The Holland Purchase— The Treaty at 
Big Tree— Present Location of the Senecas . . 40 

ciiapt]:r \'iii. 

CONNECTING LINKS. 

The Tory Walker- His Cabin at the Mouth of the River— Erection of the Mills 
—Transfers of Land— " Indian " Allan— His Murderous Career— His 
Plurality of Wives— His Robbery from his Children — Mary Jemison, "the 
White Woman of the Genesee"— Her Abduction and her Captivity— Her 
Change of Race— Murders of her Sons — Her Admirable Character 52 

CIIAI'TICR IX. 

SETTLEMENT OF Till". WHITES.' 

The Twenty-Thousand Acre Tract — The Deed to Robert Morris — Settlement of 
the Lusks — Settlement of the Sheffers — Visit of Chateaubriand — Of Roche- 
foucault-Liuncourt— Of Other Frenchmen — Settlement of William Hencher 
—Gideon Kmg and Zadock Granger — Kings Landing — Hanford's Land- 
ing—Town Meetings, Schools and Churches — Roads and Mail Service — 
Tryon Town— Ca.stleton— Carthage— The Great Bridge— The War of 1812— 
Defense of Charlotte (12 



CONTENTS. vii 

CHAPTER X. 

FORMATION OF THE COUNTY. 

Original Counties of the State — The Evolution of Monroe — Struggle over its 
Formation — First Board of Supervisors — Derivation of the Towns — The 
First Court Hou.se— Population of the County — The County Treasurers — 
Representatives in Congress — State Senators — Collectors of the Port 75 

CHAPTER XI. 

DEVELOPMENT OF THE COUNTY. 

The First Deed Recorded — -Lake Navigation — The Commerce of Carthage — 
Revenues from Customs — The Erie Canal — Its Inception, its Construction, 
and its Cost — The Genesee Valley Canal — River Navigation — The Jail — The 
Second Court House^The State Industrial School — The Deaf Muteln.stitute 
— The Almshouse — The Insane Asylum — The Bible Society — The Agriculr 
tural and Horticultural Societies — County Taxes 81 

CHAPTER Xn. 

THE COUNTY IN THE CIVIL WAR. 

The First Call — Monroe's Response— Our Regiments, Battalions and Companies 
of Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery, Sharpshooters and Engineers — Ten Thousand 
Men Enlisted — Their Service in the Field — General Officers — Grand Army 
of the Republic — The Veteran Brigade 93 



A SKETCH OF ROCHESTER. 

By Wm. F. Peck, 103-191 

CHAPTER I. 

THE GENESIS OF THE COMMUNITY. 

The One-Hundred-Acre Tract — Its Successive Owners — Purchased by Roches- 
ter, Fitzhugh and Carroll — Sketch of Colonel Rochester — Jeremiah Olm- 
stead — Charles Harford — Enos Stone — The First White Child— The First 
Log Cabin — Hamlet Scrantom — Abelard Reynolds — The Postmasters — The 
Early Bridges — Business Enterprises — Incorporation of the Village — Its 
Officers— Its Population in Succeeding Years 103 



{ 



viii CONTENTS. 

niAl'TlCK II. 

Vn.I.AdE LIFE. 

The Ne vspapers of Rochester— The Gazette and the Telegraph— The Principal 
Jou nals to the Present Time— German Newspapers— Sunday Journals— Vil- 
lag. Churches— St. Luke's. St. Paul's and St. Patrick's— The Second Pres- 
byt rian— The Friends, the Methodists, the Baptists and the Unitarians- 
Latayette's Visit in IMi.j— Canal Celebration— Commerce and Transporta- 
tion—Travel by Canal and Stage— The Bank of Rochester— The Bank of 
Monroe— The Morgan Abduction— The Village Divided into Wards— Direc- 
tor)' of 1827— The \'illage Fire Department— Sam Patch— Beginning of 
M( rmonism— The Cholera in 1H:12. and in Other Years— Incorporation of 
the City— List of the ( )rticials and their Successors 112 

e'IlAPTl-:R III. 

CITY LIFi:. 

Chang«;s in the Charter— Extension of the Limits— The City Fire Department — 
The Volunteer System— Change to the Paid Department — Notable Fires- 
Amusements— Early Theaters— '1 heMuseum— Corinthian Hall— Early Schools 
—The Old Hi^h School— Catholic Schijols- The Free Academy —Early Bury- 
ing Grounds-Mt. Hope— Catholic Cemeteries— Railroads— The Tonawanda— 
The Auburn and Rochester— The New York Central and Others — The 
Carthage Road— The First Telegraph— The Western Union and Specula- 
tion therein— The Patriot War— The Civil War — Anti-Slavery and the Un- • 
dc ground Railroad— The Rochester Knockings — Disastrous Floods— Water 
W >rks — ( )ur Semi-Centenuial 128 



CIIAPTI-R TV. 

THE LAST DECADE. 

Cannibalism in the Greely Relief Expedition — Foundry Strike in IHSo — The Bell 
1 elcphore Struggle — Sketch of HenryO'Reilly — The Naphtha Explosion Dis- 
aster — Awful Loss of Life at the Lantern W^orks Fire — Death of Gen. A. W. 
I« »iey, Hiram Sibley and Seth Green — Street Car Troubles and Changes — 
Sketch of Henry E. Rochester — And of President Anderson — Church Build- 
ii g in 1H91— Sketch of Josiah W. Bissell— Dedication of the Soldiers' Monu- 
n. ent— Charitable Relief Work in 189-1 — Introduction of Individual Com- 
munion Cups — Dedication of a Jewish Temple — Sketch of Darius Perrin — 
Diphtheria and Anti-Toxine — Sketch of Frederick Douglass and of William 
S. Kimball 150 



^ / 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER V. 

THE PRESENT DAY. 

The Female Charitable Society — The Society for the Organization of Charity — 

Orphan Asylums — The Industrial School^Infant's Summer Hospital 

Home for the Friendless — The Church Home — Home of Industrj- — The hu- 
mane Society — Children's Aid vSociety — Young Men's Christian Associat^jn 
— University of Rochester — The Theological Seminary — Wagner Memo'^ul 
College — Mechanics' Institute— Public Schools — The Reynolds Libran, — 
Academy of Science— The Historical Society — The Churches — Clubs of ^^il 
Kinds — The Chamber of Commerce— The Banks — The Parks — ^The Bridges 
— The Railroads — Municipal Government — The Fire and Police Department 
— The City Expenses — Sewers and Water Works— Miscellaneous Statistics. . 



THE GEOLOGY OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Bv Herman Le Roy Faikchii.d 193-195 



THE BENCH AND BAR. 

By L. C. Aldrich, edited by Thomas L. Raines 19fi-'?2() 



THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. 

By L. C. Aldrich 221-232 



THE TOWNS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

By L. C. Aldrich - . :.'v{3-441 " 

CHAPTER I. 
The Town of Brighton .'2^0 

CHAPTER II. ■' 
The Town of Chili 



CHAPTER III. 

The Town of Clarkson.. ....'. - -'1 




The To\'. n >>i (iates 



The Town of (Greece. . 



Ihi- Town of Hamlin 



The Town of Henrietta 



The Town of Irondequoit 



The Town of Mendon 



I'll.- Town of O^den 



The Town of Parma . . . 



CONTENTS. 
CHAPTER IV. 

CHAPTER V. 

CHAPTER VI. 

CHAPTER VII. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



CHAPTER IX. 



CHAPTER X. 



CHAPTER XI 



CHAPTER XII. 



.260 



2(59 



283 



.290 



.299 



305 



.31' 



333 



The Town of iVnfield . '^^^ 



CHAPTER XIII. 



The Town of Ferinton . 



.359 



The Town of Pittsford 



The Town of ki^a 



The Town of Rush 



CHAPTER XIV. 
I'H.XPTl-R XV. 



.375 



CHAPTER XVI. 



3S6 



.395 



CONTENTS. xi 

CHAPTER XVII. 
The Town of Sweden 402 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
The Town of Webster 424 

CHAPTER XIX. 
The Town of Wheatland 432 



JUDGES AND ATTORNEYS. 

442-492 



PART II. 
Biographical . . 1-108 

PART III. 

Family Sketches . 1-310 

INDEX, PART I 311 

INDEX, PART II. 328 

INDEX, PART III .' -329 

INDEX, PORTRAITS - - 338 



A SKETCH OF MONROE COUNTY. 



BY WILLIAM F. PECK. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE INDIAN OCCUPATION. 

Tlie Earliest Residents — Seneca Traditions — Advent of the Iroquois — The Gentile 
Division — The Tribal Division — Formation of the League — The Council of the Long 
House — Descent in the Female Line — Rights of Women — Religious Beliefs and Cus- 
tonas — The 'New Religion — Architecture — Trails — Indian Nomenclature — Conquests of 
the Iroquois — Their Cruelty to Prisoners — Population — Adoption of Captives — Extent 
of Territory. 

No one knows how long ago this region was first inhabited by 
human beings, or what manner of men first had their permanent settle- 
ment in this locality. The natural disposition to refer the source of an^^ 
historical sequence to the earliest possible antecedents has led many 
writers to advance the conjecture that the " mound-builders," who 
have left such evidence of their existence in Ohio, were here at some 
remote period, and this theory has possessed so much attraction that 
others have endeavored to improve upon it by maintaining that there 
was a race here prior to those pyramidal architects. But nothing has 
been found to establish either proposition, for nobody knows, or 
probably ever will know, to whom belonged the rude utensils, the fire- 
brands and the split wood that are turned up, occasionally, in the 
lowest excavations. If any race was here before the red Indians it died 
and left no sign that can be understood, and the only safe position on 
which to stand is that the first people known to have dwelt here were 
the Iroquois, the immediate predecessors of the Anglo-Saxons, who 
X 



LANDMARKS OF MONROE CQT^NTY. 

scarcely a century ago followed up tlic work of war and starvation and 
began \o occupy the ancestral soil of tiic dusky savages. 

Of course the Iroquois, and particularly the Seneca nation, which 
dwelt in this immediate locality, had plenty of traditions about their 
own origin and about those who li\ ed in this region before them and 
who had, according to the best elaborated story, all been devoured by 
.1 great serpent near Canandaigua lake, whereupon the Senecas, by a 
kind of special creation, came fortli out of the mountain near the head 
of the lake and entered upon the possessions of those who had gone 
down the throat of the monster. To speculate, as some have done, 
upon the allegorical or typical meaning of this legend is worse than 
idle, as it bears ni»l the remotest resemblance to the known facts in the 
case. As far back as they can be traced, and that not with much cer- 
tainty, the Inxjuois came, many centuries ;igo, from some region west 
of the Mississippi and settled along the St. Lawrence river, whence they 
made their way into New York, stopping first at the mouth of the 
Oswego river. Remaining there for many generations, they broke up 
their encampment and separated into three distinct tribes — the Mohawks, 
the Onondagas and the Senecas. 

It was probably long before this that another line of division was 
made, which is kept up to the present day, viz., that into clans — or 
gentis, as Morgan calls them, using the Latin word, which is more 
exact — when the whole nation was marked off into eight groups, each 
named for some animal, like the wolf, the beaver or the hawk. All 
belonging to one gens were considered as own brothers and sisters, 
descended from a common ancestor, though whether that forefather was 
really the beast or bird whose name they bore, or whether the title was 
recognised as only emblematic, has always been a matter of conjecture. 
It is quite possible that at some time in the remote past there were eight 
tlistinct families or tribes known by these zoological names, and that 
when they were united into one nation they chose to preserve the 
tradition of their origin by retaining for e^ch one its old cognomen and 
to perpetuate their integrity by forbidding marriage between members 
of the same gens. This jiositivc restriction was continued after the 
nation had been divided into tribes, so that, while there was no objec- 
tion to gener.il intermarriage among members of the same tribe, as well 



THE INDIAN OCCUPATION. 3 

as among those of different tribes, no union was possible between a 
Seneca Wolf, for instance, and a Mohawk Wolf, even though they had 
always been separated by hundreds of miles and the real parents of one 
had never seen those of the other. At a later period the tribal forma- 
tion was made, as has been shown, on lines crossing the gentile or clan 
lines, but without weakening the bond of unity. 

On their migration from the Oswego, the Mohawks went eastward, 
leaving a portion of their tribe behind, who became the Oneidas; the 
Onondagas settled in the central portion, and the Senecas west of them, 
while the Cayuga tribe, which was located between those two, was a 
later offshoot of one or the other, it is not known which. Some time 
between 1400 and 1450, according to their own traditions, but probably 
a few years after the latter date, these five independent tribes were 
formed into a confederacy — a reunion, to some extent, of the original 
nation, but with a constitution, elaborate though oral, which preserved 
the independence of the separate tribes, the local territory of each, the 
representation of each at the grand council of fifty sachems that met at 
intervals near the present site of Syracuse, and the relation of the 
various tribes to each other. This constitution, which was the work of 
the greatest of Indian statesmen, Ha-yo-went-ha — or Hiawatha, as 
Longfellow has immortalised and fixed his name — joined the tribes to- 
gether in a civil union that was cemented by the social tie of gentile 
relationship, so that the league formed a compact mass, elastic and yet 
cohesive, which was perfectly irresistible. The Ho-de-no sau-nee they 
called themselves, or " Children of the Long House," from their great 
council hall ; the Iroquois the French called them — from " hiro," an 
Indian word, equivalent to " I have spoken," with which they always 
ended their discourses — while the English usually spoke of them col- 
lectively as the F"ive Nations. This name endured till 171 5, when it 
was changed to the Six Nations, in consequence of the Tuscaroras com- 
ing up from North Carolina and being, as their language showed them, 
of the same lineage with the others, admitted into the confederacy and 
wedged in between the Mohawks and the Oneidas, where lands were 
set apart for them from the domain of the latter tribe. 

While the grand council consisted by law of fifty sachems, and there 
were always that number of seats at the council fire, yet in reality there 



4 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COTTNTY. 

were, after the death of Hiawatha and his leading adviser, only forty- 
eight living persons present, for the seats of those founders of the con- 
federacy, thouj^h vacant to mortal eyes, were always filled by the spirits 
of their ori<^inal occupants. The sacheniships were hereditary, accord- 
ing to the Indian conception of heredity, not according to ours — that is, 
they were not hereditary in the family, hut onl}- in the gens, so that the 
successor to a deceased sachem could never be his son, for, descent be- 
ing in the fen)ale line, the son would belong to a different gens from 
his father, but the new sachem must belong to the same gens with the 
old one and be chosen by the members thereof While the sachems 
were the lawmakers and rulers of the league, they had no military 
power; no sachem could become a war- chief, no war chief could be- 
come a sachem. Red Jacket, the Seneca, and Ihant, the Mohawk, were 
chiefs, but not sachems, and Ely S. Parker, for some time a resident of 
Rochester, was a sachem but not a chief. Each tribe had its own war- 
chiefs, chosen for merit only, who had control over the forces of their 
respective tribes when in battle or on the warpath, and in addition to 
these there were two principal war- chiefs of the whole confederacy, 
always chosen from among the Senecas, the "keepers of the western 
door of the Long House," because on that side lay the only anticipated 
danger of attack. 

In spite of the rights of women among the Iroquois, preponderating 
so far above those of the sex in our own community, their condition 
was very low. As has been observed already, descent was in the female 
line, and all children belonged to the gens of the mother — a not unrea- 
sonable provision, which largely prevails at this day among the Turks 
and other semi- civilised people, where maternity is a matter of cer- 
tainty, paternity only of belief. It was the same way with inheritance; 
at the death of the mother the children took all her property, but on 
the demise of the father his goods passed to his brothers and sisters. 
Women had the elective franchise, voting on terms of equality with the 
men for sachems and war-chiefs, and their voice was largely potential 
in the disposition of prisoners, any of whom could be adopted by them 
to take the place of husbands or relatives lost in battle, and the rest 
would be enslaved or tortured, according to the feminine caprice, which 
was seldom on the side of mercy. An illustration of this malignant 



THE INDIAN OCCUPATION. 6 

vindictiveness, more destructive in its consequences than any other in- 
stance known to history, is found among the kindred nation of the 
Eries. This tribe had taken prisoner a chief of the Onondagas and had 
conchided to let him be adopted by one of their young women who liad 
lost a brother at the hands of the Iroquois. The girl was absent at the 
time, but when she returned she utterly refused to consent, all the en- 
treaties of her chiefs were in vain and she insisted that the Onondaga 
should be burned alive to appease her vengeance. Inexorable custom 
made her will supreme, the prisoner was sent to the stake and a few 
weeks later all the Eries, men, women and children, to the number of 
some thousands, were slaughtered by the enraged confederates. But, 
to offset all these privileges, the Indian squaw, as long as she lived with 
her husband, was a mere drudge, subject to all his brutal whims, liable 
to be abandoned at any moment, almost certain to be beaten frequently, 
and never secure against a fatal blow, for which reparation could easily 
be made by the presentation of gifts to her gentile kindred. 

Of the religious beliefs of the Iroquois before their very partial con- 
version to Christianity, but little can be said with accuracy. Polythe- 
ism prevailed, a belief in different gods, as personified by the forces of 
nature, very much as among the Greeks and Romans, only in a cruder 
and coarser form, but oftentimes with a wealth of poetic fancy far sur- 
passing the myths of the classic nations. At the same time they car- 
ried the idea much further, for they not only had deities for the streams, 
the mountains, the forests, fire, wind and weather, but each production 
of the earth had its own genius, and there was a spirit of the squash, a 
spirit of the maize, a spirit of tobacco, and so on. The everlasting con- 
tention between good and evil found as full recognition among them as 
among the ancient Persians, both powers being placated by feasts and 
offerings, but their supreme veneration was for the mighty Manitou, 
the spirit of eternal beneficence, and in his honor were held their prin- 
cipal festivals. He was the master of life, the controller of the nation's 
fortunes in this world and of their individual destiny in the next, to 
which their abiding belief in the immortality of the soul taught them to 
look forward. Their religious observances and ceremonies, which were 
marked by superstition and cruelty, usually took place in or around the 
lodge of the " medicine man," that combination of priest and physician 



6 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

for whose interest it was that the fears and baser passions of his clients 
should have full sway and should never yield to the loftier aspirations, 
the kindlier feelings, that might be engendered by a purer wcrship of 
nature. With them the dance, which was never a pastime but always 
a religious act. was, while not so graceful or so rhythmic as among the 
white races, more studiously developed than elsewhere, each step, each 
movement being fraught with its jjeculiar meaning. Sacrifices were 
common among them, the slaughter of their captives being tinctured 
with that element, though usually animals were chosen, a white dog be- 
ing peculiarly desirable for that purpose, and this ceremony endured 
till 1813. In that year the last solemn sacrifice of the white dog among 
the Senecas took place in Rochester, when the animal was strangled 
and then burned, on the eminence on the south side of Troup street, 
near Caledonia avenue. 

Having mentioned this event, so far out of its chronological relation 
to other matters treated of in this chapter, it may be as well to allude, 
in the same connection, to a singular phase of religion that came to the 
Indians in this part of the state about 1800, when it was declared that 
a new revelation had been received from heaven. Handsome Lake, or 
Ga ne-odiyo, who was born near Avon in 1734, was a sachem of the 
highest class, belonging to the Turtle gens of the Seneca nation. After 
he had reached maturity he was deeply impressed with the degradation 
of his people and with the unmistakable signs of their decadence 
through their addiction to strong drink. To counteract this frightful 
evil, as well as to regenerate, as far as possible, the morals of the com- 
munity in other respects, this wise counselor, perceiving that exhorta- 
tions delivered from a common plane would be ineffective, announced 
that, after being sick for a long time, he had been visited by three spir- 
itual beings in the form of men, who had cured him of his illness by 
means of herbs which they had brought. Subsequent calis from these 
unearthly visitants were stated to have resulted in the revelation of a 
new religion, which he proceeded to expound. While the guiding mo- 
tive of Handsome Lake is clear, the source from which the idea of his 
scheme emanated is matter of conjecture. The story of the three an- 
thropomorphic visitors, so similar to the experiences of Abraham, is 
suggestive of the Old Testament ; the prophet's later narration of his 



THE INDIAN OCCUPATION. 7 

translation to heaven, where he stayed for some time in the enjoy- 
ment of angelic hospitality and whence he looked down upon the earth 
to behold the misery of his people, recalls the Koran, with Mahomet's 
temporary ascent, while the tenderness with which the practice of hu- 
manity toward the most helpless of beings is inculcated would seem to 
find" its inspiration in the New Testament Yet in all of Handsome 
Lake's teachings, as far as they have been reported, and in all the ex- 
position of them by his successors, who continued his ministrations 
down to forty years ago, there was no mention made of any sacred 
writings and no allusion whatever to any of the distinctive dogmas of 
the Christian theology. 

The religion was that of pure morality and benevolence, and it pur- 
ported to be based on the old faith of the Indians, which it did not 
contravene in any way, but rather elaborated, and sought to turn into 
channels of right living. The revelation started out with the strongest 
denunciation of firewater, the drinking of which was declared to be a 
crime, absolutely forbidden by the great spirit, and one that would 
certainly be visited by eternal punishment in the next world ; the sanc- 
tity of marriage, with the necessity of the fidelity of both parties, was 
inculcated in the strongest manner; the reciprocal duties of parents and 
children were clearly defined, and all hearers were exhorted to do good 
to each other — in fine, to practise the golden rule. This religion, if it 
can be considered sufficiently formal and concrete to merit that tdrm, 
was preached by the Seneca prophet throughout all the reservations 
and at all the gatherings of Indians in this state, except those of the 
Christianised Oneidas and Tuscaroras. The result was amazing, the 
effect equaling that produced by any revivalist of modern times. 
Drunkenness was arrested in its course of national destruction, and for 
a time, at least, good order and outward morality took the place of the 
general depravity which, before that, had been growing rapidly worse. 
At the same time no attempt was made by this reformer, and probably 
he acted sagaciously in that, to change any of the former beliefs, except 
that those which tended toward cruelty were ignored, and therefore 
annulled. The ceremonial observances were not interfered with but 
were rather encouraged, as may be judged by the white dog sacrifice, 
mentioned above. While the hopes of Handsome Lake for tin com- 



8 LANDMARKS OF xMONROK COUNTV. 

plete regeneration of his people were never realised, either during his 
lifetime or afterward, there can be no doubt that their condition was 
materially, and probably permanently, elevated by the good message 
that he bore to them. 

Only the crudest knowledge of the principles of architecture existed 
among the Iroquois. Individual wigwams, so noted in song and story, 
are largely the creation of romance. Among the Senecas, at least, the 
preference was for communal dwellings, the predecessors of the com- 
partment houses of the present day, rather than for separate habitations 
for each family. They were constructed by setting upright poles in the 
ground, fitting others to these horizontally by means of withes, and 
raising upon them a roof, sometimes arched, sometimes sloping, the 
whole frame, both top and sides, being covered with strips of bark, 
usually of elm, fastened with splints or strings. These tenements were 
from fifty to one hundred feet long by seventeen wide, and were divided 
into sections eight feet long by six wide, each of which was occupied by 
one family, no matter how many there were in it — more raised bunks 
being put into the walls of the chamber as the occupants increased in 
number. Through the long house ran a passage way, and in this the 
fires were kept, generally one for every four families, and, as there were 
no doors to the rooms, a fair degree of warmth was thus obtained, 
though at the expense of health, for there was no outlet for the smoke 
except holes in the roof, which were covered in rainy weather, and 
thus diseases of the eyes were very prevalent among the people. A 
cluster of these houses — sometimes twenty, sometimes more than a 
hundred — would make a village, which would be surrounded by pali- 
sades as a protection against sudden attack. The so called "castles" 
of the Iroquois, whether upon the Genesee river or elsewhere, were 
only aggregations of houses, guarded in this manner. Of all the tribes 
the Senecas were the most numerous, counting, perhaps, 4,000 souls all 
told, and they were settled in four towns, one of which, the second in 
size, was in Monroe county. It was located two miles from where the 
village of Honeoye Falls, in the town of Mendon, now stands, and was 
called Totiakton. An English traveler, named Wcntworth Greenhalgh, 
was there in 1677, and from his description of the houses the place 
could not have contained less than a thousand persons, probably a little 
more. 



THE INDIAN OCCUPATION. 9 

The trail of the Iroquois was generally between a foot and fifteen 
inches wide, very seldom more than the greater breadth. It was not 
always direct from point to point, for not only did natural obstacles, 
like rocks, swamps or bends in a river, cause it to deflect from a straight 
line, but a wide divergence would almost invariably be made to avoid 
open spaces and seek the protecting covert of dense foliage, even of the 
nearly impenetrable forest. It is easy to locate the main trail or Indian 
highway through this state, for it ran from Buffalo eastwardly, crossing 
the Genesee at the present site of Avon, and terminating at the Hudson 
river a little below Albany, thus forming the path which was afterward 
used as the principal route of the white men till the Erie canal and the 
Central railroad came through, and which is still known as " the old 
state road." This was the Appian Way of the Iroquois, and along its 
course all messages from one nation of the confederacy to another were 
carried by swift runners who bore with astonishing rapidity the sum- 
mons to a council, the tidings of war or those of peace. 

In addition to this there were countless other well-marked trails all 
over the territory, many of which have been traced out and are now 
known. Of those in this county some have always been preserved, but 
others owe their revelation to the patient assiduity of the late George H. 
Harris. The principal ones among them, in whatever direction they 
ran, struck the river at different points. One coming west from Can- 
andaigua followed the line of the Pittsford road till it got near Allen's 
creek, ^ when it divided, one branch crossing Irondequoit creek and 
reaching the river at Brewer's landing, near the foot of the Ridge road. 
The other branch is now followed by East avenue in its course to Union 
street, where another break occurred, one line going to the ford near 
the weighlock and the other striking the river at the foot of Franklin 
street. From the ford of the river near Elmwood avenue a path ran 
northeast over Mt. Hope, mainly by the present Indian Trail avenue, 
to Mt. Hope avenue, thence by that road and St. Paul street till it met 
the trails mentioned above. A branch of this left the cemetery in an 

' This stream, on the east side of the Genesee, must not be confounded with .Mian's creek, 
which empties into the river on the west side, at Scottsville. The latter, being named alter 
Ebenezer Allan, should always be spelled as given here— not Allen's creek, though that form 
occurs frequently, even on the oldest maps of the county. 



10 LANDMARKS UF MUNKUE ruUNTY. 

easterly diicction and went around the Pinnacle hills, reaching Ironde- 
qiioit creek a little further on. 

On the west side there were many, thou^di fewer, beaten tracks. 
Besides a trail going directly to the Niagara river along the Ridge road, 
one that was much more traveled came to the Genesee from the south- 
west by way of Scottsville and Chili, reaching the river at the Red 
creek ford in the present Genesee Valley park. Turning out from that 
point it branched into two or three lines, one of which took the general 
course of Genesee street and wound around the bends of Deep Hollow 
creek in all its length till it reached Lake avenue. There it was joined 
by another trail that had come in a less circuitous line through 
Plymouth avenue, in order to strike the ancient spring that bubbled up 
where the First Presbyterian church now stands, the memory of the 
location being preserved by the name of the street and the alley. From 
the junction of Deep Hollow creek and Lake avenue the united paths 
pursued their way to the lake. 

A few words may be in place concerning the Indian names associated 
with this county, their varieties and their meanings. The wide diver- 
gence in form among the various names of the same locality is owing, 
primarily, to the fact that the French, on hearing a word spoken, en- 
deavored to reproduce it in their own language, spelling it such a way 
that the sound would be the same, of course with a French pronuncia- 
tion. Not always, however, would the same word have the same sound, 
even to them, the quality of its utterance depending on the tribe of the 
Indian uttering it, for the Iroquois dialects, though easily intelligible by 
all the nations of the confederacy, had different vocalisations, the one 
from the other, so that a Mohawk and a Cayuga, for instance, would 
pronounce the same word in a manner quite unlike each other. Then 
the Knglish nomenclature came in, and this was based on a variety of 
grounds — on the Dutch names for some places, especially in the eastern 
part of the state, as the Dutch had understood the Mohawks or the 
Delawares to pronounce them ; on the .sound of words as they appeared 
to iMiglish ears when spoken by members of different tribes in the Five 
Nations, and on the sound of the French forms of the words when pro- 
nounced in Knglish fashion. 

The Knglish, in the majority of cases, adhered much more closely to 



THE INDIAN OCCUPATION. ][ 

the Indian names than did the French, who sometimes gave purely 
fanciful or religious titles to localities and even to tribes. The appella- 
tions have not survived, but the geographical names in this vicinity, as 
we use them now, have come to us from the Indian through the French 
in at least as many cases as through the English. For instance, our 
great lake was spoken of by Father Hennepin, more than two centuries 
ago, as Ontario, which, he says, " is likewise called in the Iroquois 
language Skanadario, meaning ' a very pretty lake.' " Now the En- 
glish, although they sometimes called it Ontario, usually, and especially 
in official documents, denominated it Cadaracqui, which is probably 
only another form of Cataracony (meaning "fort in the water "), which 
was the Iroquois name for the French Fort Frontenac, in Canada, 
where Kingston now stands. The application of the word was evidently 
misunderstood, for it had, obviously, nothing to do with the name of 
the lake, and it is fortunate for us that its misuse was not sufficiently 
established to prevent a reversion to Hennepin's euphonious appella- 
tion. The name of our river was pronounced, and therefore spelled by 
different writers, in a great variety of ways, from Chin-u-sJiio to its 
present form. How much of this wide variation is owing to dialectical 
peculiarities, and how much to slight shades of difference in meaning — 
for Indian names were always descriptive — it is impossible to tell, and 
it is enough to say that the word Genesee means "a beautiful, open 
valley." That word applied only to the upper part of the river ; "from 
the rapids to where it empties into the lake it had a distinctive name, 
Casconchiagon, the signification of which is said to be " something alive 
in the kettle," but it is better to accept Morgan's simple definition of 
" under the falls." 

The love of variety has had full play in the case of the word Irondc- 
qiioit, which has been written, printed and commonly used in more than 
thirty widely different styles. Its true Seneca form, which ought to 
govern, though it never did, is 0-nyui-da-on-da gwat, meaning " it 
goes aside, or turns out." Without wearying the reader by going too 
much into detail, it may be stated that its first appearance in print is on 
a map of the Jesuits, published in 1664, where it is given as Aiidia- 
tarontaoiiat. Twenty- three years later Denonville called it Gamiiaga- 
tarontagouat ; during the last century the English twisted it into a 



12 LANDNfARFC^^ OF MONROE COTTXT7. 

multitude of horrible shapes; in Gov. De Witt CHiiton's time, seventy 
years ai,'o, it was iiniversahy known as Gerundegut, and now we have 
it in a form that sounds as well as any other and that will probably 
never be changed, so tiiat the tortured name may rest in peace. Oatka 
was the original Indian name of the west side Allan's creek, mentioned 
above, and a laudable effort has been made for a long time past to re- 
store the old appellation, wliich means "the opening." Iloneoye signi- 
fies "a finger lying," or " a bent finger," alluding to the sharp tnrn in 
the creek of that name, where the Indian village of Totiakton stood. 
The word of the Senecas for their own nation — Nnn-da-uux-o-iio, 
meaning " a great hill people " — was never adopted or applied to them 
by the whites. Instead of that, the word that we use comes to us in a 
somewhat circnitous manner, for it appears first as Semiccas, on a Dutch 
map printed in 1614. The Dutch seem to have got it from the Algon- 
quins, but, as to what it signifies in the language of those people, eth- 
nologists are not agreed. The English settlers altered it to Sinnekees, 
and employed tliat form with remarkable unanimity till about the time 
of the Revolution, after which the Americans very sensibly adopted the 
present style. The French quite frefjuently, though not always, called 
the Senecas the Tsoinioitouaiis, which is said to be a very ancient word 
whose meaning is unknown. 

The Iroquois were the conquering people of this continent; no tribe 
or nation of their own color ever long withstood them. While they 
never, until a late period, and then only on short incursions, to terrify 
rather than to slaughter, carried their arms across the Hudson river, 
yet all the Algonquin tribes of New England, whether peaceful or war- 
like, were for centuries compelled to pay for their immunity by annual 
tribute, delivered to Mohawk heralds. In every other direction death 
and desolation followed the march of the Five Nations. Their cam- 
paigns were conducted, not for purposes of defense nor with the object 
of acquiring additional territory, but to gratify the thirst for blood that 
often seized them with uncontrollable power and to give them new 
ca[)tivcs, some to torture, some to enslave, some to adopt. Not content 
with subduing the Delawares, the Susqucliannas and other nations in 
their vicinity, their warriors rushed westward across the Mississippi, and 
by setting one tribe against another with skillful falsehoods they pre- 



THE rNt)TAN OCCUPATION. 13 

vented all alliances against themselves and inflicted blows upon the 
Illinois, the lovvas and others that almost crushed those people out of 
existence. No distance was too great for their unwearied feet, and at 
various times they made sudden incursions into the South and South- 
west, striking tlie Catawbas in South Carolina, the Cherokees upon the 
Tennessee. In every instance they returned from their raids with the 
bloody trophies of their prowess, in the shape of long festoons of reek- 
ing scalps or, still worse, with troops of prisoners reserved for torment. 
Inhuman cruelty seems to have been imbedded in their very nature, 
and the evidence of this predominant characteristic rests not upon 
tradition or stories repeated from hearsay, but comes from the testi- 
mony of eye-witnesses, of impartial travelers. Greenhalgh, for instance, 
mentioned above, tells, briefly, how several of their captives, men, wo- 
men and children, were burned to death in his presence and in this im- 
mediate vicinity, tied to the stake for seven hours, while the flames 
were slowly fed, to lengthen the sufferings of the miserable victims to 
the utmost span of endurance. This, too, was done without any ex- 
pression of peculiar animosity, but only to gratify their love of witness- 
ing the agony of others. 

Their sanguinary career of unbroken victory was the more surprising 
from the fact that the whole confederacy never numbered more than 
15,000,' with a fighting force of 2.600 at the outside, and of these not 
much more than half could be put into the field at any one time, as 
some must remain at home to guard the line of habitations that 
stretched across the state. It was only by the constant practice of the 
adoption of captives into the various tribes of the confederacy that the 
waste caused by their incessant fighting could be repaired. Strange as it 
may seem to us, these naturalised enemies soon became true and loyal 

' I make this estimate from a comparison of various authors. Parkman places the number at 
between 10,000 and 12,000. Previous writers made the number much greater, Morgan putting it 
as high as 25,000, and John Fiske is inclined to follow him without weighing the evidence. With 
all of Morgan's learning in Iroquois matters, his judgment on this point was based, in all proba- 
bility, on narratives obtained by him from the Indians, which are far from trustworthy The 
only written authority that he cites is Greenhalgh, and that journalist gives no statistics of pop- 
ulation but only allows the inference that there were as many as 25,000 from the number of fires 
that he saw in some of the houses at Totiakton (Honeoye Falls), while, on the contrary, he makes 
the explicit statement that the number of Iroquois warriors was 2,150, those of the Senocas being 
1,000, and these figures are incompatible with a total census of any thing like 25,000. Parkman 
bases hi< estimate on the frequent computations given in the " Jesuit Relations " and on state- 
ments contained in the New York Colonial Documents. 



14 Landmarks of monroe county. 

citizens, and, so far as all information goes, they were never a source 
of weakness, never otherwise than efficient members of the family, the 
gens, the tribe or the forest commonwealth to which they owed their 
new allegiance. Occasionally one of these aliens might desert his 
adoptive colleagues during a raid into his own country and might re- 
turn to his former associates to fight on the side of his real kindred, but 
as a rule their natural feeHnG;s seem to have been smothered and their 
sympathies to have been with the nation of their adoption Often- 
times they would excel their captors in the fiendishness of their malice 
against other prisoners, and when Hrebeuf, the most distinguished mar- 
tyr of the Huron missions, was burned by the Iroquois during one of 
their incursions into Canada, it was at the suggestion of a 1 luron captive, 
himself a Christian convert who had been baptised by Hrebeuf, that the 
tormentors poured boiling water on the Jesuit's head, in derisive simu- 
lation of the ceremony which he had so often performed in kindness and 
in love. 

Unlike most of the Indian race, the Iroquois waged war upon kindred 
tribes, their hatred against the Hurons, who, like themselves, were of 
the Dakota stock, being relentless and never abating till those unfortu- 
nates were annihilated as a distinct people, more than two centuries 
ago. The Genesee river had been at first the western boundary of the 
lands of the confederacy, beyond which lay the Neutral nation, stretch- 
ing across the Niagara river into Canada on the northern border of 
Lake Erie and called by their name because they strove to keep the 
peace between the Iroquois and the llurons, to both of which nations 
they were related and against neither of which would they take up 
arms. South of the Neuters lay the Eries, or Nation of the Cat, whose 
lodges extended through the counties of Chautauqua and Cattaraugus 
and went west on the southern side of the lake. Directly south of the 
confederate tribes were the Andastes, or Susquehannas. These three 
were the only nations to make any determined stand against the all- 
conquering Iroquois, but their turn, like that of all the others, came at 
last. In iC)SO, after the nationality of the Hurons was destroyed, the 
Five Nations turned their apparently causeless fury upon the Neuters, 
assaulted their chief towns, put most of the inhabitants to death and 
adopted the remainder. Four years later the Eries were treated in a 



THE EXPLORERS AND THE JESUITS. 15 

similar manner, as mentioned in the preceding pages, after vvhicli the 
territory of the Senecas extended to the Niagara, though they made no 
settlements or villages west of the Genesee, but were content with 
knowing that the country between the two rivers was an unpeopled 
wilderness. Finally the Andastes, who gave the confederates more 
trouble than the Neutrals and the Erics combined, were forced to suc- 
cumb after an intermittent contest stretching over twenty years, and 
the powerful league had no further opposition to its supremacy from 
any of its own race. Thenceforward its struggle was to be with the 
white men. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE EXPLORERS AND THE JESUITS. 

Jacques Cartier — Champlain — His Wars with the Iroquois — Etienne Bruiu — Jesuit 
Missions Established — The Seneca Mission — Father Gamier and Father Rafl'eix — La 
Salle's Visits — Father Hennepin. 

When were the Iroquois first seen by Europeans? Possibly in 1535, 
when Jacques Cartier sailed up the St. Lawrence and found a well 
settled and populous community of Indians at a place which tlicy 
called Hochelaga and to which he gave the name that it now bears, 
Montreal. When he had sailed back to P'rance the narrative of his 
discoveries did not excite sufficient interest to induce anyone to follow 
him till the beginning of the next century, when Samuel de Cham- 
plain came over, to be the real founder of Canada. He went, in 1603, 
to the same spot that Cartier had reached, and found it deserted, no 
trace remaining, even in the surrounding region, of all the red men 
who had swarmed there seventy years before. Many writers think 
that Cartier's Indians were Iroquois, who were afterward so harassed 
by the Adirondack tribe, of Algonquin stock, that they migrated 
across the lake shortly before the second coming of the French. The 
latest investigators, however, are convinced that those people were 
Hurons, who had moved eastward and then, from some unknown cause, 



16 LANIJMARKS OF MONROE CODNTr. 

had concluded to return westward and liad taken up their abode in 
the neij^hborhood of the lake that bears their name. Champlain met 
the Iroquois for tlie first time in 1609, when he, with two companions, 
accompanied a war party of combined Algonquins and Hurons that 
invaded New York and had a fight with the Mohawks near the lake 
that is still called after the famous soldier, explorer and governor. The 
expedition was successful, but Champlain's participation in it was of 
doubtful wisdom, for it sowed in the hearts of the Iroquois the seeds ot 
that iiatred which never left them till the French power in Canada was 
crushed in 1760. Six years after this battle, Champlain made another 
incursion, on a more extended scale, but his attack upon a palisaded 
town of the Onondagas was repulsed and he returned with his bar- 
barian army to Lake Huron. 

It is quite probable that Etienne Brule, the interpreter of Champlain, 
was the first white man who set foot within the limits of Monroe 
county. Hrulc was dispatched to secure, for the campaign just men- 
tioned, the services of five hundred Carantouans, a tribe that may 
have been identical with the Andastes or Susquehannas. After 
reaching them, and failing in his direct mission by reason of the dila- 
toriness of those savages, who arrived at the scene of the conflict after 
the battle had taken place and the besiegers had departed, Brule ex- 
plored the Susquehanna from its source to its mouth, and after two 
years of suffering among the Iroquois, to whom he gave himself up, he 
returned to Canada. In all these journeyings it is more than likely 
that he passed through this county, for it is apparent that he would 
have had to go out of his way to avoid it. 

Much interest has always attached to the Roman Catholic missions 
among the Iroquois, but their labors in this county were not so exten- 
sive as elsewhere, and the exact location of the missions is exceedingly 
difficult to determine. This is because the " Jesuit Relations," • which 
are the final source of authority on this point, give the names of the 
Seneca villages in forms different from those used elsewhere, and the 

' This valuable series Df works, which has never been fully translated into KnRlish, consists 
of a number of reports made by prominent members of the Jesuit missions in North America to 
the superior of the order in I'aris, K'ving a lull account of the various Indian tribes anions which 
the writers laboreil and of all thinjjs directly or remotely connected with them The first one was 
written in imi. by Father Pierre Hiurd, ;»nd the last one, so far as is known, by Father Dablon, 
in ii>79- 





'/?v/lly^ 



THE EXPLORERS AND THE JESUITS. 17 

perplexity is greatly increased by the persistent habit of the missionaries 
of giving religious appellations to the various stations and causing con- 
fusion by the frequent repetition of some favorite name, such as that 
of St. Mary. In the first half of the seventeenth century Franciscan 
and Recollet friars had penetrated to the west of this region and had 
reached the Niagara river, but they probably went by the way of 
Canada, not crossing the Genesee river or the lake. In May, 1656, the 
French colony and Jesuit mission of St. Mar3''s of Ganentaa was 
established among the Onondagas, near Syracuse, and in August of 
that year a sub-mission was planted among the Senecas, under the 
control of Father Chaumonot, one of the most eloquent of the Jesuit 
priests, whose powers of oratory went far toward producing an appar- 
ent eftect upon his susceptible auditors. The principal station of this 
mission was at Gannagaro (otherwise Gandagaro, and called by the 
Jesuits the mission of St. James), in Ontario county, but Chaumonot 
traveled over the whole canton of the Senecas, preaching and baptising 
in different parts of it. He may not have effected many conversions, 
but his ministrations were very comforting to the Christian Hurons, 
captive and adopted, and in some cases, though not always, he and 
other priests were permitted to solace, with the consolations of religion, 
the last moments of the prisoners who perished in the flames. Two 
years later all the missionaries of the region were called in to the head- 
quarters at Onondaga, in consequence of the revelation of a conspiracy 
to destroy them, and it was with the utmost difficulty and the exercise 
of a cunning that undermined that of the savages themselves, that all 
the members of the French colony, priests and laymen alike, were able 
to escape under cover of the darkness and make their way back to 
Canada. 

From this time war raged intermittently for several years, and, though 
there were occasional skirmishers of the faith, it was not till 1669 that 
the Christian posts were again established among the Senecas. At the 
very close of 1668 Father Fremin, the superior of the Jesuit missions, 
came to this vicinity, but precisely where he was located at the outset 
is uncertain. His own statement, in the Relations of 1670, is that 
" we then began to preach the gospel at Tsonnontouan," but, while he 
may have meant to indicate thereby the village of Totiakton, in this 
3 



18 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

county, wliicli the missionaries generally called by the name of 
Tsoniiontoiian, the probability is that he intended the word to apply to 
the whole country of the Senecas, in which sense it was often used. 
Wherever he may have been, he was very successful, for he baptised, in 
his first year, more than one hundred and twenty, nearly all adults^ 
most of whom died soon afterward, of a contagion that was then raging 
there. This it was that caused him to summon Father Gamier to his 
aid, who came and took charge of the town Gandachiragou, the 
smallest of the Seneca villages and located four miles south of Totiakton, 
at the present site of Lima, in Livingston county. Freniin then passed 
to Gandougarae, which was in the present town of East Bloomfield, in 
Ontario county, and there, as he says, he was received with every 
demonstration of public joy. This was owing to the fact that it was 
the village to which the name of St. Michael's had been given by 
Chaumonot, peopled almost entirely by captives, principally Hurons, 
most of whom were already Christians, and they were, naturally, de- 
lighted with the presence of one so well qualified to strengthen them in 
the faith which they seem to have preserved, in this adverse environ- 
ment, with extraordinary fidelity. 

No better illustration of the inclination of the human mind to 
materialise the conception of the future life can be found than is con- 
veyed in a story told by Father Fremin. Having baptised a young 
woman, who died on the following day, the missionary found the mother 
to be inconsolable over the condition of her daughter. The reason for 
this was that the girl, having, during her lifetime, had control over more 
than twenty slaves, had never known what it was to do the slightest 
work, and she must therefore be sore put to it to perform the labor 
devolved upon her in heaven, where she could certainly have no 
assistance, as she was the only member of the family who had been a 
Christian, and so of course none of her relatives could be in that place. 
The request was therefore made that a female slave, apparently near 
the point of death, should be converted and baptised, in order that 
she, too, might go to heaven, so that she could wait upon her mistress 
in the next world. /Fhis petition was complied with, but the slave, 
whether fortunately or otherwise, recovered, and the mother, prompted 
less by religious conviction than by unselfish maternal love, became 
liersclf converted, that she might join her daughter. 



THE EXPLORERS AND THE JESUITS. 19 

Father Fremin was recalled to Montreal in 1669, and Father Garnier 
was left in sole charge of the four Seneca villages, a perilous position, 
but his courage was equal to the task, and he never faltered in the 
presence of death, which constantly menaced him in every form, by 
fever or by fire, the uplifted hatchet or the invisible arrow. From his 
incessant labors he was in part relieved by the advent of Father Raffeix, 
who came in 1670, and of Father Pierron, who arrived somewhat later. 
Father Raffeix was stationed, during the seven years of his work here, 
at Tsonnontouan — on which the name of La Conception was conferred 
— and he may, therefore, be considered, peculiarly, the missionary of 
Monroe county. He was better balanced in his judgment than most of 
his co-laborers; far from anticipating a wholesale change of faith, he 
wrote that " to expect that a whole tribe will be converted at once, or 
to hope to make Christians by the hundred or thousand, is to deceive 
one's self. It is not a land of flowers; to find one you must walk far, 
through thorny paths." Elsewhere he writes : " God has his predes- 
tined everywhere, but this good grain is still very rare in this country. 
It will be for fervent and zealous missionaries, who come here often 
to cultivate this ungrateful and sterile land, to make the seed yield a 
hundredfold. Of the number of these predestined, are especially the 
little children, whom we endeavor never to allow to die unbaptised. I 
have conferred it on a great number this year. Fourteen of them died 
after receiving it. As they are our surest gain, they are also our great- 
est consolation." This was in allusion to the fundamental belief that 
any dying infant, unconscious of right or wrong, would, if baptised, go 
straight to eternal bliss; if not baptised, to hopeless perdition. In the 
case of adults the fathers would be very reluctant to administer the rite 
till death seemed approaching, lest the convert should relapse, which 
would make him worse than before. F"ather Pierron left in 1677 and 
Father Raffeix was recalled in 1680, leaving Father Garnier again alone 
till 1684, when, as war seemed imminent, he made his escape in a 
French vessel on the lake, embarking probably at Irondequoit. From 
that time the missions languished till the close of the century, when the 
colonial legislature at Albany passed a law excluding all Catholic priests 
from the province after 1700; finally, in 1708, the few laborers that 
remained in the dusky vineyard were called back to Canada, and the 



20 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

attempt of tlie society of Jesus to convert the Iroquois came to an end, 
leaving a record of self-sacrifice, of devoted heroism, of voluntary 
martyrdoti), that has never been surpassed. 

This long campaign of religion was interspersed with other visits from 
the Frenchmen, some following the paths of exploration, others on 
errands of war. In 1669 Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, on his way 
from Lachine to discover, as he thought, the route to China, but really 
to open to the world the vast territory of the West, came through Lake 
Ontario to Irondcquoit hay. l^eing kindly received by the Senecas, he 
and his companions followed, on invitation of the savages, one of the 
well marked trails that led from the sand-bar through this count}' and 
into Ontario, to the village of Gannagaro. At that place he was de- 
tained a month by the lack of guides, and during that time he had an 
opportunit}' of witnessing some of the usual cruelties of the Senecas 
toward their prisoners, which he was powerless to prevent. His expe- 
dition not proving successful, he set out again and nine years afterward 
he was at the same village. So was Father Hennepin, who accompanied 
La Salle and who wrote the first description of Niagara falls, tliough 
the great cataract had been mentioned before that by heather Ragueneau 
and other writers who had not seen it. On this occasion La Salle spent 
much of his time on the Niagara, building a vessel called the Griftbn, 
with which to navigate the upper lakes. To quell the suspicions of the 
savages, which had been excited by the construction of this craft, the 
Sieur de la Motte, accompanied by Feather Hennepin, went to Totiakton 
to hold a council with the Seneca sachems. Father Garnier was present 
at first, but La Motte, who had no love for the Jesuits, demanded his 
withdrawal, which was conceded, after which the council proceeded to 
a satisfactory termination. 



WARS WITH THE FRENCH. 21 



CHAPTER III. 

WARS WITH THE FRENCH. 

Jealousy between Canada and New York — The Iroquois Incline to the English— E.xpe- 
dition of Governor Denonville — His Landing at Irondequoit- The March to the Interior 
— The Fight at Boughton's Hill — A Pyrrhic Victory. 

The next scene is of a different character. Most of the governors of 
Canada, wliile favoring the missions and even promoting them, were 
much more anxious to destroy the bodies than to save the souls of the 
New York Indians, being moved thereto, very naturally, by the instinct 
of self-preservation. The Marquis de Denonville,^ who ruled the 
province for four years, distinguished his short administration by the 
invasion of the Seneca country in 1687. To this he was impelled by a 
desire to retrieve the disgrace of his predecessor, De la Barre, who had 
made a somewhat humiliating peace with the Iroquois, and by the hope 
of bringing to a final issue the contest between the French and English 
for the supremacy over the Five Nations. On both sides that was but 
a sentimental claim, for these conquerors of all barbarians had no tear 
of King Louis and they acknowledged only a verbal allegiance to the 
British sovereign, but the desire of each power was to prevent the 
other from obtaining the preponderating control. Each wanted the 
mastery of the West, with all the wealth that would be brought to its 
possessor from the fur trade and other lines of barter, and the channel 
for all this commerce lay through the lands of the Iroquois. 

The claim of the French was based upon the right of discovery, that 
of the English upon royal charters disposing of all the country south of 
the great lakes, and also, as far as the right to New York was concerned, 
upon conquest from the Dutch. France, certainly, had no real rights 

' This name has so frequently been given wronglj', as De Nonville, in American writing upon 
this general subject, that it is worth while to call attention to its true form, which is as it appears 
above. In the original manuscript, now in the archives of the old ministry of the Marine and 
Colonies, at Paris, the governor signs his name in that manner, and Louis XIV. always addresses 
him and mentions him as the Marquis de Denonville or as Monsieur de Denonville. 



22 LANDMARKS OF ^[ONROE COUNTY. 

of possession in this state, whether En<,^land had or not, and the only 
just grounds that the former liad for interfering were tlie right of pro- 
tection for its Canadian colony, and of retaliation for the hostility of the 
savages, to which the)^ had, no doubt, been incited by the English 
governors. The Iroquois occasionally coquetted with the I'Vench and 
sent embassies to Quebec to make treaties of peace with " Onontio," as 
they called the governor of Canada, whoever he might be. Much more, 
however, did they incline, at heart, to the Dutch and afterward to the 
iMiglish, when the latter came into possession of the colony in 1664. 
After that time their attitude toward " Corlaer," as they called the gov- 
ernor of New York, was invariably one of friendship and respect, and 
they frequently admitted, in councils held by both races jointly, the 
overlordship of the British sovereign. In all this they may have been 
guided by the deepest wisdom, an appreciation of the lasting hostility 
between the two luiropean nations, and a prevision of the final success 
of the I'^nglish. It is, however, more probable that their policy was 
actuated by the memory of Champlain's firearms and by the undying 
Iiatred thus kindled. On the other hand, in spite of occasional quarrels 
and instances of individual injustice, the luiglish colonists generally 
treated the Iroquois well, and sometimes used them as temporary allies 
against the New England Indians. 

I'^rom 1684, when Denonville became governor of Canada, there was 
a continual correspondence, usually acrimonious in character, between 
him and Col. Thomas Dongan, the governor of New York, in which 
each accused the other of unwarrantable acts. While the controversy 
was raging, Denonville prepared to strike a blow that should bring the 
Five Nations to a realising sense of the greatness of France and the 
advisability of submission to its authority. In 1687 he got together 
from all sources as large a force as possible for an invasion of the Seneca 
country, preluding his advance by seizing a number of peaceable Iro- 
quois, most of them Onondagas, who were in Canada, and sending them 
to I'^rance, to be put at work in the galleys, among criminals and 
Huguenots. As some of these captives were chiefs of high rank, no 
greater degradation could be conceived of, and the action excited far 
more rage among the friends of the deported than if they had been 
burned at the stake. On the loth of July Denonville arrived at Iron- 



WARS WITH THE FRENCH. 23 

dequoit bay, with an army consisting of more than eight hundred French 
regulars, a somewhat larger number of the Canadian militia, and several 
Huron and Algonquin Indians. Almost at the very hour of his arrival 
he was joined at that point by a force that had been raised in the neigh- 
borhood of Michillimackinac, and had come by the way of Niagara to 
meet him. This force comprised nearly two hundred conreiirs des bois 
— those "runners of the woods," French by nationality, but Indian in 
habit, who, though rebellious to discipline, were the most effective of 
all fighters against the savages — and twice as many Sioux, Ottawas and 
Illinois, so that the whole combined army amounted to nearly three 
thousand men. A landing being made without resistance, a fort was 
erected on the sand bar, hastily built of palisades during the morning 
of July 12, to insure the safety of the boats and of such stores as could 
not be carried 

Leaving about a seventh of his force to guard this structure, Denon- 
ville set out with the rest of his army, marching nine miles in the after- 
noon of that day. Pushing onward the next day, through the southern 
part of the county, where they met three or four Seneca women in the 
corn fields, they passed into Ontario county, and approached the place 
for which they were destined, Gannagaro,' the principal village of the 
tribe. Just before they should have reached it they had to pass through 
a defile, on both sides of which was a dense forest of beech trees, where 
three hundred Senecas lay in ambush. Scarcely had the van of the 
army entered this dangerous place, when the war- whoop was sounded. 
Amid the babel of yells and the din of musketr}% the forward portion 
of the troops, ignorant of the strength of the enemy, were surprised into 
a temporary panic. Many of the old soldiers, who had stood firm 
under Conde and Turenne on European battle fields, threw themselves 
on the ground, in terror of these unknown savages. The heathen 
Ottawas turned and ran, shrieking, but the Christian Ilurons, inspired 
by hate rather than by love, answered }'ell by yell ; their courage and 
fidelity saved the honor of the day, and, when the rest of the army came 
on the scene, the Senecas, surprised in their turn, fled from the field, 
carrying with them their wounded and many of their dead. 

' The exact location of the village was a matttr of uncertainty until within a few years, but it 
is now known to have been identical with the present Boughton's Hill, two miles from the village 
of Victor, 



24 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

It was not a French victory — far from it. A hundred white men 
were killed, many were wounded ; on the side of the Senecas the loss 
was, perhaps, ecpially <;rcat. Denonville rested that night on the place 
of combat, while his Indian allies boiled and ate the bodies of their slain 
enemies, and the next day he burned the lodges in the village of Gan- 
nagaro, which he found entirely deserted. Ten days were spent in 
destroying the growing corn of the fields and killing all the swine that 
could be found in the four villages, so that destitution might be felt 
during the coming winter. Before his return Denonville took formal 
possession of the whole country by reading, at Totiakton (Honeoye 
Falls), di prods verba/ to that effect — a futile action, under the circum- 
stances, but it may have served to cool his wrath, which was excited by 
seeing in one of the smaller settlements the arms of England, which 
had been placed there by Governor Dongan in 1684. On the 24th of 
July he returned to Irondequoit bay, tore down his palisades and pro- 
ceeded to Niagara, where he built a fort, and then went back to Quebec. 
His campaign was productive of no benefit. He had inflicted great 
injury upon the Senecas, but their loss was made up to them by the 
confederacy, and their fighting strength suffered but little depletion. A 
dreadful revenge was taken in the following year, when the Iroquois 
invaded Canada, slaughtered a thousand of the French, and drove the 
colony to the brink of ruin, from which it was rescued only by the 
energy of Frontenac, who succeeded as governor a year later. 




J. J. BAUSCH. 



THE STRUGGLE FOR SUPREMACY. 25 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE STRUGGLE FOR SUPREMACY. 

The Commission of Governor Andros — Extensive Cession from the Indians — The 
Fort des Sables — Charlevoix's Travels — His Description of the Genesee River — At- 
tempts at Settlement — Other Indian Cessions — General Prideaux's Expedition — Pou- 
chot's Work. 

English control assumed steadily a more tangible form, and King 
James the Second's commission to Sir Edmund Andros, in 1688, stated 
distinctly that his jurisdiction extended to the Pacific ocean. Never- 
theless, there was evidently a tacit acknowledgment that the P'rench 
claims had a certain force, and Irondequoit bay was for some time a 
dividing line, beyond which neither party could go without resistance 
from the other. Thus, Lieutenant-Governor Nanfan reported to the 
lords of trade, in 1701, that the Five Nations had recently executed an 
instrument " whereby they conveyed to the crown of England a tract 
of land eight hundred miles long and four hundred broad, including all 
their beaver hunting, which tract began at Jarondigat." The boundary 
lines described in that deed of cession, which is found among the co- 
lonial documents, are rather vague, but they seem to indicate, in the 
main, the Huron country, embracing the land in the neighborhood of 
Georgian bay and extending to the head of Lake Michigan, the words 
being " all that tract or colony of land beginning on the northwest side 
of Cadaracqui [Ontario] lake, and including all that vast tract lying be- 
tween Lake Ottawa [Huron] and the lake called by the natives Cahi- 
quage and by the Christians the lake of Swege [the early English name 
for Lake Erie], including the great falls of Oakinagaro." In this deed 
the expectation was expressed that the donors and their descendants 
were to have free hunting in that tract for all time, but it was distinctly 
stated that they were to be " utterly excluded and debarred forever 
from all action, right, title, interest and demand of, in or to the prem- 
4 



20 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

ises." The document was signed by twenty sachems of the different 
tribes. It was declared that this was a tract which they had conquered 
from the Hurons fifty years before, but, as they had never occupied it and 
no one but tliemselvcs had ever acknowledged their title to it, the 
hVcnch were no more bound to recognise the validity of an Iroquois 
cession of land in Canada than the English would be to admit the force 
of a Huron grant to the territory of New York. 

A few years later the French, apparently without opposition from 
any one, erected on the west side of Irondequoit bay, just where the 
land comes to a point and the Sea Breeze hotel was built in our 
time, a structure that they called the Fort dcs Sables (or Fort of the 
Sands), a precursor of the name of " the sand-bar." by which we know 
the spot to-day. It was the term " fort," rather than the building itself, 
that excited the attention of the English, and when Governor Hunter 
inquired about it from the Senecas, in 17 17, they told him that it 
was not a fort but a trading-house, put there by the French to supply 
the Indians with goods in exchange for peltry. This was doubtless 
true, for the Rev. John Durant, who was at Irondequoit the next year, 
reported that only one store-keeper and two soldiers were left at the 
fort during the winter. Even that was finally objected to and two 
years later a messenger was sent to the French fort at Niagara to enter 
a formal protest against their encroachments on the lands of the Sen- 
ecas, even by permission of the latter. 

In May, 1721, an observant traveler passed that way, the Jesuit 
Father Charlevoix, who, in a series of delightful letters to the Duchesse 
de Lesdiguicres, gives a full description of his travels in North America. 
The part relating to this immediate locality has been so often quoted 
in full that it is not worth while to give more than a summary of it 
here. Having made a stop at Irondequoit bay, which he seems to 
have mistaken for a river, as he calls i.t la Riviere dcs Sables, he sailed 
directly to Braddock's bay,^ which he speaks of somewhat extrava- 
gantly, as a charming place with the finest point of view in the world. 
Not till he reached Niagara did ho learn that he had inadvertently 

I He calls this the bay of the Tsonnontouans. That was the name that was often applied by 
the Frenchlto the Senecas, to tte land that they occupied and, more specifically, to the valley 
of the Genesee. It does not seem to have been adopted by the English for any of those desig- 
nations. 



THE STRUGGLE FOR SUrREMACY. 27 

sailed past the Genesee river (or the Casconchiagon, as he says it was 
named), an omission which he regrets greatly, on account of the singu- 
larity of the stream. He then gives, as communicated to him by Cap- 
tain Joncaire, who had been there the year before, a fairly correct ac- 
count of the river, with all its cataracts, of which there were then four, 
the last being at Portage, and he also tells, on the same authority, of 
two " fountains" near the source of the Ohio river, which were like oil, 
with the taste of iron, and which the savages used to appease all man- 
ner of pain. This is the first mention made in writing of the oil springs 
in Allegany county and is the earliest description given of the Genesee 
falls and of the river itself, which, till about a hundred years ago, occu- 
pied, in the eyes of both white and red people, a position insignificant 
in importance compared with the bay. 

Strenuous efforts were made by one governor after another to estab- 
lish a permanent English settlement in this locality, but without suc- 
cess. The provincial assembly in 1721 appropriated five hundred 
pounds sterling to secuie the iriendship and adhesion of the savages, 
and most of this was expended by Governor Burnet in planting a sta- 
tion at the Indian landing on the eastern side of Irondequoit creek. A 
trading-house was built there, which Capt. Peter Schuyler occupied, 
with a company of volunteers, for a year, when it was abandoned, and 
the enterprise came to nothing. Additional grants of land on an ex- 
tensive scale were made by the Indians soon after this. On the 14th of 
September, 1726, in a council held at Albany, the sachems of the Sen- 
ecas, Cayugas and Onondagas ratified the deed of 1701, above referred 
to, but without making it any clearer than it was before, and also gave 
to King George the First a tract sixty miles wide running back from 
the lake shore and extending from Niagara eastward through the lands 
of those nations, including all their castles and all the rivers and lakes 
within those limits, which territory, as well as all the other lands of 
those three nations, were to be protected by his majesty and his heirs 
and successors. As no pecuniary consideration was expressed in this 
document it was about as worthless as its predecessor. That it was 
considered of little value is shown by the fact that in 1741 Lieutenant- 
Governor Clarke, by the payment of one hundred pounds, obtained 
from the three principal Seneca sachems a deed, running to King 



28 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

George the Second, of land which was already included in the grant of 
1726, for it conveyed a tract beginning six miles east of "Tierondequat," 
extending twenty miles on the lake shore and going thirty miles inland, 
thus embracing the greater part of what is now Monroe county. Many 
inducements were held out to settlers after that time, but none would 
come, probably for the reason that no fort was erected here, to which 
they could fly for protection. 

A little army of nearly three thousand men, consisting of British 
troops and provincial militia with nine hundred Iroquois, all under 
General Prideaux, passed along here in July, 1759, on their way to 
attack the French fort of Niagara, at the mouth of that river. They 
encamped for one night at Irondequoit and for another at the bay to 
which was given the name of the commander.^ Three weeks later the 
same army stopped again at Irondequoit on their return, this time 
under Sir William Johnson, who had succeeded to the command, as 
General Prideaux had been killed in the siege that ended with the fall 
of Fort Niagara. Among the six hundred prisoners who accompanied 
the troops was Captain Pouchot, the P'rench conmiander at the fort, 
who, after his return to his native land, wrote a memoir of the "old 
French war," with observations upon this part of the country, illustrated 
by several maps. On one of these are pictured the natural features of 
this locality, Charlevoix's nomenclature being pretty closely adhered to, 
both on the map and in the text, for in the one the Genesee river is 
put down as the Cas con-chacon, while in the other it is called Cascon- 
chiagon. Irondequoit bay is down as the Bayc ct Fort des Sables, and 
the three falls of the river are also indicated, as well as the principal 
Indian trails in this vicinity, one of which leads through a place called 
Anjogeen, apparently the same with the present Honeoye Falls, 
Pouchot feels it necessary to remark that "the Fort des Sables is only 
some high banks of sand which are found around the bay of this name," 
and then he goes on to say that one enters upon the navigation of the 
river through this bay, from the head of which is a portage of nine miles. 
The necessity for this toilsome route he explains by saying that, while 

' The name assumed its present form by starting with a barbarous mispronunciation of its 
original (Prideaux) and thence a popular error connected it with the unfortunate British general, 
Braddock. There was, however, at least one intermediate style, for a niap in a little book 
published at Albany in 1798 puts it down as Braddoe bay. 



i^tJLLlVAN'S CAMl'AlGN. 29 

the mouth of the river would be very good for the anchorage of vessels, 
the entrance is difficult on account of a bar, but if the country were in- 
habited a very convenient passage might be made. The navigation of 
the upper river, then made only in bark canoes, would, he observes, 
" be much more considerable if these countries should come to be occu- 
pied by Europeans." All the land between the bay and the river he 
declares to be low and marshy, even as far back as the upper falls, 
which he calls the Rideaii des Cotes (or " side curtain "). " The whole 
country along these rivers," he says, " is beautiful and fertile, as is also 
in general the whole that the Iroquois inhabit." 

A translation was made of this valuable work in 1866, in which were 
placed two engravings of the Genesee falls, reproduced from originals 
by Mazell, which were executed by that celebrated artist from drawings 
made on the spot by Capt. Davies, an officer in the royal regiment of 
artillery, who accompanied the army in 1759. There is also given in 
some editions of this translation a map of the country of the Iroquois, 
prepared in 1771 by Guy Johnson, the nephew and son-in-law of Sir 
William and his successor as " sole superintendent of the Six Nations 
and other northern tribes." Its interest to us lies in the names given 
upon it, where Canandaigua is put down as " Canandanigey," the Gen- 
esee as "Little Senecas' river," Irondequoit as " Adiarundaquat bay " 
and Sodus as " Aserotus bay." 



CHAPTER V. 

SULLIVAN'S CAMPAIGN. 

The Revolutionary War — Attitude of the Iroquois — The Confederacy Divided — Raids 
of the Indians — The Massacre at Cherry Valley — Reprisals Ordered — Washington's 
Instructions to Sullivan — Advance of the Army— Destruction of Property — Atrocities 
on Both Sides — Killing of Boyd and Parker — Close of the Conflict. 

The war of the Revolution passed by Monroe county, but there was 
one campaign that came so near to it and that was so closely associated 
with it as to be a fit subject for mention in this sketch. That is the in- 



30 LANDMARKS OK AfONROE COUNTY. 

vasion of the Genesee country by a patriot army under Gen. John Sul- 
livan. The fall of Quebec in September, 1759, and the formal cession 
of Canaria to the I^nglish crown four years later, had made but little 
difference in the relation of the Iroquois tribes to the American settlers 
in this state. They had always been, on the whole, friendly to the 
English, and they were so still. But when the discontent of the 
colonists against the exactions of the British government reached a 
height that indicated an appeal to arms, the Iroquois were thrown into 
a state of perplexity that ended in a disagreement which brought about 
the downfall of the confederacy. That compact and formidable league, 
which had for centuries resisted all attempts to break its force, fell to 
pieces because, for the first time, imity of action could not be main- 
tained. Both of the white parties in the approaching struggle perceived, 
at an early day, the importance of obtaining the alliance of the Six 
Nations. Shortly before the war broke out, the Rev. Samuel Kirkland, 
an influential missionary among the Oneidas, had trietl to induce the 
whole confederacy to declare itself on the American side, and others 
had gone so far as to intrigue among the Canadian and Nova Scotia 
Indians for the same purpose. On the other hand Colonel Guy Johnson, 
who possessed much of the personal control of his uncle over the 
savages, found little difficulty in committing the Mohawks, the most 
warlike of all the tribes, irrevocably to the British interest. A grand 
council was held at the I^ong House, and earnest efforts were made by 
the Mohawk sachems to induce all the others to unite with them. If 
they had succeeded, it might not have changed the result of the war of 
independence, but it would have prolonged the conflict and increased 
the misery of many thousands. As it was, the Oneidas stood firm for 
the Americans and took the war-path in that cause, while the Ononda- 
gas and the Tuscaroras stood aloof, not engaging as tribes, though 
many of their }'Oung men fought on the patriot side. 

The Mohawks, at the eastern end of the line, took up the hatchet for 
King George, almost to a man, and their example was followed by the 
Cayugas and by the Senecas at the western end, who put into the field 
their full fighting force of nearly a thousand men, leaving the tillage of 
the ground to the women and children. In addition to these ferocious 
allies, General Burgoyne had enlisted, in a more regular manner, a large 



SULLIVAN'S CAMPAIGN. 31 

body of Canadian Indians, and with them, as well as a finely equipped 
British army, had invaded New York in 1777. Not only did the 
Senecas and the Mohawks co-operate with this force, but after Bur- 
goyne's surrender they continued the war on their own account, some- 
times in connection with a band of loyalists called Butler's Rangers, and 
sometimes by themselves. Falling upon defenseless villages they 
slaughtered many of the inhabitants, while the settlers upon outlying 
farms were never safe from their murderous forays. None of these 
affairs excited more general horror than the massacre at Cherry Valley, 
the most western of the white settlements, in which, after an unsuccess- 
ful attack upon a garrisoned fort, many of the people in the surrounding 
village were killed and a few were carried off into captivity. This act 
which was largely in revenge for the destruction of the Indian village 
of Unadilla, in Pennsylvania, was committed by a band consisting partly 
of loyalists, but mainly of five hundred Senecas, who, under the leader- 
ship of their war- chief, Sangerachta, set out for the purpose from Fort 
Niagara, near which most of the tribe were then located. 

The limit of endurance seemed to be reached; relief from these con- 
tinued surprisals, this constant danger that threatened extinction, must 
be obtained in some way, or the whole state of New York, west of the 
Hudson, would have to be abandoned to its original occupants. Con- 
gress was beset by appeals for help, and finally that body, in 1779, 
authorised General Washington to "take the most effective measures 
for protecting the inhabitants of the states and chastising the Indians." 
To the mind of the commander-in-chief nothing appeared so well calcu- 
lated to accomplish this result as an invasion of the country of the 
Senecas, and for this purpose an army of about five thousand men was 
put under the command of General Sullivan, whose instructions from 
Washington included the following words : "The immediate objects 
are the total destruction and devastation of their settlements and the 
capture of as many prisoners, of every age and sex, as possible. It will 
be essential to ruin their crops now in the ground, and prevent them 
planting more. Parties should be detached to lay waste all the settle- 
ments, with instructions to do it in the most effectual manner, that the 
country be not merely overrun but destroyed." Tiiese severe directions 
were fully complied with. 



32 LANDMAI:K8 of MONROE COUNTY. 

In the summer of 1779 Sullivan's army advanced up the Chemung 
river, and encountered at Newtown, near the present city of Elniira, a 
hostile force, consisting of loyahsts, British regulars and Indians, the 
last of whom were mainly Mohawks, most of the Senecas having fled to 
the western part of their own territory. The engagement at that point 
was not sanguinary, the enemy being easily routed and driven from their 
intrenched position. From Newtown the advance was continued to 
Geneva, Canandaigua and Conesus, the enemy keeping well out of sight 
most of the time. Desolation marked every step of the progress of the 
army, forty-one Indian villages being obliterated, a hundred houses 
torn down and hundreds of acres of corn, beans and potatoes being 
destroyed, with an enormous number of fruit bearing trees. Finally the 
Genesee was reached, and there, at last, was found the " Chinesce 
castle," of which the invaders were in search, but its name was more 
pretentious than its reality, and it did not take long to destroy it, for its 
defenders had vanished. It was situated at Little Beard's Town, now 
Cuylerville, in Livingston county, and that was, perhaps, the most 
northern point of Sullivan's advance, though many writers think that 
some portion of his army descended the Genesee as far as the site of 
Rochester. Nothing, however, but tradition and oft-repeated stories, 
whose origin cannot be traced, forms the ground for that belief, and 
against it is the fact that neither the general's report nor any of the 
journals of the soldiers, which were quite full and which have been offi- 
cially published, give any indication thereof. 

Atrocities were committed on both sides during the campaign. Our 
soldier shot down more than one defenseless squaw, and an incident is 
recorded in their journals where a house was burned to the ground 
with two decrepit savages in it. A milder form of barbarity was shown 
in the custom of scalping the dead and bringing the reeking trophies 
into camp, and, in two instances, in taking ofT the skin of slain Indians 
from the hips downward, to make into leggings, one pair of which was 
to be worn by a major in the Continental army. These acts have ex- 
cited little detestation among the white people, because they have not 
been much written about, but great indignation has been felt, and 
properly, over the fate of two soldiers who fell into the hands of the 
savages. As General Sullivan was not able to find any guides to lead 







S. L. BREWSTHR. 



SULLIVAN'S CAMPAIGN. 33 

him further north than Conesus lake, he dispatched twenty-six riflemen, 
under Lieut. Tliomas Boyd, as a scouting party. These found the village 
on the Canaseraga creek of which they were in search and had started to 
rejoin the army when they found themselves surrounded by several 
hundred Rangers under the command of Colonel Butler and Indians 
under the leadership of Brant. Twenty of the soldiers were killed at 
once, four escaped, Boyd and a private named Parker were captured. 
The lieutenant refused to divulge anything with regard to the move- 
ments of the army and he was put to death after being tortured in the 
most horrible manner, while Parker was beheaded without preliminary 
suffering. Brant and Butler, especially the latter, have been blamed 
for having permitted this atrocious deed, but there seems to be no valid 
reason for the accusation. Brant left the scene, and probably his Mo- 
hawks went with him, before Boyd's examination, and immediately 
after that Butler and the Rangers marched hurriedly away to P'ort Ni- 
agara. During the confusion of the retreat, for such it was, the two 
prisoners were evidently carried off by the few Senecas present, for 
they were killed during the day by direction of Little Beard, a sub- 
chief of that tribe. So hot was the pursuit of the patriot troops that 
they came upon the mangled bodies of the victims while they were still 
warm and their remains were buried on the spot where they died. 
There they rested until 1841, when, on the 21st of August, the anni- 
versary of the massacre, they were brought to Rochester and deposited 
with imposing ceremonies in a receptacle on the summit of Revolu- 
tionary hill, in Mt. Hope cemetery, Governor Seward delivering the 
address on the occasion. 

The Genesee river was the western limit of this inglorious invasion, 
and from that Sullivan returned eastward. He ended his campaign 
without having forced his foe to any decisive fighting and content with 
having inflicted untold misery and sorrow, for he had broken up the 
homes of a whole people who in the following winter suffered destitu- 
tion, hunger and even starvation in the vicinity of Fort Niagara, where 
all the Seneca families had sought refuge. The whole movement was 
of doubtful utility, for it produced scarcely any impairment of the 
fighting force of the powerful tribe ; the women and children were the 
principal sufferers, and the warriors had, after that, an additional stim- 
5 



34 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

ulus to the ferocity with which they made reprisals upon the white set- 
tiers long after the war had practically ceased between the contending 
armies. It was, in its effects, Denonville's invasion over again, and the 
final results would have been as disastrous as in the former case if the 
war had turned the other way, leaving the Indians with a free hand 
with which to yield the scalping-knife and kindle the torture fires. 
As it was, the Senecas never returned to their former settlements east 
of the Genesee, but gathered in straggling parties near the western 
frontier, issuing from their lairs to work vicarious revenge, and, as 
swiftly as they had appeared, retreating to their lurking-places, whither 
it was indiscreet, if not impossible, to follow them. These destructive 
raids continued during the interval between the surrender of Corn- 
wallis, on the 19th of October, 1781, and the final signing of the treaty 
of peace, on the 3d of September, 1783. Even after that time the 
Senecas in the neighborhood of Fort Niagara, encouraged, as some 
think, by the officers of the garrison, would have continued the war on 
their own account and in their own way. 

One of the terms of that treaty was that all private debts on either 
side should be paid in sterling money, and another condition was that 
Congress should recommend to the several states that further proceed- 
ings against the loyalists should not take place and that persons with 
claims on confiscated lands might have facilities for recovering them. 
But the recommendations of Congress were wholly disregarded ; the 
Tories, as they were called, were dreadfully harassed, particularly in 
New York state, and were deprived of most of their rights, while the 
express provision regarding private obligations to residents of Great 
Britain was thwarted by the refusal of several of the states to repeal the 
statutes which precluded the collection of such debts. Under the 
loose government of the Confederation, which preceded the Union, 
Congress was powerless to compel compliance, and England, in the 
meantime, retained its clutch upon the northern frontier fortresses in 
the United States, as it had a right to do, until justice should be done, 
so that it was not till 1795 that these posts were finally surrendered. 
That left Fort Niagara for a long time as a nucleus of disaffection, a 
safe retreat for the savages. Toward the close of 1783 or in the early 
part of T784 they had laid their plans for a stealthy and murderous 



SOVeHEIGNTY and PRE-EMPTION. 35 

excursion on a grand scale, but, just before they were about to start, 
Ebenezer Allan, a man white by birth but Indian by association, of 
whom more will be said hereafter, got hold, in some way, of a belt of 
wampum and sent it, as a symbol of peace, to the commandant of the 
nearest American post. That oflficer, though he may have had some 
suspicion of the fraudulent nature of the transaction, assumed to think- 
that all was done in good faith. He immediately answered the missive 
by sending to the sachems a message declaring that the wampum was 
accepted and that peace should endure between the white men and the 
Indians. The latter were grievously chagrined at the trick that had 
been played upon them, but their respect for the sacredness of the 
pledge was so potential that they abandoned their sanguinary intention, 
and from that time there were no hostilities between the races in the 
region of Western New York. 



CHAPTER VI. 
SOVEREIGNTY AND PRE-EMPTION. 

Surrender of Northwestern Territory — Dispute between New York and Massachu- 
setts — Conflicting Royal Charters — Rights of Conquest from the Dutch — Commissjon- 
ers Appointed — A Settlement Effected. 

The independence of the thirteen colonies having been acknowl- 
edged, and the conflicts with the Indians being at an end, it might be 
supposed that New York would remain in peaceful and undisputed 
possession of all the lands within its borders and that its territorial 
limits would be as well defined as those of any other country. Far 
from it. A new source of contention developed itself, which required 
the greatest exercise of moderation and discretion to prevent the argu- 
ment from growing into an appeal to arms between two sister states. 
Allusion has been made above to the fact that the claims of the English 
colonists were based on charter rights and on conquest from the Dutch, 
When the French claims, based on the right of discovery, were put out 
of the way, the British government cared little which colony owned or 



nr, T.ANDMAKKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

held jurisdiction over any particular piece of territory, and the colonies 
themselves, before the Revolution, were scarcely more concerned about 
the matter. Hut during the war mutual jealousies began to crop out, 
and the southern states, hemmed in, as was then thought, b}' the range 
of the Alleghany mountains, were distrustful of the great preponder- 
ance that might be obtained by New York and New England if the 
e.vpansion of the Northwest, which was recognised as belonging to 
those states, should ever assume the proportions that were claimed for 
it. Partly to quiet these apprehensions and partly, as was stated, to 
provide "a common fund for the expenses of the war," the delegates in 
Congress from New York, in pursuance of an act of the legislature, 
executed a deed on the 1st of IMarcli, 1 781, ceding to the United States 
both the jurisdiction and the right of soil in all lands west of Lake On- 
tario. Four years later Massachusetts followed the noble example of 
New York by giving up all its claim to that region, but Connecticut 
refused to part with its land beyond the border till 1800, and even then 
it retained a large tract in Ohio, which has always been known as the 
Western Reserve. 

Soon after independence was achieved, the dispute between Massa- 
chusetts and New York, as to which was the real owner of the land in 
the western part of the latter state, assumed a definite form. Massa- 
chusetts, with some show of reason, based its claim upon priority of 
charter. In 1606 James the First of Great Britain granted to two 
associations, called the London company and the Virginia company, all 
the land on our eastern coast running from the thirty- fourth to the 
forty fifth parallel of north latitude, the dividing line being uncertain 
from the fact that the southern, or Virginia, territory overlapped the 
other by three degrees. Ignoring both of these charters, more partic- 
ularly the first one, James gave, in 1620, to the council in Plymouth, 
P2ngland, a grant of land extending from the fortieth to the forty-eighth 
degree and running from sea to sea. Under this charter a sub grant 
was given by the home company, in 1621, to the colonists of Plymouth, 
Mass., whose original patent was invalid by reason of their having ob- 
tained it from the Virginia company, whereas they had settled on land 
belonging unquestionably to the London company. In 1628 the same 
council gave to what became the Boston colony a grant of land imme- 



SOVERETGNTY AND PREEMPTION. 37 

diately north of that given to the Mayflower people and running, Hke 
theirs, to " the western sea." In the next year King Charles the First 
gave a charter confirming this grant and calling the grantees "the gov- 
ernor and company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England." This 
last charter was afterward revoked and toward the end of that century 
the two colonies and the region north of them were united under one 
government as " the province of Massachusetts Bay." In this docu- 
ment the territory was stated to extend " toward the South sea, or west- 
ward as far as the colonies of Rhode Island, Connecticut and the Narra- 
gansett country." This was a most vague delimitation, meaning, if it 
meant anything, " as far as those colonies extended," for it was well 
known, at that time, that they lay south of the new province, and the 
western boundary of Connecticut had been fixed, a few years before 
that, at a line twenty miles east of the Hudson river. It was really 
upon the charter of 1620 that the claim of Massachusetts for indefinite 
extension rested, and the weakness of the claim lay in the fact that the 
charter had been superseded by that of William and Mary in 1691. 

New York's claim was actually much stronger, though it did not go 
back so far for an English charter. It was based, primarily, on the 
Dutch discovery, in 1609, of the Hudson river — for Hendrick Hudson, 
the first explorer of that stream, though an Englishman by birth, was 
then in the service of Holland — and on the Dutch settlement of New 
Amsterdam, in 16 14, both of which events occurred before King 
James's charter of 1620. How far west the sovereignty of Holland ex- 
tended, or was then supposed to extend, is quite uncertain, but the 
Iroquois, not only Mohawks but Senecas, at this end of the line, made 
concessions indicating that the Dutch influence, to say the least, was 
widespread in this direction. In March, 1664, Charles the Second, with 
characteristic generosity in giving away what did not belong to him, 
deeded to his brother, then Duke of York and Albany and afterward 
King James the Second, all the land held and possessed by the Dutch 
in this country, and later in the same year an expedition was sent over 
which made the royal gift something more than words by capturing 
New Amsterdam and Fort Orange, whose names were at once changed 
to correspond with the ducal titles. Holland reconquered its North 
American province in 1673, but a year later gave it back in exchange 



38 LANDMARKS UK MONROE COUNTY. 

for Surinam, in South America, and then Charles's deed of gift to James 
was made more vahd by its reissue in the same words. The claim of 
New York was strengthened by the fact that in repeated cessions. of 
lands by the Indians, alluded to in the preceding pages, though the 
different grants had been made to the king of England, those cessions 
had been obtained by the efiforts of the governors and other officials of 
the colony of New York, that all the deeds had been witnessed in their 
presence, without the mention of any other colon)-, and that New York 
had always borne the expense of the Iroquois alliance and was relied 
upon alone to preserve it. 

So much for its own claim, and with regard to that of Massachusetts 
it was pointed out that the two royal charters of 1620 and 1628 ex- 
pressly excepted from their operation " all lands actually possessed and 
inhabited by any other Christian prince or state ; " that, as the Dutch 
were at that time in possession and occupancy of the New Netherlands, 
their lands could not be granted away by the English sovereign, and 
that the language quoted was really a recognition of their ownership 
and jurisdiction. In answer to this, Massachusetts admitted that New 
York succeeded to all the rights of Holland, whatever they were, but it 
was insisted that the Dutch had never settled or made any positive 
claim of jurisdiction further west than the Mohawk river, which should 
therefore be taken as the boundary ; that Charles the Second's grant did 
not define the western limit at all, and that the Indians did not cede 
directly anything to New York. Thus it will be seen that the principal 
force of the arguments of each disputant lay in showing up the weakness 
of the other side, rather than in establishing the tenability of its own 
position. 

It being apparent that the two states would never reconcile their pre- 
tensions by mutual agreement, Massachusetts, in May, 1784, appealed 
to Congress to settle the difificulty by appointing commissioners whose 
decision should be final. Congress proceeded in the circuitous manner 
customary with that body, and, instead of appointing commissioners as 
requested, directed the two states to select, each its own agents, who 
were to appear and argue the matter in the following December. 
These instructions were complied with, but when the agents came be- 
fore Congress another change was made and they were told to agree 



SOVEREIGNTY AND PRE-EMPTION. 39 

upon judges, who would hear and determine the matter. In the fol- 
fowing June they reported that they had agreed upon judges, but be- 
fore the time came for the sitting of the commission the chosen arbitra- 
tors had decHned to serve, and Congress, at the request of the agents, 
granted a postponement, which meant an abandonment, of the proceed- 
ings. Baffled by these dilatory performances and this worse than use- 
less circumlocution, the two state legislatures did what they would have 
saved much time and trouble by doing at the outset — they empowered 
their agents to settle the matter among themselves, without the inter- 
vention of any third party. The commissioners, as they thus became, 
met at Hartford, Conn., and on the i6th of December, 1786, came to 
an agreement which was in the nature of a compromise, as such things 
usually are. 

Under the guise of a reciprocal cession, as though each side owned 
everything, the right of New York to the government, sovereignty and 
jurisdiction over all the lands claimed by it was acknowledged, and, at 
the same time, Massachusetts was declared to possess the right to pre- 
emption of the soil from the Indians in a large tract of land between 
Chenango river and Owego creek, ^ and also the same right with regard 
to all the land between a line running north to Lake Ontario from a 
point on the Pennsylvania line eighty- two miles west of the northeastern 
corner of that state (which passed through the western edge of Seneca 
lake), and a north and south line one mile east of the Niagara river. 
Supplementary details accompanied this division, but it is not necessary 
to give them, further than this, that Massachusetts was allowed to sell 
the pre-emption right and its grantees might purchase from the Indians, 
but no such purchase was to be valid until confirmed by Massachusetts 
after the approval of a superintendent appointed by that state, and the 
grants thus confirmed were to be recorded in the office of the secretary 
of state of New York. This agreement was signed by James Duane, 

1 This peculiar partition of a tract of land covering 230,400 acres, and separated by so great a 
distance from the principal part of the territory conveyed, was due to the fact that Robert K. 
Livingston, afterward chancellor of the state.who was one of the agents of New York from the be- 
ginning, had, in previous conferences with the agents of Massachusetts, offered to cede to the latter 
state, as a peace offering, ten townships, each containing thirty-six square miles. Massachusetts, 
in expectation of receiving this tract, had entered into negotiations with prospective purchasers, 
though it was not actually sold till Noveitjber 7, for fifteen hundred pounds. This is the tract 
mentioned above, and it went afterward by the name_of the " Boston Ten Towns." 



40 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Robert R. Livin<;ston, Robert Yates, John Haring, Melanchton Smith 
and Egbert Benson, agents of New York, and John Lowell, James 
Sullivan, Theophilus Parsons and Rufus King, agents of Massachusetts. 
It is a little singular that both states should thus have recognised, in 
this formal manner, the ultimate right of the Senecas and Cayugas to 
the ownership of the land, in spite of all the sales and cessions of the 
same by the Indians to the king of England, as mentioned in the fore- 
going [)ages. The two states having, through their legislatures, ratified 
the settlement, it was deemed proper, if not necessary, to submit it to 
Congress for its approval, which was obtained without difficulty. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE PURCHASE FROM THE INDIANS. 

Tlic Lessees — Conspiracy to Defraud Massachusetts — Plielps and Gorliani — Tliey 
Contract for Western New York — They Extinguish the Indian Title — The Mill- Yard 
Piece — Remarkable Errors in the Survey — The Reversion to Massachusetts — Sales to 
Robert Morris — Tlie Holland Purchase — The Treaty at Big Tree — Present Location of 
the Senecas. 

While the compromise made at Hartford was not perfectly satisfac- 
tory to anybody, it was generally acquiesced in as being the best outcome 
of the dispute that was practicable. An exception existed in the shape 
of an association of individuals bearing the title of the New York Gene- 
see Land company, but better known by the aggregate name of " the 
Lessees." This band of conspirators, for it was nothing less, included 
the honored names of Livingston and Schuyler, and it commanded 
influence of the most formidable character, for several members of the 
New York legislature and other officials were engaged in it, besides 
others whose distinction in various directions gave them the prestige of 
expected success. Its object was to defraud Massachusetts of that 
which had just been formally acknowledged to belong to it, and, with- 
out paying one penny to that commonwealth, to get possession of all 
the land of Western New York, 



THE PURCHASE FROM THE INDIANS. 41 

By promising, though there is no reason to suppose that they ever 
paid it, a bonus of twenty thousand dollars to the Indians, this company 
secured, on the 30th of November, 1787, a lease of all the territory 
known as the lands of the Six Nations, and then in the actual possession 
of the chiefs or sachems of those tribes. The annual rental was to be 
two thousand Spanish milled dollars, and the lease ran for nine hundred 
and ninety- nine years, so that it amounted, practically, to a sale, for, if 
the swindle had gone through, the payment of the rental would, un- 
doubtedly, have been compromised, a little later, by the payment of a 
specific sum of money. So amazing was the effrontery of these 
unprincipled speculators, that they petitioned the legislature for a recog- 
nition of the lease, but the request was refused. On the contrary, so 
obviously fraudulent was the nature of the transaction, that the lease 
was declared absolutely void, as equivalent to a purchase, and the gov- 
ernor was authorised to use force, if necessary, to prevent the usurpers 
from entering into the occupancy of the land. The legislature of Mas- 
sachusetts of course declined to acknowledge the validity of the lease. 
In spite of all this the Lessees continued their intrigues for some time, 
and contemplated a project for forming a separate state out of the terri- 
tory, till the arrest of one of their number on the charge of treason 
convinced them that the sovereignty of New York meant something, 
and they reluctantly abandoned their nefarious scheme. In after years 
they petitioned the legislature so persistently for relief that that body 
weakly granted to them some lands in the Military tract, which had 
been set apart for Revolutionary soldiers. 

Before the culmination of this audacious enterprise others had been 
stimulated to obtain in a legal manner what the Lessees had tried to 
get in defiance of treaties. For more than a century before that there 
had been a constant wrangle between the colonies of Massachusetts and 
Connecticut over the location of the east and west line that should divide 
them, and an unsightly indentation that still remains on all maps which 
include either of those states bears witness to the imperishable harm 
that may be accomplished by ambiguity of statement in land convey- 
ances or inaccuracy in topographical surveys. One of the towns that 
lay within this disputed belt, the most of which was finally given up to 
Connecticut, was Suffield, and all the children of that community grew 
6 



!•_' LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

up with a familiarity, thougli probably little comprehension thereof, with 
endless contentions about the difference between the magnetic north 
and the true north, the continued altitude of the polar star, the variation 
of the needle, and all those details that entered into the determination 
of a correct west line from a given point. Among these youths was 
Oliver Phelps, who, having arrived at this time at a sagacious manhood, 
appreciated, in view of all the circumstances just mentioned, and the 
general information that he had acquired, the almost boundless possi- 
bilities of settlement in what was then the great West, and the capabil- 
ities of confusion in running meridian lines. Probably, also, the expe- 
rience through which the Lessees were then passing showed him the 
advantage of dealing, in a discreet manner, with the legislature, instead 
of trafficking with the Indians. 

Finding that Nathaniel Gorham, who had been president of the Con- 
tinental Congress in the preceding year, had made already some ad- 
vances in that direction, Phelps united with him, and the two together, 
in the beginning of 1787, made, for themselves and their associates, a 
proposition to purchase one million acres of this Western New York 
land at the rate of one shilling and sixpence per acre. This offer was 
declined, but in the following year another proposition was made, and 
on the 1st of April, 1788, the "general court" of Massachusetts, by 
which antiquated title the legislature of that state has always been 
known, sold to these parties the whole six and a quarter millon acres west 
of Seneca lake, previously described in the terms of settlement. This 
conveyance was subject, of course, to the Indian title, which was to be 
extinguished by the purchasers. The price agreed upon was ^,'300,000 
in consolidated securities of the commonwealth, and, as the Massachu- 
setts pound was equivalent to $3.3313, and the state securities were 
then worth one fifth of their face value, it made the amount to be paid 
nominally $1,000,000, but actually $200,000, or at the rate of a trifle 
over three cents an acre, the payments to be made in thirds annually, 
beginning one year from the date of the contract. True to its theolog- 
ical traditions, as mingling church and state together, it was provided in 
the instrument that the Rev. Samuel Kirkland, the religious and polit- 
ical missionary alluded to in a previous chapter, should superintend and 
approve, at the expense of the grantees, all the purchases to be made 
from the Indians of their claims. 



THE rURCHASE FROM THE INDIANS. 43 

All published histories and articles on this subject, as far as I am 
aware, say that Oliver Phelps came to this region and obtained his deed 
from the Indians before any surveys were made, but facts have recently 
come to light which show that even before the legislature of Massachu- 
setts had made the grant to him, and while his proposition was pending 
before that body, he had come on here, or had sent a trustworthy sur- 
veyor who did the work required of him. A survey was made by 
running a line from the lower falls due west one- half mile (carrying it 
through the center of what was afterward called Rowe street till a year 
ago, when the name was foolishly changed to Lexington avenue), then 
running a line due south from the first point, carrying it through the 
present course of Grape street and Jefferson avenue. On these two 
lines, rectangular to each other, plots were mapped out half a mile 
square, the sides of which formed the basis for future streets in Roches- 
ter, as is seen from the fact that just half a mile from Caledonia avenue, 
the western limit of the One- hundred-acre tract, comes Jefferson 
avenue, the western line of the village of Rochester; half a mile from 
that is Child street, the first boundary of the city on that side, beyond 
which an equal distance is our present western confine. The Buffalo 
road (now West avenue), Lyell avenue, Rowe street (or Lexington 
avenue) and the Ridge road are a mile apart from each other, but the 
intersecting half miles have not been so plainly perpetuated. This little 
map, so long forgotten and unknown, is interesting, as showing the first 
survey made not only in Rochester but in Western New York, and as 
indicating that the west side of the river was considered even then as 
the more desirable portion and the locality between the lower falls and 
the rapids as the choicest spot in all this region. There is reason to 
suppose that Phelps, in his negotiations with the Massachusetts legisla- 
ture, used this map with accompanying promises of sales to influential 
members on terms satisfactory to them, for the art of lobbying is not a 
discovery of the present century and there must be some reason for the 
acceptance of an offer much lower than one that had previously been 
refused. 

Phelps, who had been given by his associates full power in the matter 
of purchasing from the Indians, came to this part of the country soon 
after he obtained the grant, and in July held a council with the Senecas 



u Landmarks of monroe county. 

at Buffalo creek. The meeting had been delayed by the intrigues of 
the Lessees, and when it was finally held they were on hand to com- 
plicate matters. In this they were aided by another concern of a simi- 
lar shady character, called the Niagara Genesee company, comprised of 
Col. Butler and other loyalists, besides a number of British officers. 
Although a common interest caused these companies to work together 
at different times, no love was lost between them, and their disagree- 
ments sometimes enabled other people to run off with the plunder. A 
less adroit diplomatist than Phelps would have been dismayed by the 
obstacles that rose before him, but his experience showed him how to 
deal with them. By the conveyance to the Lessees of four townships 
their release of the land to be purchased from the Indians was obtained. 
It was more difficult to deal with the Niagara company, the members 
of which kept telling the Indians that the frontier forts would never be 
given up and that the whole country would soon come again under the 
dominion of the British. Finally, however, those conspirators were dis- 
posed of, exactly how is not known, but probably by taking them into 
partnership on a small scale. They alleged as much a few years later, 
when they filed a bill in chancery, stating that they had been promised 
by Phelps one-eighth of all the proceeds from future sales of the lands, 
but there is no reason to suppose that they ever gained anything by 
that proceeding. 

Phelps was now left free to deal with the Indians, who, influenced by 
the powerful eloquence of Red Jacket, one of the principal sachems of 
the Senecas, agreed without much reluctance to sell all the land from 
Seneca lake to the Genesee river, but the latter was to be the dividing 
line, beyond which the transfer could not extend, for the land just west 
of that must, as the " great spirit " told them, be their home forever. 
Here, again, Phelps's peculiar talents came into play, for it would never 
do for him to give up the attractive piece of ground that had been 
plotted out on his little map. In some way he induced the Intlians to 
believe that it would be to their advantage to let him have a large tract 
on the west side of the river. The popular story has always been that 
he agreed to build for them a saw-mill and a grist mill near the falls, at 
which all their lumber could be sawed and their corn could be ground 
without having to take the raw material to a great distance eastward, if 



THE PURCHASE PROM THE INDIANS. 45 

they would give him a mill- seat suitable for the purpose ; that, lured by 
the prospect of a reduction of their manual labor, they finally consented 
to his demand without stipulating as to the area of this supplementary 
territory; that after the pipe of agreement had been smoked Phelps 
told them, in answer to a casual inquiry, that he considered that a piece 
twelve miles by twenty- four would be about the proper thing, and that 
the Indians, though overwhelmed with astonishment, considered them- 
selves bound by their promise and acted accordingly. This, if true, 
would show that their sense of honor was far higher than that of the 
white negotiator, who could thus cajole them out of this imperial mill- 
yard, but there is another explanation of their conduct which, while it 
deprives them of any claim to lofty integrity, adds nothing to the repu- 
tation of their customer. Ebenezer Allan, the constant advisor and 
apparent friend of the Indians, may have inspired them to their first re- 
fusal and also to their final acquiescence, by the combination of which 
actions he might readily be the gainer. The reason for this theory, 
which has never found place in any previous history, lies in the record 
of real estate transactions which will be mentioned in the succeeding 
chapter. 

At any rate, Phelps got hold of the land, and the deed of surrender, 
which was signed July 8, 1788, conveyed to him and Nathaniel Gor- 
ham all the territory whose western limit consisted of a line run due 
north from the Pennsylvania boundary to the confluence of the Genese'e 
river and Canaseraga creek, thence following the river northward two 
miles beyond Avon, thence twelve miles to the west, " thence running 
in a direction northwardly, so as to be twelve miles distant from the 
most westward bends of said Genesee river to the shore of Ontario 
lake." The remaining boundaries were the same with those described 
in the deed of conveyance from Massachusetts. The instrument was 
signed by twenty three Senecas, including Red Jacket, Little Beard and 
Farmer's Brother; twenty-two Cayugas, eight Onondagas, three Mo- 
hawks, including Joseph Brant, and seven squaws, who were styled 
" governesses," and it was witnessed by several persons, the most note- 
worthy of whom were Col. Butler and Mr. Kirkland, the latter as 
representing the state of Massachusetts. It would seem as though, in 
the transfer of a domain so vast, the consideration would have been 



4G LANDMARKS OP MONROE COUNTY. 

fully expressed in the deed, but, on the contrary, no mention is made 
of it, and indeed it would have been in conflict with the character of 
those engaged in the transaction if everything had been arranged in 
such a way as to avoid future controversy. 

When payment came to be made, which was done at Canandaigua in 
1789, the Indians were loud in their complaints of treachery, alleging 
that the promises of Phelps were not complied with. Red Jacket, in a 
council held the next year at Tioga with Timothy Pickering, the super- 
intendent of Indian affairs for the northern district of the United States, 
charged that fraud had been committed, so that the Indians received 
only half of what they had been expecting, getting $5,000 instead of 
$10,000. Cornplanter, at the head of a delegation of Seneca chiefs, 
^ent to Philadelphia a month after that, and laid the case before Presi- 
dent Washington in person, complaining that they had been cheated in 
the payments and that the whole treaty at l^uffalo creek had been 
fraudulently conducted. In reply to these accusations Phelps produced 
affidavits showing that the amount agreed upon was $5,000, half at 
once and half one year later, besides a continuous annuity of $500 pay- 
able half in cash and half in cattle. That was all he ever paid, to its 
acknowledged owners, for what is larger than some states in Europe. 
It is probable that he was right as to the technical points; it is equally 
probable that the Indians were overreached and were allowed, if not 
induced, to expect more than they ever obtained ; it is certain that they 
were grievously disappointed. 

Phelps lost no time in having an official survey made of his new ter- 
ritory. Having brought Col. Hugh Maxwell along with him to the 
conference, he had that individual begin to run his lines within a week 
or two after the treaty was signed. Here, again, an obliquity mani- 
fested itself that fittingly supplemented the previous proceedings. The 
east line, or " pre-emption line," as it was generally called, was run first, 
and it was made to take a bend westwardly, by which some eighty-four 
thousand acres that belonged in the purchase were left out. Maxwell 
explained afterward that the mistake was made by some of his assistants 
while he was absent, getting supplies, but the fact that some of the land 
thus excluded was actually occupied by one or more of the Lessees, at 
the present site of Geneva, is very suggestive. The loss was more than 



THE PURCHASE FROM THE INDIANS. 47 

made up by the deflection, also westvvardly, of the west line, from the 
point at which it should have begun to run parallel with the Genesee 
river, northeasterly, instead of which it shot due north from that point, 
thus taking in eighty seven thousand acres that had never been bought 
or sold. No pretense was made that this was a mistake ; it was simply 
robbery from the defenseless Indians. One good feature of this survey 
was that it possessed an admirable species of uniformity. By it the 
land was divided into ranges, six miles wide, which ran north and south, 
and those ranges were divided into townships six miles square, except 
where the bend in the Genesee as it neared the lake caused some ranges 
to be shortened and the shape of several towns to be altered. The 
general system of division in that way, not known to have been used 
before, became the model for all future surveys of new lands in the 
United States. 

The history of the Phelps and Gorham purchase may as well be dis- 
posed of at this point. On November 21, 1788, the Massachusetts 
legislature confirmed the title to all the land between Seneca lake and 
the Genesee and also the mill-yard piece on the west. Phelps evidently 
continued to cherish hopes of being able to extinguish the Indian title 
to the remainder, for he seems to have done nothing looking to an ad- 
justment with Massachusetts during 1789. In February and March, 
.1790, he made various offers to surrender his claim to the rest, but it 
was not till March 10, 1791, that the commonwealth took back ifs 
pre-emptive right to the western land. The settlement was made on 
the hypothesis that that amounted to two thirds of the whole original 
purchase, but it did not, for what had been confirmed to Phelps really 
amounted to considerably more than one-third. By this arrangement 
Phelps should have paid to Massachusetts /,I00,000 in consolidated 
securities, but those funds had risen by that time to nearly their face 
value, in consequence of the United States government having assumed 
the payment of the debts of the states, and so the purchasers, if they 
had been held to the terms of the bond, would have had to pay more 
than four times as much as they had expected at the outset to pay. 
They appealed for justice on the ground of equity, though we have just 
seen how, in their dealing with the Indians, they refused to abate a 
single ounce of the pound of flesh, but, on the contrary, tried to take 



48 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

flcsli and blood and everything else. What particular methods were 
used to bring about the compromise is not known, but it was effected in 
some way, and so, besides the cancellation of two of the three bonds, 
the third bond was reduced to less than one-third of its original amount, 
or /"3i,000, equivalent to a little more then $100,000. 

Even this attenuated obligation could not have been discharged if 
Phelps and Gorham had not, in the meantime, on November 18, 1790, 
sold to Robert Morris, of Revolutionary fame, all of their land not pre- 
viously disposed of by them, reserving to themselves two townships, 
one including the present site of Canandaigua, the other that of Geneseo. 
Morris was too shrewd a man to buy a tract of land like that on a sur- 
vey so atrociously defective as Maxwell's had been, and in the deed to 
him it was expressly ackuQwledged that " a manifest error had been 
committed " with regard to the mill -seat tract, so that a new survey 
would have to be made. While they were about it, it was thought to be 
as well to have the surveyors run new boundary lines entirely, for the 
whole territory ceded to Phelps and Gorham by the Indians. This was 
done in 1791 and 1792, by a party with Major Adam Hoops, formerly 
of Sullivan's army, as superintendent, assisted by several persons, among 
them Augustus Porter, who then drew the first correct map of the 
original purchase. The eastern, or pre-emption, line was straightened, 
and the piece stolen from the Indians on the west, which was afterward 
called the "Triangle tract," was restored to them. Morris's purchase 
from Phelps was found to contain a little more than a million and a 
quarter acres, so that he bought almost exactly one-half of what the 
Indians had sold, and, though the consideration named in the deed is 
only nominal, there is reason to suppose that he paid about $150,000, 
which was more than Phelps paid for the whole. 

It was less than a year before Morris disposed of this tract, selling it. 
througii his London agents, to three Englishmen — Sir William Pulteney, 
William Hornby and Patrick Colquhoun. As the title to land in New 
York could not then be vested in aliens, Charles Williamson came over 
from Scotland and, after he had been duly naturalised, the property was 
deeded to him in trust for the real owners, the consideration being 
/"75.000, the equivalent of which at that time was about $350,000, so 
that Morris more than doubled his money, as Phelps and Gorham had 





^ JY^a.i'tHX.^^ 






THE PURCHASE FROM THE INDIANS. 49 

more than doubled theirs. WilHamson established his office at a little 
settlement which he named Bath, after Pulteney's only child, Laura, 
countess of Bath. 13eing a man of ambition and tireless energy he did 
much to open up the new country, but his expenditures were so vast 
that his principals finally refused to let him go further, and offered him 
$150,000 and 12,000 acres of land at cost if he would turn the property 
over to them, which might have been done, as New York had then 
passed a law giving aliens power for three years to give and receive the 
titles to real estate. But this he would not or could not do, on account 
of the magnitude of the obligations that he had incurred. At the last 
it was only by giving him $89,000 and agreeing to pay his debts to the 
stupendous sum of $225,000 that he was induced to relax his grip and 
sign the deeds on the 31st of March, 1801, two days before the expira- 
tion of the enabling act. Robert Troup, a New York lawyer, succeeded 
Williamson in the agency of the " Pulteney estate," as it has always 
been known. On Troup's death, in 1832, Joseph Fellows succeeded 
him, and in 1862 Benjamin F. Young, then of this city, took charge of 
the office, which he still retains. 

In this connection it may be as well to mention the principal transac- 
tions connected with the ownership of the western end of the state, 
which Phelps was not able to obtain, and to follow our old friends the 
Senecas, the former occupants of Monroe county, to their final resting- 
place in this world. Scarcely had the land been relinquished to Massa- 
chusetts when that state sold it for $333,000 to Robert Morris, who 
was already carrying so much real estate that he thought he might as 
well add indefinitely to the burden. The conveyance of the whole 
tract, nearly four million acres, was made on the nth of May, 1791, 
and within two years the owner had sold it all — with the exception of 
a strip on the east (known as the " Morris Reserve "), twelve miles wide 
in the main and including the Triangle tract — to several Dutchmen 
living in Amsterdam, who, though not strictly associated together, are 
generally alluded to as the Holland Land company. In passing the 
title to the American agent of those foreigners Morris agreed to ex- 
tinguish the Indian claim as a necessary condition of the sale, and a 
part of the purchase price was held back till that should be done. The 
execution of this project was delayed for a few years by various consid- 



50 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

cratiuns, principally the desire on Morris's part to wait till Fort Niagara 
should be given up, so that he might not have to encounter the obstruc- 
tive machinations of the British officers. This difficulty was removed 
in 1795, but for some reason it was not till August, 1797, that the 
various parties assembled at Big Tree, near the present site of Genesee, 
but whether on the east or west side of the river is a matter of dispute. 
Robert Morris was not present himself, but his son Thomas was there 
in the interest of his father and with full power to act as the agent of 
the great financier ; the other attending whites were Col. Jeremiah 
Wadsworth and Gen. Shepherd, representing the United States and 
Massachusetts, respectively ; Israel Chapin, superintendent of Indian 
affairs ; representatives of the Holland company, interpreters and sur- 
veyors. Confronting them were the Seneca chiefs and sachems in full 
force, realising that this was their last opportunity for getting any re 
muneration for the land that was slipping away under their feet — Corn- 
planter, Red Jacket, Farmer's Brother, Blacksnake, Handsome Lake, 
Little Beard and all the others. The council fire was lighted, the 
credentials were presented and Thomas Morris made a speech that had 
been carefully prepared beforehand, setting forth the great advantages 
that would accrue from the sale of the land. Day after day the council 
was held and the negotiations were continued, botli sides being non- 
committal, Morris evading the question of specific payment and the 
Indians insisting that the proposal must come from him, not from them. 
Finally he offered $100,000, to be invested in stock of the United State 
bank, so that they should receive annually six thousand dollars for all 
time to come; if they would not accept that offer, his father would 
hold no further treaties with them. This was Red Jacket's opportu- 
nity ; springing to his feet he delivered an harangue full of the grand- 
est eloquence, rehearsing the wrongs of the red men and declaring 
that they would never sell their land ; then, with dramatic action, he 
scattered the burning brands, stamped out the glowing embers and 
raked together the ashes; the council was at an end. Alas, for the 
consistency of human pride ! Presents were freely made to the Seneca 
squaws, who thereupon insisted that negotiations should be resumed, the 
council fire was rekindled by Cornplanter and the deed of sale was duly 
signed September 17, 1797. The consideration was the same that 



THE PURCHASE FROM THE INDIANS. 61 

Morris had oftered, and nothing else appeared upon the record, but 
there are documents in existence which show that Cornplanter received 
two hundred and fifty dollars as a private annuity for the rest of his 
life; others, including Red Jacket, one hundred dollars in the same 
way, and others still smaller sums — that is to say, the influential leaders 
were bribed to sell their country. Upon which side falls the greater 
disgrace it is difficult to decide. 

Eleven reservations, from out of all the land, were taken, aggregating 
three hundred and thirty- seven square miles, some of them because they 
had been sold or given already, but most of them to serve as the future 
home of the Senecas and such others of the Six Nations as might choose 
to dwell among them. Of these reservations the Indian title has, since 
then, been extinguished in all but four — the Tuscarora, the Tonawanda, 
the Allegany and the Cattaraugus — on the last two of which the sur- 
viving Senecas are located to the number of about 2,200. The Alle- 
gany reservation, which is the larger of the two, lies wholly in Catta- 
raugus county, while the other extends through that and two other 
counties, the two comprising a little over 52,000 acres. The state of 
New York pays to the Senecas an annuity of three hundred and eighty- 
five dollars, besides supporting fifteen schools among them, while the 
United States government distributes among them every year $1 1,902 
in cash, besides thirty-five hundred dollars' worth of goods. Clouds 
still hang close to the horizon of their territory, the heaviest of which is 
the claim of the Ogden Land company, the successor of the Holland. 
Legislation was attempted in the last Congress for the purchase of that 
claim, but the bill failed to become a law and the matter was referred 
to the secretary of the interior, who is to make a report on the subject. 
When this incumbrance shall have been removed, either by its purchase 
or by a judicial declaration of the invalidity of the claim, the Indians 
may, as the next step, be invested with the rights of citizenship and 
their lands divided among them in severalty, which ought to have been 
done long ago. Until it is done, any real progress toward civilisation 
is impossible. 



62 I..\NDM.\nKS OF MONTJOE COtlNTV 



CHAITKR VI 11. 

CONNECTING LINKS. 

The Tory Walker — Tli.-J Cabin at the MouLli of the River— Erection of the Mills - 
Tran.sfer.s of Land — "Indian" Allan — His Mnrderous Career — His Plurality of Wives 
--His Robbery from his Children — Mary Jem ison, " the White Woman of the Gen- 
esee" — Her Abduction and her Captivity- -Her Change of Race — Murders of her 
Sons — Her Admirable Character. 

Before tlie time of tlie great purchase from the Indians there was no 
permanent white settlement in all this region or anywhere near it. A 
man named Walker had, it is true, lived at the present site of Summer- 
ville for several years after the close of the Revolutionary war. He 
was a loyalist who had come from Minisink, Penn., and had connected 
himself with Butler's Rangers, in which capacity he served as one of 
the opponents to Sullivan's advance in 1779. After the affair at Little 
lieard's Town he was detailed to go to Fort Niagara for boats to be 
sent to the mouth of the Genesee river to pick up the scattered Ran- 
gers who were fleeing from the invading army. Walker, having suc- 
ceeded in getting the boats, by which the loyalists were transported 
safely to the fort, seems to have been so well pleased with the scene of 
his exploit that he either remained there or returned to the spot after- 
ward and built a log cabin, which he occupied, leading a vagabond 
kind of a life, till he went to Canada in 1793. An early map of this 
region, printed in London, gives a little picture of the cabin at the 
mouth of the river, with the word " Walker's " underneath, and no other 
sign of civilisation on the whole shore of the lake from Oswego to Ni- 
agara. In a literal sense he was the first white inhabitant of Monroe 
county, but the term " first settler" cannot be applied properly to him, 
for he gave no indication of an intention to locate here permanently 
and he never laid claim to the ownership of the land. 

It will be remembered that Oliver Phelps had promised to erect a 
mill or mills for the Indians near the upper falls as a compensation for 



CONNECTING LINKFl. 63 

their gift to liim of the tract of iand on the west side of the river. In 
pursuance of this agreement he made a contract of some kind, at the 
very time of his purchase or before it, with Ebenezer Allan to put up 
those structures. The common story has always been that all the 
price paid for building the two mills lay in the transfer of one hundred 
acres of land, on which the mills were to stand. Posterity has contin- 
ued to believe the tradition from that day to this, regardless of the 
disparity between what was given and what is alleged to have been 
received, for one hundred acres then and there were worth but a very 
few cents an acre, and Phelps could not have sold the piece for as much 
as Allan had to pay for the mill irons, Allan had resided in this 
locality, as much as he resided anywhere, for some time previous to 
that, and in 1789, if not before, he was living on his farm where Scotts- 
ville is now situated, near where the creek that was named after him 
empties into the Genesee. This farm contained four hundred and sev- 
enty-two acres, and most writers have stated that it was a gift to Allan 
from the Senecas. Turner, in his " Phelps and Gorham Purchase," says 
that three hundred acres had been derived from the Indians and that 
the remainder had been bought from those white speculators. This is 
almost as far wrong as the other assertion, as anyone might have foimd 
by taking the trouble to examine the records. 

On page 247 of book four of deeds in the Ontario county clerk's 
office, is the record of a deed from Oliver Phelps to Israel Chapin, who 
was present in an official capacity at the treaty of Rig Tree in 1797. 
This deed is dated September 19, 1789, and it was recorded July 8, 
1796. For the consideration of i^i 145, i6s., 8d., New England cur- 
rency, it conveys one-half of township number one in the first range of 
towns on the west side of the Genesee, the whole town to contain 2,500 
acres. This deed was recorded in order to make good the title con- 
veyed in a deed already entered on page 93 in book two in the same 
office, that had been recorded November 10, 1793, and which was dated 
September 16, 1790, so the date of what was unquestionably the second 
deed was made to be one year earlier than that of the first. The deed 
recorded in 1793 was from Israel Chapin to Ebenezer Allan, and it con- 
veyed, for the consideration of two hundred pounds Massachusetts cur- 
rency, the whole four hundred and seventy-two acres of Allan's farm. 



f)4 LANDMARKS OP MONROE COUNTY. 

which was in the northwest corner of the township. If Allan had 
owned three-fourths of that farm he certainly would not have bought it 
over again from Phelps through Chapin, and even if, as is probably the 
case, he had no title to any of it, he would hardly have paid so high a 
price as that named for what was wholly wild land when he got it. 

It may be remarked that, as the deed from Phelps to Chapin had 
been executed to validate the title of the latter, so the deed from 
Chapin to Allan was evidently executed to give Allan a title to what 
he had already sold to Peter Shefifer a year before, for this last- men- 
tioned deed, though not recorded till March 30, 1794, was dated No- 
vember 23, 1789 — the one date that is known to be genuine. Chapin 
forgot to change his date, as he ought to have done, and the whole 
transaction is marked by the usual indirection, a crooked line instead of 
a straight one. These details have been given to show that, in all like- 
lihood, the consideration for the erection of the mills was not only the 
piece of one hundred acres but also the Scottsville farm, nearly five 
times as large, and perhaps something in addition to those. On some 
terms or other the saw-mill was built in the summer of 1789, and the 
grist mill in the following November. The latter stood on the south 
side of the present Race street, between Aqueduct and Graves streets, 
the saw-mill being just south of it. Allan moved with his family into 
the grist mill as soon as it was finished, and lived there for one winter, 
after which he transferred his residence to Mt. Morris, though his family 
stayed for some time longer in the mill. A description of the One- 
hundred- acre tract, with its various changes of title, and also some 
mention of the successive occupants of the mills, will be given in the 
sketch of the city of Rochester, but a slight account of the picturesque 
ruffian who was really the first white settler in Monroe county may be 
in order in this place. 

hLbenezer Allan was a singular creature, almost unique in the annals 
of crime in that he was never punished for any of his misdeeds, but, on 
the contrary, lived and died with the apparent respect of his fellow- 
men. Murder, unprovoked and cruel, was with him a pastime, robbery 
was often his means of livelihood, and polygamy, if not reduced to a 
fine art, was the social system that he practised with a successful au- 
dacity that might excite the admiration of a Mormon elder. The only 



CONNECTING LINKS. 55 

act for which he ever suffered the slightest molestation in this country 
was the only good thing that he ever did in his life, when he preserved 
the peace by carrying the wampum belt, as mentioned in a previous 
chapter. For this he was hunted like a partridge on the mountains, by 
British soldiers and by Indians, until at last he was captured and car- 
ried to Fort Niagara, from which he escaped, only to be again tracked 
to his hiding-place on the Genesee — where Mary Jemison was secret- 
ing him — and taken to Canada, where he was tried on some fictitious 
charge and acquitted. 

Born at some place known only to his parents, but probably in Penn- 
sylvania, his first appearance in history is in that state, where, in the 
early part of the Revolution, he took arms against his patriot neighbors 
and participated with the red men in their ravages on the Susquehanna. 
While scouting with a party of savages, according to his own story in 
later life, he entered, early one morning, a house where the owner was 
asleep in bed with his wife and child. Awakened by the noise, the 
man sprang to the floor to defend his family, only to be struck down 
by a fatal blow from Allan, who then cut off the head of his victim and 
threw it into the bed with his wife, after which he snatched the baby 
from her arms and beat out its brains by swinging it against the door- 
post. Coming into New York a little later he seems to have joined a 
band of Butler's Rangers, in which position his conspicuous ferocity 
rendered him an object of execration to all on the other side, but his 
hatred of restraint soon made him leave that corps and again associate 
with the Indians, no more savage than himself, among whom he had 
great influence and by whom he was called Genushio, the word being 
the same as the name of the Genesee river, on the banks of which he 
lived for the next twenty years. By the whites he was generally 
known as Indian Allan. About the time of his coming here he mar- 
ried a squaw, named Sally, by whom he had two children, Mary and 
Chloe. 

Before the grist mill was built, a white man named Chapman came 
along with his daughter Lucy, on their way to settle at Niagara, and 
Allan was naturally attracted by the girl, who seems to have returned 
his affections. It may be that Sally and her children were not living at 
Scottsville at that time, or they may have been sent temporarily further 



56 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

lip the river ; at any rate Lucy was induced to remain with Allan, with 
the full consent of her fatiier, who passed on westward. A magistrate, 
either real or pretended, came on the scene a little later and a marriage 
ceremony took place, after which Sally and Lucy were brought together 
and a scene ensued, but harmony soon prevailed and all parties made 
the best of it. By Lucy, Allan had one child, a son. The triple 
alliance was soon enlarged. An elderly man with a beautiful young 
wife came to the Genesee country in the course of their travels and 
Allan found no difficulty in persuading them to rest for a little visit, in 
the course of which he took the man for a walk by the bank of the 
river and deliberately pushed him into the water. The man contrived 
to crawl out, but he died within three da\s from the effects of the 
shock ; his widow at once united herself with Allan and lived with him 
as his third wife for a year, after which she became tired and left for 
parts unknown. Allan, being a man of taste, was not satisfied with the 
two colors of red and white, but desired to add a darker hue to the 
matrimonial rainbow, so he married a daughter of a runaway slave, 
commonly called Captain Sunfish, who had settled on Tonawanda 
creek and by trading in cattle had acquired some property. It is not 
uncharitable to suppose that the husband had that in mind when he 
made the match, for he soon got hold of all the accumulated wealth, 
after which he discarded the former Miss Sunfish and kindly pensioned 
her father out of the negro's own money. 

After his last removal to Mt. Morris, Allan proceeded to set his house 
in order. First, he ordained that Sally should be a slave to Lucy, 
though he recognised the former as an equally lawful wife. Having 
arranged that, he married Millie McGregor (or Morilla Gregory, as the 
name sometimes appears), the daughter of one of the Rangers, who was 
then living on the Genesee flats. When Millie was taken home, Sally 
and Lucy, not satisfied with the situation, joined their forces and beat 
the new-comer so ferociously that Allan had to install her in a small 
cabin a short distance from the main house. By Millie he had six 
children. She was probably his last wife, though Mary Jemison says 
that " one of Morilla's sisters lived with Allan about a year after Morilla 
was married, and then quit him," which may mean that the family re- 
lations were as patriarchal as those of Jacob with Rachel and Leah. 





^«rt^^^_ 


f 


' 




.^3p ^ 


'< 




\ 










B^ r- 




IK^ \ 




^^^^Hj^T^^T^^^^^r 


!T/-^" ,. 




*^ 



*^ 




CONNECTING LINKS. 57 

This antique mode of life was interspersed with a few cold-blooded 
murders, which seemed to create no disorder in the social universe of 
which Allan was the center, such as the case in which he sent a boy to 
the spring for water, and, as the urchin loitered too long on the way, 
the director took the bucket and beat him on the head with it till he 
died. 

Allan's treatment of his children was peculiarly balanced. For the 
education of Lucy's son he provided by sending him to school at Phila- 
delphia, which seems to have been considered sufificient, for the boy was 
not mentioned in Allan's will. Sally's children, his Indian daughters, 
he sent to school at Trenton, N, J., and as an offset to that he robbed 
them of all their property. By deed dated July 15, 1791, the sachems 
of the Senecas had given to Mary and Chloe a tract of land four miles 
square in the vicinity of the present Mt. Morris, stating in the instru- 
ment that this was done on account of their love and affection for the 
girls, whom they considered as children and members of the Seneca 
nation and, as such, entitled to this portion of land. Two years later 
Allan took this deed, the making of which was unquestionably his own 
idea, down to Philadelphia and sold the whole 10,240 acres to Robert 
Morris for merchandise. When the treaty of Big Tree was about to be 
signed, in 1797, one of the girls endeavored to prevent the alienation of 
her land, or, if it could not be included in the reservations that were to 
be excepted from the transfer, to obtain some compensation for it from 
Thomas Morris, who conducted the purchase. Both efforts were futile, 
Morris taking the position that his father had bought the land once and 
was now paying for it again to the Indians, that he would not buy it a 
third time and that he should keep it. But both of the Morrises knew 
perfectly well that they could acquire no just title, no real right, to that 
land unless they bought it from the real owners, who were Allan's In- 
dian- daughters, and whose father had no legal authority to sell it, either 
by the terms of the deed to them, which is on record at the county 
clerk's ofifice at Canandaigua, or by any other known document. No 
deed from Allan to Morris was ever recorded. The treaty commis- 
sioners were appealed to, but they decided against the girls, who got 
nothing then nor on their father's death, long afterward, as he made no 
testamentary bequest to them. 



58 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

When Allen moved to Canada, a few years later, he took only two of 
his wives with him, leaving Sally behind, who followed him, weeping, 
for some distance, till he peremptorily ordered her to go the other way, 
whereupon she turned and saw him no more. Millie he tried to dispose 
of in a more conclusive manner, for he hired two men to drown her, 
and they ran the boat over what was then the upper fall, near the pres- 
ent aqueduct, but Millie swam ashore and accompanied Allan and Lucy 
to Canada. There the whole white portion of the family settled at 
Delawaretown, without any recorded disapproval on the part of the 
neighbors, unless, indeed, the frequent prosecutions to which Allan was 
afterward subjected, on charges of which he was invariably acquitted, 
may be taken as an indirect form of criticism of his general conduct, 
(iovernor Simcoe gave him three thousand acres of public land in con- 
sideration of his building a church, a saw- mill and a grist mill, the mills 
to be his own property. On that estate he lived till 1814, when he 
died, compensating Millie for his attempt to murder her by bequeath- 
ing all his worldly possessions to her and her six children, while he left 
his other white wife, Lucy, penniless, to rejoin her kindred on the Ohio 
river. In rehearsing the life of this powerful criminal, who always lived 
outside the law, the story of his misdeeds may sound like a romance, 
but, without regard to the legends that cluster around his name, all the 
incidents above set down are well attested and most of them are alluded 
to in the narrative, told by herself and written by another, of Mary 
Jemison, "the white woman of the Genesee," 

This remarkable person deserves more than a passing mention. Hav- 
ing been born on the ocean in 1742 or 1743, while her parents were 
miLjrating to this country, she lived, for most of her childhood, at a 
frontier settlement in Pennsylvania. When she was twelve years old 
the house was surrounded one day by French and Indians, and all the 
occupants were killed or carried off, except the two elder brothers of 
Mary Jemison, who escaped. All the rest of the family — father, 
mother, two younger brothers and sister — were murdered by the sav- 
ages on the second day of the flight, and the little child had to witness 
the cleaning and dressing of the scalps of those who were dear to her. 
Mary was taken to a small Seneca town on the Ohio river, where she 
was formally adopted into the tribe, receiving the name Deh-he-wa- 



CONNECTING LINKK • o!) 

mis, or, more correctly, Deh-ge-wa-nus— meaning "the two falling 
voices." On reaching maturity she was married to Sheniniee, a Dela- 
ware, whom she always alluded to in terms of deep affection and by 
whom she had two children, the last a boy, v/hom she called after her 
father, Thomas Jemison. A little later they all moved to the Genesee 
country, and there Mary, after the death of Sheninjee, married again, 
this time a Seneca chief, named Hiokatoo. He was a man noted for 
his cruelty, which was his ruling passion even in boyhood, when he 
used to torture the prisoners to the limit of their endurance, and never, 
as he boasted in later life, did he know what it was to feel pity over the 
sufferings of his victims or remorse over the torments that he inflicted. 
In 1782, when the Revolutionary war had closed, though the treaty of 
peace was not signed, he was engaged with a party of savages that laid 
waste the hamlets on the Pennsylvania frontier and that, having taken 
prisoner Colonel Crawford, one of Washington's most intimate friends, 
scorched him slowly to death. Mary, in her narrative, makes no at- 
tempt to palliate the demoniac deeds of this monster, whose hands were 
always reeking with the blood of her own race and who had probably 
killed more infants than any other man in America, but she turns from 
that recital to dwell upon his attitude toward her, for she says that dur- 
ing the nearly fifty years that she lived with him he treated her uniformly 
with tenderness and with all the kindness and attention that were due 
to her as his wife. 

By Hiokatoo, who died in 181 1, one hundred and three years old, 
Mary Jemison had six children, all of whom, in strict accordance with 
the Indian laws of descent, were called by her family name, for they 
were considered as Senecas, not at all because their father was of that 
nation but because their mother had been adopted into it. Strong 
drink, always the foe of the red men, was particularly destructive to 
this family. The oldest of Hiokatoo's sons, John Jemison, killed his 
half-brother, Thomas, in a drunken quarrel, then he murdered his own 
brother, Jesse, and finally he himself was killed by two other Indians, 
leaving Mary, in her old age, without a son to lean upon. John's as- 
sassins fled, but afterward returned and sent to Mary a wampum belt, 
knowing that her acceptance of it would be a token of forgiveness. 
The heart-broken mother declined to receive the symbol of blood- 



CO Landmarks of monroe cotJNTY 

atonement, but told tlie messenger that she would never demand the 
lives of the culprits. There seems to have been no thought of punishing 
them in the white courts, though the country was pretty well settled 
by that time, but they could not bear the opprobrium that fastened 
upon them, so one left this region and the other committed suicide. 
These events occurred, not while the Jemisons were young, but after 
they had large families, the members of which did not inherit the vices 
of their fathers. One of Mary's grandchildren, a son of Thomas, after 
two years at Dartmouth college, became an assistant surgeon in the 
United States navy and died on board his vessel, with the respect of all 
his fellow- officers. 

At the treaty of Big Tree Mary Jemison, who had long been 
promised a deed of land as her own, was given a large tract, containing 
seventeen thousand, nine hundred and twenty-seven acres, or about 
twenty-eight square miles, on both sides of the Genesee, near the pres- 
ent site of Genesco. This was among the reservations excepted from 
the sale to Robert Morris, and it was known, till its first partition, as 
the Gardeau reservation. In the same cabin that she had built on the 
Gardeau flats in 1780, seventeen years before they became her property, 
Mary continued to live till 1831, when she sold out the last piece of her 
property and removed to the Seneca reservation then on Buffalo creek, 
where she died in 1833, about ninety-one years old, having been con- 
verted from paganism to Christianity some two months before her 
death. 

Mary Jemison's life presents many interesting features, both as repre- 
sentative and as peculiar to herself. No instance can be found of a more 
complete change from one race to another. Having learned to read in 
her early childhood, that acquirement passed away from her soon after 
her entrance into captivity, and she never regained it. Although she 
strove to keep alive the knowledge of the English language by the daily 
repetition of the catechism that her mother had taught to her, that, too, 
gradually faded out of her mind, and it was with difficulty that she re- 
covered enough of it to act as interpreter or to hold converse with the 
white people who filled the fertile valley that was so long her home. 
For some time after she was carried off, a wave of longing to return to 
her own race would occasionally pass over her, but her feelings became 



Connecting links. ci 

constantly more closely conformed to her surroundings. Not only did 
she never attempt to escape but she carefully avoided all efforts toward 
her recovery. When the Revolutionary war had ended and the gov- 
ernment had offered a bounty for the restoration of all captives held by 
the Indians, one of the principal Seneca chiefs had arranged with some 
men to have Mary taken back, by force if necessary, but she steadfastly 
refused to go, even hiding away to avoid the dreaded emancipation, 
while her Indian brother, between whom and herself there was always 
the tenderest affection, stood ready to kill her, witii her full cojisent, if 
that should prove the only way to prevent her return. Even in her old 
age, when, the last of her sons having been murdered, she had no one 
to lean upon, she was urged to resume the status of her birthright and 
go back to the white people, among whom her position would be in- 
fluential by reason of her large estate, but she would not heed the ad- 
vice. Born an Anglo-Saxon, she had become an Iroquois, and .so 
clearly was this fact estabh'shed and recognised that when she wished to 
sell a portion of her land a special act of the New York legislature was 
passed, in 1817, to confer' naturalisation upon her before the deed of 
conveyance could be signed and recorded. 

Many people have been attracted by the freedom of savage life, and 
have abandoned civilisation therefor, but in most cases the change has 
been marked by a degradation that caused them to sink below the level 
of their associates. With Mary Jemison it was not so. She \v^s 
always the friend of the white man, always the provider for the needy, 
always the meditator for the suffering and the oppressed. Many an 
execution did she witness, for witchcraft and other offenses, many a 
scene of fiendish torture did she behold, but, when it was possible, she 
interposed to prevent the worst atrocities. Her voice was often raised 
on the side of mercy, never on that of cruelty, and, though she some- 
times implored in vain, more than one life was saved by her entreaties. 
Her hospitality was absolutely unbounded, her integrity was never 
questioned, her character was above reproach. Two figures will always 
stand conspicuous upon the threshold of modern life in this valley, link- 
ing the passing with the coming race — Indian Allan and the White 
Woman of the Genesee. 



02 tANDMAPJCS OF MONROE COtTNTY. 



CHAPTER IX. 

SETTLEMENT OK THE WEIITES. 

The Twenty-Thousand Acre Tract — The Deed to Robert Morris — Settlement of the 
Lusks — Settlement of the Shefiers — Visit of Chateaubriand — Of Rochefoucault-Lian- 
court— Of Other Frenchmen — Settlement of William Hencher — Gideon King and 
Zadock Granger — King's Landing — Hanford's Landing- -Town Meetings, Schools and 
Churches — Roads and the Mail Service — Tryon Town — Caslleton — Carthage— The 
Great Bridge— The War of 1812— Defense of Charlotte. 

Some time in 1789 Oliver Phelps opened an office at Canandaigua for 
the disposal of his new territor}-, and that was the first land office ever 
opened in the United States for the sale of forest lands to actual settlers. 
The first recorded deed of the soil in Monroe county, as transcribed in 
in the books of our county clerk's office from those in Ontario county, 
was dated and recorded on the i6th day of September, 1790. It con- 
veys from Joseph Smith to James Latta, for the consideration of one 
hundred and seventy-five dollars, a part of township number two in the 
" short range," one boundary line being the lake shore, another the 
Genesee river — that is to say, it comprised the present village of Char- 
lotte. The phraseology of the document is very loose, the area of the 
piece sold being not stated in miles or in acres and the only approach 
thereto being found in the words " one-fourth part of tract of land 
granted to me, it being one-eighth of township two," etc., so that it is 
wholly uncertain whether it was a quarter or an eighth or a thirty- 
second part of the township. Inasmuch as the deed states that Smith's 
title rests on a conveyance to him and Horatio Jones from Oliver 
Phelps, and as this deed to Latta was ordered to be placed on record 
by Phelps himself, as judge of the court of Common Pleas of Ontario 
county, it may have been considered unnecessary to precede its record 
by a deed, if there ever was one, from Oliver Phelps. A month later, 
on November 17, a deed, dated November 8, was recorded from Phelps 
and Gorham to Ebenezer Hunt, Robert Breck, Ouartus Pomeroy, 



SETTLEMENT OF THE WHITES. 63 

Samuel Henshaw, Samuel Hinckley, Moses Kingsley and Justin Ely. 
The deed conveyed, for the consideration of six hundred pounds, twenty 
thousand and one hundred acres, less the one hundred previously given 
to Ebenezer Allan and which was expressly reserved in this instrument. 
With this exception the " Twenty-thousand acre tract," as it has 
always been called, embraces most of the west half of Rochester and of 
Gates, with a small part of Greece. Starting from a point on the river 
bank, between the Holy Sepulchre and Riverside cemeteries, the line 
runs due west about seven miles, thence south about five miles along 
the western boundary of the towns named, thence east to the river, 
striking it a little north of Clarissa street bridge and following the stream 
for the eastern boundary of the tract. 

On the following day the deed to Robert Morris was recorded, and it 
is remarkable that in that document — the original of which is preserved 
at Bath — the words " C, number one " should have been written over a 
manifest erasure, while the words " twenty- four thousand and thirty 
acres," which are applicable to another township, are allowed to stand. 
From this, and from the fact that on the map of Maxwell's survey the 
purchase of Hunt and others is given as that of township number two 
in range A, which is the larger piece, it is apparent that a change of 
lots was made at the last moment and that it was not thought worth 
while to go to the trouble of writing a new and correct deed for Morris. 
Such blemishes and inaccuracies in an instrument so important would 
be almost impossible as coming from any other source; in this case they 
are only characteristic. 

Permanent settlements began in Monroe county on both sides of the 
river in the same year. The fifth sale of Phelps and Gorham was to 
Caleb Hyde and others, of Lenox, Mass. Of this land fifteen hundred 
acres, near the head of Irondequoit bay, was set off for John Lusk, 
though there is a doubt as to how he obtained his title, some saying 
that he got it direct, as one of the original grantees of Phelps, while 
the statement is made otherwise, with a degree of particularity, that he 
bought that fifteen hundred acres from the Indians, and that then, find- 
ing that his title was imperfect, he bought one thousand acres over 
again, paying twenty-five cents an acre for it. There may have been 
some double dealing about it. John Lusk certainly came to this region 



64 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

in the summer of 1 789, with his son Stephen, fifteen years old, and a 
hired man, crossing Cayuga lake on a raft and swimming their cattle 
behind them. Arrived at their destination, they camped at once, made 
a clearing, built a log cabin and sowed twelve acres with wheat, which 
they obtained from Ebenezer Allan, on the other side of the river. To 
establish communication with his place they cut a road through the 
woods to the mouth of Red creek, to which point the wheat was carried 
in a canoe. Attracted, by the novelty of these proceedings, Indians 
often called at the farm, having come across the lake from Canada and 
passed up the bay, on their way to Canandaigua to get their annuities. 
Far more unpleasant visitors were the fever and ague, which prostrated 
the new settlers for several weeks, when, on their recovery in the au- 
tumn, they went back to Massachusetts, only to return in the following 
spring, when John Lusk brought his whole family with him, coming all 
the way from Schenectady by water. 

If the Lusks were the pioneers of Monroe county on the east side — 
with the insignificant exception of the tory Walker — so the Shefiers, 
who were close upon their heels, were the forerunners of the west side, 
with the exception of the erratic and fleeting Indian Allan. Peter 
Shefter, then more than eighty years old, came here from Lancaster, 
Penn., with his two sons, Peter and Jacob, some time in 1789, it is not 
known in what month, but probably in the fall, for his deed from Allan 
was, as previously stated, dated November 23. Allan's farm was by 
far the most attractive piece of land in the country at that time, most 
of the soil being cleared of its forest trees and nearly sixty acres of it 
put under cultivation, besides which there was a comfortable log cabin 
standing upon it. With all these improvements, Allan sold the farm 
for two dollars and a half an acre, or eleven hundred and seventy dol- 
lars, using a part of the money to put u|) the grist mill at the falls, 
which would not have been completed otherwise. The beginnings of 
so many things are connected with the Sheffer family that it may be 
well to mention some of them here, even at the risk of repetition in 
another part of this volume. In 1790 Peter Sheffer, junior, married 
Elizabeth Schoonhover, the daughter of a family that came in the 
spring of that year to Dugan's creek, a little south of Scottsville ; on 
the 20th of January, 1793, their first child, Nancy, afterward the wife of 




(>W^^-^/^ ^^-t^^ 



SETTLEMENT OF THE WHITES. 65 

• 

Philip Garbutt, was born; in 1795 Jacob Sheffer, one of the pioneers, 
died. Those were the first events, each of its own kind,i that occurred 
among the white settlers, in what is now Monroe county, or anywhere west 
of the Genesee river. The first frame dwelling-house in all that region 
was put up by the younger Peter Shefier in 1797, the lumber being 
obtained from Allan's saw- mill, the nails and other iron used in the con- 
struction being brought from Geneva. 

Turning aside for a moment from the active industry of the early 
settlers, it may be interesting to note what was thought and said and 
written about the new country by travelers whose curiosity led them 
to visit the great West in much the same spirit as that which impels 
explorers of this day to visit the recesses of the African forests. As we 
owe to the intelligence of the Frenchman Charlevoix our first descrip- 
tion of this region, so we turn to a distinguished compatriot of his for 
another sketch of the same locality, when the occupants seen by the 
former writer were about to be succeeded by those of another race. 
In 1790 Chateaubriand, poet, philosopher and statesman, came over 
here from France and passed through this part of the state, on his way 
to Niagara falls, coming from Albany as directly as possible. Here is 
what he says about it, in his " Voyage en Ameriqtie : " 

" The American population is now making toward the concessions of the Genesee. 
The government sells these concessions more or less dear, according to the excellence 
of the soil, the quality of the timber and the course and number of the streams. Tbe 
abodes within the 'clearings' here offer a curious mixture of wildnessand civilisation. 
Within the recesses of a forest that had previously heard only the yells of savages and 
the noise of wild beasts we often come across a patch of cultivated land and perceive 
at the same time the cabin of an Indian and the habitation of a white man. Some of 
these finished homes in the woods recall the tidiness of English or Dutch farmhouses ; 
others, half completed, have but the dome formed by the standing forest trees for a 
roof. I was received m some of these habitations and found often a charming family, 
with the comforts and refinements of Europe and all this within a few steps of an Iro- 
quois hut. One day, after traveling some hours without finding a trace of habitation, I 
perceived the signboard of a tavern hanging from the trunk of a tree on the side of the 
road. Hunters, farmers and Indians meet together at these caravansaries, but the first 
time I reposed in one of them I asseverated solemnly that it would be the last. Enter- 
ing, I stood stupefied at the aspect of an immense bed constructed around a stake ; 

'The only qualification of this recital is with regard to the first birth. The statement has 
been made that Alfred, son of Simon Stone, was born on the east side of the river, in 1792, but 
the month has not been given and there may be a mistake as to the year. 
' 9 



GG LANDMARKS OF iMONROE COI'NTY. 

each traveler took his place in this bed, with his feet toward the center stake, and his 
head toward the circumference of a circle, in such a manner that the sleepers were 
ranged symmetrically, like the spokes of a wheel or the sticks of a fan. After some 
hesitancy I introduced myself into this machine, and was falling asleep when I was 
rudely awakened by the snoring of my grand diuhle of a Dutch guide, who was ex- 
tended fast asleep at my side, I never felt greater horror in my life. I threw myself 
out of my bunk, cursing cordially the usages of the first settlers, and went to sleep in 
my raanteau under the light of the moon." 

Three years later another Frenchman, still more celebrated, the Mar- 
quis de Talleyrand, was in this vicinity, stopping for some time at Mt. 
Morris, and after his return home he read before the PVench Institute, 
in 1797, a paper describing his adventures in this country, but no record 
of that document seems to have been preserved.' Still another tourist 
of that vivacious race, self- exiled, like the others, by the dangers that 
enshrouded all the aristocracy, was here about that time. The Duke 
de la Rochefoucault-Liancourt, in his "Travels through the United 
States of North America, the Country of the Iroquois and Upper Can- 
ada," gives a minute account of everything that he saw over here. He 
alludes to Charles Williamson's complete authority over all the vast 
tract of the Pulteney estate, speaks with admiration of the enterprise 
that he had displayed in building roads erecting mills and clearing 
woodlands, and contrasts his glorious career with that of a dissipated 
courtier or a mercenary stock-jobber. Starting from Bath in June, 
1795, the duke traveled this way on horseback through Canandaigua — 
or Canandarqua, as he calls it — where the following incident occurred : 

" A party of Indians came to demand justice upon an American soldier, who had 
murdered two Indians from motives of jealousy and revenge. The business, however, 
was hushed up by the payment of two hundred dollars for each Indian, which is the 
settled price of compensation in such cases, and the soldier remained at Uberty. Not 
so, however, when an Indian murders a white man ; in this case the assassin is delivered 
up to the Americans and hanged. And thus it is that a people which makes its boast of 
honesty, justice and equality can connive at the most llagrant perversion of justice, to 
the eternal disgrace of both the executors and its victims. The treatment of the Indians 
and the servitude of the negroes have branded the fair face of American freedom with 
an odious stigma, which the government should strain every nerve to efface." 

Passing on to the Genesee river, the duke notes on the way the sur- 

' I have caused a thorough search to be made for that paper among the archives of the great 
national library in Paris, but it could not be found there. The reports of proceedings of the 
Institute for the troublous decade that closed the century are very defective. 



SeI^TLEMENT of the whites. 67 

prising fertility of the soil and the venom of the mosquitoes, but he is 
more interested in observing the manner and mode of living of the new 
inhabitants, of which he remarks as follows : 

'* The dwellings of the new settlers are commonly at first set up in a very slight man- 
ner ; they consist of huts, the roofs and walls of which are made of bark, and in which 
the husband, wife and children pass the winter, wrapped up in blankets. They also 
frequently construct houses of trees laid upon each other, the interstices of which are 
either filled up with loam or left open, according as there is more or less time to fill 
them up. In such buildings as have attained to some degree of perfection there is a 
chimney of brick or clay, but very often there is only an aperture in the roof to let out 
the smoke, and the fire is replenished with the trunks of trees. At a little distance 
from the house stands a small oven, built sometimes of brick, but more frequently of 
clay. Salt pork and beef are the usual food of the new settlers; their drink is water 
and whiskey, but there are few families unprovided with coffee and chocolate." 

The land on both sides of the river filled up less rapidly than had 
been anticipated. Still, the stream was steady, if not swift, and into 
the new region families kept moving, preceded, in most cases, by a 
father or an elder son, who would make a clearing and then return east 
for the other members of the household. When the Lusks came back 
in 1790 they brought with them Enos Stone, whose brother Orange 
came here a few weeks later and settled in what is now Brighton, near 
the "big rock and tree," that still remain on East avenue, the only 
landmark now in the county that is directly connected with Indian 
councils, some of which are known to have been held at that spot. 
There Mrs. Stone entertained, in 1797, the Duke of Orleans — afterward 
King Louis Philippe — and his brothers, the Duke of Montpensier and 
Count Beaujolais, who were escorted hither from Canandaigua by 
Thomas Morris, to see the falls of the Genesee. Later in 1790 two 
other Stone brothers, Israel and Simon, no relation to the pair first 
mentioned, settled in what is now Pittsford, and with them several 
others, whose names will, no doubt, be given in the sketches of the 
several towns. 

On the west side of the river the first settler after the Sheffer family 
was William Hencher, who was a refugee from Massachusetts, where 
he had participated in Shay's rebellion. In August, 1 791, he came here 
from the east, stopping at the mouth of the river a while with the tory 
Walker, then crossing the Genesee and keeping on to Long pond, where 
he build a hut, the first white habitation on the shore of the lake between 



6s Landmarks of monroe county. 

tlie Genesee and the Niagara. This he occupied with his family in the 
following year, feeling no security in that advanced outpost of civilisa- 
tion till Wayne's victory on the Miami river, in 1794, crushed the spirit 
of the savages. From that conflict the Senecas, who had gone westward 
to participate in the struggle, came back to this state in a humble frame 
of mind ; if the battle had gone the other way many of these frontier 
settlements would have been extinguished in blood and fire. That peril 
having passed, Henchcr found that his next danger of destruction lay 
in the rattlesnakes, which infested the country in surprising numbers, 
and it was not till he abated that nuisance that he feft justified in pay- 
ing for his six hundred acres of land a second time, his first title having 
proved defective, a circumstance by no means unique, as it seems. 

Oliver Phelps, having, in some way, got back one- half of the Twenty- 
thousand-acre tract, which he had sold to Hunt and others in 1790, in- 
terested his townspeople of Sufheld, Conn., in his western speculations, 
and some of them determined to become actual settlers in the new 
country.. In 1796 Gideon King, Zadock Granger and others, of the old 
town, migrated to this wilderness and made a careful examination of 
the river on both sides, from Allan's mills to the mouth of the Genesee. 
The beauty of the .scenery induced them to purchase land and make a 
location on the river bank, on the west side, about four miles south of 
the lake, at a spot where the depth of water would allow the passage of 
boats and where there was a smooth plateau, only slightly above the 
surface of the river and sheltered from the west winds by the high bluff 
in its rear, while a natural declivity close by invited the construction of 
a road to the upper level. In other words, it seemed the one spot on 
the river adapted for a permanent landing for lake vessels when trade 
and commerce should be drawn to the Genesee by the growth of pop- 
ulation. Three thousand acres at this spot were conveyed to King, and 
as much more to Granger, and then they returned to Connecticut, but 
their sons came on, with their families, at the end of the year. Although 
it was the dead of winter, the new comers built at once several log 
houses on the high bank, getting the lumber for the roofs and the floor- 
ing from Allan's mill, three miles away. In the spring of 1797 Gideon 
King returned to his new home, built a large house for himself and his 
family on the road leading from the present Lake avenue to the land- 



SETTLEMENT OF THE WHITES, G9 

ing, graded the steep roadway down the bank of the river, began the 
construction of a dock upon the lower plateau and died in the following 
year. Upon the monument, erected in 1830 and still standing over his 
remains in the old burying- ground near the site of his home, are these 
words: "The Genesee fever was mortal to most heads of families in 
1798, and prevented further settlements until about 1815." 

This little hamlet, the dock below and the cluster of families on the 
bank above, was generally known as King's Landing till 1809, when, the 
original settlers having moved to other localities, the seven Hanford 
brothers came here from Rome, in this state, bought a part of the land, 
erected the Steamboat Hotel, which for many years was one of the 
best-known stopping-places on the line of travel along the Ridge road, 
and extended the facilities of the dock by the construction of ware- 
houses, so that the place, which now exists only in memory, became 
known as Hanford's Landing. In those early days it stood apart from 
its nearest neighbors, as may be judged from the following statement 
from the journal of John Maude, an observant Englishman, who came 
through this part of the country in 1800 and stopped at Allan's mills : 

"As Colonel Fish, the miller, had not those accommodations which I expected, not 
even a stable, T was obliged to proceed to Mr. King's at the Genesee landing, where I 
got a good breakfast on wild pigeons, etc. Mr. King is the only respectable settler in 
this township, in which there are at present twelve families, four of them at the landing. 
Further improvements are much checked, in consequence of the titles to tlie lands here 
being in dispute. Mr. Phelps sold three thousand acres in this neighborhood to \lr. 
Granger for ten thousand dollars, secured by mortgage on the land. Granger died soon 
after his removal here, and, having sold part of the land, the residue would not clear 
the mortgage, which prevented his heirs administering the estate. Phelps foreclosed 
the mortgage and entered on possession, even on that part which had been sold and 
improved. Some settlers, in consequence, quitted their farms, others repaid the pur- 
chase money, and others are endeavoring to make some accommodation with Mr. 
Phelps." 

The town meeting was imported here from New England. In 1789 
all the eastern part of what is now Monroe county, except the present 
towns of Rush and Mendon, was organised into the district of North- 
field. In 1794 the same territory, without change of name, was made 
a town, and a school was established in the present Pittsford ; in 1796 
the first town meeting was held there, at which Silas Nye was chosen 
supervisor and John Ray town clerk. The west side of the river was 



70 • Landmarks of monroe county. 

not far behind in this matter. All the state of New York between the 
Genesee and Lake Erie was made, at an early day, into the town of 
Northampton — so called because six of the seven grantees of the 
.Twenty-tiiOLisand-acre tract lived at Northampton, Mass., the seventh, 
Justin Ely, residing at Springfield, in that state — and on April 4, 1797, 
the first town meeting was held at the house of Peter Shefter, at wliich 
Josiah Fish was elected supervisor and Kli Granger town clerk. Thus 
the nominal extent of the town was greater than that of many indepen- 
dent sovereignties in the old world, and the actual jurisdiction of its 
officers was by no means confined to the limited area of the Genesee 
valley, for the town records of 1802 show that one of the pathmasters 
was stationed at Buffalo, another at Niagara Falls, another at LeRoy. 
In that year the contraction of the territorial scope of the town began, 
when the legislature, by an act passed March 30, constituted the whole 
region Genesee county and divided Northampton into four towns, 
one of which, under the name of Batavia, took in the whole of the Hol- 
land Purchase. As different village communities sprang up in various 
sections other townships were stricken off from it, so that by 1808 it 
had shrunk within the limits of what is now Monroe county. The first 
voting west of the Genesee, at any general election, was in 1800, when 
Thomas Morris was elected member of Congress from this district, 
which then comprised almost half of the state; Lemuel Chipman and 
Nathaniel Norton were chosen members of Assembly for a district al- 
most equally large. 

I^ducation was not neglected in the new settlements, and the school- 
house came before the church. The first school was, unquestionably, 
located in the present village of Pittsford, the commercial center of 
Northfield, and it was taught by Mr. Burrows in 1794. A school- 
house was built at Irondequoit landing in i8o2, and in 1804 little classes 
were taught by Miss Willey in the present town of Ogden, that being, 
probably, the first academical instruction on the west side. It is more 
difficult to determine the time of the erection of the first church, or the 
formation of the first congregation, in Monroe county. At Pittsford a 
missionary from Virginia preached at some time toward the close of the 
last century, and in 1799 a log house was built, which served as a town 
hall and a place of worship, the Rev. J. H. Hotchkin preaching there 



SETTLEMENT OF THE WHITES. 71 

for six Sundays two years later. In 1809 a Congregational church was 
organised there, under the Rev. Samuel Allen. On the west side there 
was a great deal of preaching by the circuit-riders of the Methodist 
denomination, George W. Willey's log house, in Ogden, being used 
generally for their ministrations, and one of them, the Rev. Ebenezer 
Everett, became the first settled minister in that neighborhood. 

The roads in this part of the country were not made, in every case, 
at once, but often were merely Indian trails, widened in some places, 
leveled a little, here and there, in some spots and filled up in others. 
One of the very earliest, on the west side, went from King's Landing, 
ascending the bank and keeping near the edge till it got to Deep Hol- 
low, when it turned, wound around the bend of that creek and con- 
tinued in a southwesterly course to the Sheffer settlement. The next, 
perhaps, was from the landing a mile south of King's and just below 
the lower falls to the landing-place at the rapids. This was soon ex- 
tended on the north to the mouth of the river, making the present Lake 
avenue, and a little later on the south to Avon, for the purpose of in- 
tersecting the road from the east that crossed the river there on its way 
to Niagara. Possibly constructed before that road was one from Brad- 
dock's bay to the high falls, and at that point it met, though without 
any connecting bridge, the old road which, some time before 1798 (be- 
cause it is on a map of that date) came from Canandaigua. 

It was by the first mentioned road, with its branches, that the firgt 
mail service was maintained in the county, when Dr. Levi Ward, in the 
early part of 1812, obtained a contract to transport the mails once a 
week from Caledonia to Charlotte, which had been settled a few years 
before that and received its name from the daughter of Robert Troup, 
the agent of the Pulteney estate. Later in the same year a route from 
Canandaigua was established, the mail being brought on horseback and 
a part of the time by a woman. The service was only once a week till 
181 5, when Samuel Hildreth, of Pittsford, began running a stage and 
carrying the mail twice a week. In the following year the four- horse 
coach carried the same mails every alternate secular day, and by 1821 
there was a daily service, not only to Canandaigua on the east but to 
Lewiston on the west, beyond which post- riders were employed by the 
department. The first public conveyance in the county was drawn by 



72 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

an ox-team, driven by Gideon Cobb, who, in I 814, opened this means of 
transportation for passengers and frei<^ht between Rochester and the 
mouth of the river. In 1813 the legislature granted $5,000 for bridg- 
ing the streams and clearing the path on the Ridge road between Roch- 
ester and Lewiston ; the Buffalo road was surveyed and laid out as far 
as Batavia in 1816. 

No one doubted in those early days that at some time in the future 
there would be some large city in this locality, but just where it would 
be was a matter of doubt, and the various experiments based on differ- 
ences of opinion were productive of disaster. At first the dominant 
belief was in favor of a spot on Irondequoit creek, three miles above the 
bay, where Judge Tryon, of Lebanon Springs, built in 1799 the first 
store in the county, goods being brought to it from Schenectady. A 
tavern was soon afterward opened by Asa Dayton, a tannery was 
erected, and a local court was established, independent of any higher 
judicial authority. Things went well for a few years, but the tide of 
shipping flowed to the river and away from Irondequoit bay, and by 
1818, when the storehouse was demolished, "Tryon Town," for which 
so much was hoped, had become a thing of the past. Castleton, or 
" Castle Town," named after Isaac Castle, who had a tavern there, was 
the next venture. It was located on the west side of the river, near the 
rapids, at the foot of navigation on the upper Genesee and at the head 
of the portage from the navigable water below the lower falls. This 
advantageous position induced the belief that the future metropolis 
might have its center there, but the vision was dispelled when the village 
at the falls began to grow. Then came Hanford's Landing, mentioned 
above, and the arguments for its appreciation were the counterparts of 
those in favor of Castleton, while the reason for its swift decay was pre- 
cisely the same. 

More durable than any of these, and succeeding all of them, was 
Carthage, on the east bank of the river, and its proximity to the lower 
falls, with the mill power thus granted, was supposed to settle its claims 
as against all competitors below, while its comparative nearness to the 
Ridge road, which had then become a highway of travel, was considered 
to give it pre-eminence over Rochester. To span the river at this point 
a remarkable wooden bridge was built in 1819, which excited justly the 



SETTLEMENT OF THE WHITES. 73 

admiration of all who saw it. It consisted of a single arch, the chord 
of which was over three hundred and fifty-two feet, the entire length 
of the bridge resting upon this being seven hundred and eighteen feet 
in length and thirty in width and the roadway being one hundred and 
ninety-six feet above the surface of the water. Its span was longer 
than that of any other bridge in the world at the time, and, though it 
was built in less than nine months, its strength had been so carefully 
tested that it was expected to last for ages, but there was fault in its 
construction, for in a year and three months it was destroyed by the 
springing upward of the arch. It was succeeded immediately by a 
bridge built on piers a little further down the river, and that by still 
another, which stood till 1835. In 1856 a suspension bridge, held by 
wire cables, was erected on the site of the first, but it fell in seven 
months after its completion, carried down by the weight of snow upon 
it. The present bridge will be described elsewhere. A year after the 
fall of the first bridge the establishment of the county court at Roches- 
ter settled the question of predominance, and Carthage was content to 
be absorbed within the larger community. 

An incident occurred during the second war with Great Britain which 
produced much excitement at the time, and has been made the subject 
of numerous descriptions in prose and verse and dramatic representa- 
tions from that day to this. At different times during 18 13 the British 
fleet on Lake Ontario, under the command of Sir James Yeo, had been 
cruising off the mouth of the river, and in June of that year a small 
party had landed from the vessels and had seized some provisions at 
Charlotte. No resistance was made and everything was done quietly, 
but some fear was created lest the next visit of the enemy should be 
of a more formal charaeter, and include a devastating march into the 
interior. A part of a militia regiment from the eastern district marched 
down there shortly after that, but it does not seem to have stayed long, 
and the alarm subsided. It was renewed, however, the next year, and 
the precautions for defense were taken none too soon. 

The commander of the forces in this part of the state was General Peter 
B. Porter, and by his direction a company of dragoons was raised and 
placed under the command of Isaac W. Stone as captain. The enlist- 
ment was not large, for only fifty men were obtained in the villages of 
10 



74 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Rochester and Brighton, but eiitliusiasm seems to have been considered 
a substitute for numerical strength, as Captain Stone was raised to the 
rank of major, Francis Brown and EHsha Ely being chosen captains. 
Marching to Charlotte they found already there a company from Gates 
and Greece, under Captain Rowe, while a part of a regiment under 
Colonel Atkinson came in shortly afterward. They had not long to 
wait, for within a day or two the British fleet appeared and cast anchor, 
a boat was sent ashore with a flag of truce, and a demand was made 
upon the volunteers for a surrender of all provisions and military stores, 
with the promise to spare the settlements from destruction if this were 
done. "Will you comply with this offer?" said the British officer to 
Captain Brown, who had been deputed with a guard to receive the flag 
of truce. " Blood knee deep first," was the sanguinary reply. 

That is the story as it is told by some writers, with ornamental par- 
ticulars, and of course it has always been generally accepted, as pleasing 
to local pride and taste. But other authorities say that it was Major 
Stone (not Captain Brown), who made the more moderate and sensible 
reply, that the public property was in the hands of those who would 
defend it. General Porter, who arrived on the following day and took 
command, made a similar response to a second demand. Convinced 
that nothing could be obtained without fighting for it, Admiral Yeo 
raised his anchors and sailed away, firing, before he left, a few heavy 
balls that fell harmless on the shore. Why he should have retired with- 
out making an invasion is quite uncertain, for he had with him a force 
that could have overpowered, easily, the volunteers who were opposed 
to it. He may have been deceived into thinking that the number of 
the defenders was greater than it really was, or he may have thought 
that the plunder was not worth fighting for. That was the last alarm 
of the war, in this region, and the next struggle of our people was of 
a more peaceful character. 



FORMATION OF THE COUNTY 



CHAPTER X. 

FORMATION OF THE COUNTY. 

Original Counties of the State — The Evolution of Monroe — Straggle Over its Form- 
ation — First Board of Supervisors — Derivation of the Towns — The First Court House 
— Population of the County — The County Treasurers — Representatives in Congress — 
State Senators — Collectors of the Port. 

New York had originally twelve counties, which were erected in 1683, 
to take the place of the three " ridings," as they were called. The 
counties were Albany, Cornwall, Dukes, Dutchess, Kings, New York, 
Orange, Queens, Richmond, Suft'olk, Ulster and Westchester. Corn- 
wall, which embraced the present state of Maine east of the Kennebec, 
and Dukes, which consisted of the islands off the Massachusetts coast, 
were detached by King William's charter of 1691. Of the remaining 
ten, Albany was by far the largest, so large, in fact, that four additional 
counties were carved of it — Cumberland in 1766, Gloucester in 1770, 
Charlotte 1 and Tryon in 1772, making fourteen at the time of the Rev- 
olution. The severity againtst the patriots exercised by Governor 
Tryon, the last of the royalist rulers of the province, caused his name to 
be so detested that the title of the county which was called after him 
was changed to Montgomery in 1784. Beyond the western limit of 
this county lay the Indian territory, the debatable land, but, when the 
Hartford commissioners, at the close of 1786, gave the sovereignty over 
that region to New York, the western confine of Montgomery expanded 
to the Niagara river. In 1789 the whole of the original Phelps and 
Gorham Purchase — that is, all of the state west of the pre-emption line 
— was formed into Ontario county ; in 1796 the southern half of Ontario 
was made into Steuben, and in 1802 the county of Genesee was taken 

I These three names, as well as Tryon, have become extinct as county titles, the appellation of 
Charlotte being changed to Washington in 1784, and a portion of that county, together with all of 
Cumberland and Gloucester, going to form the state of Vermont in tygfi. 



7C LANDMARKS Of MONHOE COUNTY 

from those two, embracing all of the state west of the Genesee river 
and a hne drawn south from the moutii of the Canaf^eraga creek. 

As the settlements on the river and for a dozen miles on each side of 
it increased in population and in prosperity, it was felt to be a great 
hardship that the inliabitants should be without the facilities for trans- 
acting business that are provided by the presence of county officers and 
of permanent courts of justice. Canandaigua, on one side, and Batavia 
on the other, were each some twenty-five miles away from this imme- 
diate region, and in those days, when travel was slow at its best and 
precarious at its worst, the injustice of having to journey all that dis- 
tance to record a deed, to pay taxes or to attend court was manifest to 
those interested. By i8i6 the desirability of the erection of a new 
county became so great that in Rochester, small as it was and not even 
a village then, a subscription of nearly seven thousand dollars was raised 
to secure that result, and a petition to that end was signed by all the 
prominent citizens, not only in Rochester but in the adjacent towns and 
villages. Sufficient opposition of a selfish character was evoked, how- 
ever, to nullify the efforts of Colonel Nathaniel Rochester and Dr. Mat- 
thew Brown, junior, who went down to Albany to lay the matter before 
the legislature in 1817. Little was done in the following year, but in 
the spring of 18 19 another committee went to the capital, only to meet 
defeat again, the opposing political parties of Clintonians and Anti- 
Clintonians being so nearly balanced that each was fearful of giving 
some advantage to the other side by the addition of new members of 
the legislature. 

Hope deferred only increased the determination to succeed, and all 
through the rest of that year meetings were held to stimulate enthusi- 
asm and to gather facts that should be convincing to the law-makers, 
the interest culminating in a convention of delegates from all the towns 
concerned that met at Ensworth's tavern in Rochester on the 2d of 
December. A committee then appointed went to Albany in January, 
1820, carrying a petition showing the shipments by the warehouses on 
the Genesee and stating that the proposed limits of the county em- 
braced between twenty-five and thirty thousand persons " and a very 
flourishing village of upward of fifteen hundred inhabitants doing much 
more business than any other in the state west of Utica." Another 



Formation of the county. 77 

failure ensued, politics again being largely answerable for the dismal 
result and the Assembly voting to defer the matter to the next legisla- 
ture. The members of that body were to choose the presidential 
electors, so the party leaders were unwilling to complicate matters by 
introducing factors on which they could not reckon with some degree of 
certainty. 

The final attempt, for which the most careful preparations were 
made, succeeded. Nathaniel Rochester and Elisha B. Strong were the 
agents who went to Albany this time, and the petition was presented 
first to the Senate, which gave a unanimous vote in favor of the bill. 
In the Assembly the struggle was very bitter, for, though a majority of 
the members were in favor of it from the beginning, the principal oppo- 
nents of the measure resorted to every parliamentary trick and device 
to prevent the inevitable result. John C. Spencer, then one of the 
members from Ontario, and Samuel M. Hopkins, from Genesee, disre- 
garding every principle of right and anxious only to preserve the rela- 
tive importance of the two little villages of Canandaigua and Batavia, 
in which they lived, made themselves conspicuous by their frantic 
resistance. In spite of them the bill was passed by a vote of 73 to 27 
and became a law on the 23d of February, 1821. The new county, 
which was named after James Monroe, then president of the United 
States, contained about six hundred and seventy five square miles or 
four hundred and thirty thousand acres. Its dimensions have not beeii 
changed since then. 

When the first board of supervisors met on the 8th of May, 1821, 
there were fourteen towns in Monroe county, represented in the board 
as follows, Rochester being then and for thirteen years afterward in the 
two towns of Brighton and Gates : Brighton, Ezekiel Morse ; Clarkson, 
Aretas Haskell; Gates, Matthew Brown, junior; Henrietta, Elijah Lit- 
tle ; Mendon, James Smith ; Ogden, James Baldwin ; Parma, Gibbons 
Jewett; Penfield, Henry Fellows ; Perinton, Reuben VVilley ; Pittsford, 
Simon Stone, second; Riga, Joseph Sibley; Rush, Peter Price ; Swe- 
den, Silas Judson ; Wheatland, John Garbutt. Five towns have been 
added since then, making nineteen in all. 

It may be as well to give in this place a statement of the derivation 
of all the towns, which, it is believed, has never before been presented 



78 LANDMARKS OP MONROE COUNTY. 

in compact form. On the east side, as previously stated, Northfield 
embraced, at first, most of the territory, being organised as a town in 
1794. Some time later — authorities differ as to whether it was 1798 
or 1808 — its name was changed to Boyle. Penfield was taken out of 
Boyle March 30, 18 10, and Perinton May 26, 1812. The name of what 
was left of Boyle was changed to Smallwood April 12, 181 3. Small- 
wood was divided into Brighton and Pittsford March 25, 18 14. Henrietta 
was taken out of Pittsford March 27, 1818; Irondequoit out of Brighton 
March 27, 1839, and Webster out of Penfield February 6, 1840. Men- 
don was a part of Bloomfield, Ontario county, till May 26, 18 12, and 
Rush was detached from Avon — then in that county, now in Living- 
ston — March 13, 1818. 

On the west side Northampton, as we have seen, organised in 1797, 
was reduced to the limits of the present county by 1808, if not before. 
On April 8 of that year Parma and Riga were separated from it. 
The remainder continued to be called Northampton till June 10, 1813, 
when the name was changed to Gates, and Greece was taken out of 
Gates March 22, 1822. Ogden was taken out of Parma January 27, 
18 1 7, and Chili out of Riga February 22, 1822. Wheatland, under 
the name of Inverness, was taken from Caledonia, now in Livingston 
county, February 23, 1821, receiving its present name April 3 of that 
year. All of the above mentioned towns belonged in the true Phelps 
and Gorham Purchase as indicated by the lines of Augustus Porter in 
1792. The land of the remaining towns was also included in the erro- 
neous survey of Hugh Maxwell in 1789. but it was afterward stricken 
out and sold to Robert Morris, when it became a part of the Triangle 
tract, in the Morris Reserve. Of these towns Sweden was taken from 
Murray, now in Orleans county, April 2, 1813, and Clarkson, also from 
Murray, April 2, 1819. Union was taken from Clarkson October 11, 
1852, and its name changed to Hamlin February 28, 1861. 

For the county building for courts and offices a lot was given by 
Rochester, P'itzhugh and Carroll on the site of the present structure. 
The corner-stone was laid on the 4th of September, 1821, and in the 
following year the building was completed. Instead of the slope which 
is there now, the land was leveled back for about seventy- five feet from 
Buffalo street (now West Main) and there a terrace was made six feet 



FORMATION OF THE COUNTY. 79 

higher than the first level. On the line between the two platforms ran 
the front of the court house, which was built mainly of blue stone with 
red sandstone trimmings and was forty-four feet wide by fifty-four 
long, with two wing walls, nearly flush with the main part It had 
two parts, each with a projecting portico supported by four Ionic col- 
umns, the south part, which was upon the upper level and faced the 
First Presbyterian church, having two stories and a base, while the low- 
est story of the north part was a full basement. That part was event- 
ually used as the county jail, though at first criminals were confined in 
a building on the west side of Hughes street (now North Fitzhugh), 
which was afterward used as a barracks. 

As to the population, the United States census of 1790 gave that of 
Ontario county, which then embraced about half of the state, at nine 
hundred and sixty, of which perhaps twenty-five or thirty were within 
our limits. It would be impossible to make an exact statement c v 
proportion of subsequent enumerations till that of 1820, when it was 
26,855. From that time it was as follows, the United States census 
being given for the decimal years, the state enumeration for the others: 
1830 — 49,862; 1840— 62,902 ; 1845 — 70,899 ; 1850— 87,650 ; 1855 — 
96,324; 1860—100,648; 1865 — 104,235; 1870 — 117,988; 1875 — 134,- 
534; 1880 — 144,903. There was no state census in 1885, owing to a disa- 
greement between the legislature and the governor. The United States 
census of 1890 gave our population as 189,815, but the enumeratiorf 
was manifestly defective, and a state census taken in 1892 showed that 
Monroe county had 200,059 inhabitants. There are probably ten 
thousand more than that now. 

At the first meeting of the board of supervisors Samuel Melancton 
Smith was appointed county treasurer and was rechosen annually by 
that body for some time, it is not known how long, for the records of 
proceedings are lacking for some years and in some others no attention 
was paid to the matter. The office was filled, after Mr. Smith, by 
Frederick Whittlesey, William S. Whittlesey. William McKnight and 
WilHam Kidd, the last of whom held it for at least six years previous to 
1849, when Lewis Selye, the first to be elected by the people, entered 
upon it, after which the list is as follows: William H. Perkins, 1852; 
Lewis Selye again, 1855 ; Jason Baker, 1858; Samuel Schofield, 1864; 



80 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

George N. Deming, 1867; Charles P. Achilles, .1873; James Harris, 
1876; Alexander McVean, 1879; John B. Hamilton, 1894 A list of 
the sheriffs, and of the county clerks, as being officers of the courts, is 
given in another part of this work. 

For the first session of Congress after the formation of the county, 
Monroe was, with eight other counties, in the twenty- first district ; for 
the next ten years it was in the twenty-seventh district, with Livings- 
ton county ; for the next thirty years it formed a district by itself, first 
as the twenty-eighth, then as the twenty-ninth ; for the next twenty 
years it was with Orleans, first as the twenty-eighth, then as the 
thirtieth; since 1883 it has constituted, by itself, the thirtieth district. 
The first Representative who lived in this county (with the exception 
of William B. Rochester, who was a resident of Allegany county while 
he was a mej''j^. ot Congress, though he lived here afterward) was 
^^iiiei D. Barnard, elected in 1826. His successors, with the year of 
their election, were as follows: Timothy Childs, 1828, 1834, 1836 and 
1840; Frederick Whittlesey, 1830 and 1832; Thomas Kempshall, 
1838; Thomas J. Patterson, 1842; Elias B. Holmes, 1844 and 1846; 
Abram M. Schermerhorn, 1848 and 1850; Azariah Boody, 1852; 
Davis Carpenter (to succeed Boody, resigned), 1853 ; John Williams, 
1854; Samuel G, Andrews, 1856; Alfred Ely, 1858 and i86o; Free- 
man Clarke, 1862, 1870 and 1872; Roswell Hart, 1864; Lewis Selye, 
1866; Noah Davis, junior (of Orleans), 1868; John M. Davy, 1874; 
K. Kirke Hart (of Orleans), 1876; John Van Voorhis, 1878, 1880 and 
1892; Halbert S. Greenleaf, 1882 and 1890; Charles S. Baker, 1884, 
1886 and 1888; Henry C. Brewster, 1894. 

It was not till 1844 that Monroe had a state Senator living in the 
county — P>edcrick F. Backus, who. after serving three years, was suc- 
ceeded by Jerome Fuller, elected in 1847; Samuel Miller, 1849; 
Micajah W. Kirby, 1851 ; William S. Bishop, 1853 ; John E. Patterson, 
1855 and 1857; Ephraim Goss, 1859; Lysander F'arrar, 1861 ; George 
G. Munger, 1863; Thomas Parsons, 1865; Lewis H. Morgan, 1867; 
Jarvis Lord, 1869, 1871 and 1873 ; William N. Emerson, 1875 ; 
George Raines, 1877; Edmund L. Pitts (of Orleans), 1879, 1881 and 
1885; Charles S Baker, 1883; Donald iMcNaughton, 1887 and 1889; 
Cornelius R. Parsons, 1891 and 1893. By the constitution of 1846 




.0 y~-^j4>^^t^il<>^ 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE COUNTY. 81 

Monroe (before that in the eighth district) vas made a senatorial ('is- 
trict by itself, and continued so till 1879, when Orleans was added to it. 
The constitution of 1894 restores it to its solitude and gives it two Sena- 
tors and four members of Assembly, the districts being equally divided 
by the river. 

An act of Congress, passed March 3, 1805, created the customs dis- 
trict of Genesee, with the port at Charlotte. The following are the col- 
lectors, with the year of appointment — all from Rochester, except as 
stated otherwise: Samuel Latta, of Gates (now Greece), 1805 ; Caleb 
Hopkins, of Boyle (now Pittsford), 1809 ; Jesse Hawley, of Gates, 18 17; 
Jacob Gould. 1829; James Smith, 1839; James K. Livingston, 1841 ; 
Joseph Strong, 1843 ; Lyman B. Langworthy, of Greece, 1844; Joseph 
Sibley, of Rush, 1846; Elias Pond, 1849; James R. Thompson, of 
Clarkson, 185 1; James C. Campbell, 1853; Pliny M. Bromley, 1857; 
Philander M. Crandall, 1861 ; William H. Crennell, 1865; John M. 
Davy, 1866 and 1872 ; James H. Kelly, 1867 ; Thomas Parsons, 1868; 
William Emerson, 1869; David K. Cartter, 1875 ; William T. Simpson, 
1879; Charles E. Morris, 1883 ; John W. Martin, 1887 ; Henry Hebing, 
1889; George H. Houck, of Rush, 1894. 



CHAPTER XI. 

DEVELOPMENT OF THE COUNTY. 

The First Deed Recorded — Lake Navigation — The Commerce of Carthage — Revenues 
from Customs — The Erie Canal— Its Inception, its Construction and its Cost — The 
Genesee Valley Canal — River Navigation — The Jail — The Second Court-House — The 
Penitentiary — The State Industrial School— The Deaf Mute Institute— The Aims- 
House — The Insane Asylum— The Bible Society — The Agricultural and Horticultural 
Societies — County Taxes. 

Real estate changed hands after the formation of the county more 
rapidly than before, and the first deed recorded in the new clerk's office 
was one dated March 19, 1821, and put on record April 6. It con- 
veyed, from Elisha Johnson and Betsey his wife, to Andrew V. T. 
11 



82 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Lcavitt and Charles J. Hill, thirty-seven feet and four inches of land on 
Canal street (now North St. Paul), corner of Mechanic street (now 
Mortimer), in the village of Brighton, the consideration being $ioo. 
The lot was purchased from Messrs. Leavitt and Hill in 1850 by 
George G. Clarkson, afterward mayor, who built there and occupied 
the house until some twenty years ago, when he sold it, and a commer- 
cial building was erected in its place. 

But the interests of the county lay on the water as well as on the 
land, and for a long time it seemed as though all traffic with the outside 
world must be carried on largely by that medium. Travelers might 
make the weary journey from the east or to the west over roads that 
were bad in winter and worse in summer, but merchandise, it was 
thought, could be more advantageously carried in marine vehicles. To 
go back to the beginning of lake navigation in connection with this 
locality, Charlevoix's vessel, in 1669, was probably the first craft built 
by white men that entered Irondequoit bay. The trading posts estab- 
lished near that point have been alluded to in another chapter, but they 
passed away and the whole thing was begun anew after the settlement 
of the county by the whites. Trade with Canada soon sprang up, for 
in 1803 over one hundred barrels of pearlash were shipped to Montreal 
from Irondequoit. About 1810 Krastus Spalding, a tavern-keeper at 
Charlotte, built at that point the first schooner, the Isabel, which was 
captured by the British in the war of 1812. In 181 i the schooner 
Clarissa was built by Oliver Culver on his farm in Brighton and drawn 
to the bay by twenty- six yoke of oxen, and a little later three other 
schooners were made by him and launched upon the lake. 

Steam as a motive power made itself known upon these waters soon 
after its introduction to the world by Robert Fulton, and in 18 16 or 
1817 (authorities differing on that point) the first steamboat on the lakes, 
appropriately called the Ontario, commanded by Capt. Eli Lusher, 
entered the mouth of the river, on its passage between Sackett's Harbor 
and Lewiston. The Martha Ogden was the next steamer; in a short 
time a daily visit was made at Charlotte (where the first lit;ht house 
was erected in 1822), and then the vessels passed up the river, stopping 
at Hanford's Landing, on the west side, till the warehouses there were 
burned down in 1835. After that, Carthage, on the east side, had for 



t)EVELOPMENT OF THE COUNTY. 83 

some time a monopoly of the river traffic with Canada, but even before 
that it had done most of the business, which was sufficient to warrant 
the construction of a gravity raih'oad, by which passengers and freight 
were carried up and down between the dock at the water's edge and 
the summit of the high bank, a car loaded with stone acting as the 
equipoise and being drawn up by a windlass when necessary. About 
1847 the road that was long known as Buell's avenue was run down 
on the west side, terminating at Kelsey's Landing, where a dock was 
built, and there also, the Canadian steamers touched, but without dis- 
turbing the maritime supremacy of Carthage. This lasted until after 
the middle of the century, and sometimes as many as seventeen vessels 
could be seen lying there at one time, to take on cargoes of flour and 
fruit for Toronto and Montreal. It is a little singular that the customs 
receipts at these various ports — or different stations of the port of 
Rochester — never equaled the salaries of the revenue officers till 1835, 
when they were about $26,000, and in the next year they amounted to 
$60,000 This sudden increase was probably owing to the amount of 
duties paid on 200,000 bushels of wheat which were in that year 
brought in from Canada, where the price was then so low as to make 
its importation profitable (even though much of it was sent back 
immediately after being ground), especially as all the farms in Monroe, 
fertile as they were, could not raise enough of the cereal to fill the 
capacious throats of the flour mills that sprang up in Rochester, Scotts- 
ville, Pittsford and elsewhere in the county. 

Long before that time the Erie canal was built. Apart from the 
vague suggestions previously offered in various ways, the conception of 
this great work was first brought clearly before the people in a number 
of essays in 1807-08, over the signature of " Hercules," in a Pittsburg 
paper and in the Genesee Messetiger, published at Canandaigua. These 
articles were by Jesse Hawley, afterward a resident of Rochester, and 
to him belongs the paternity of an enterprise that built up more cities 
than any other construction and connected our eastern seaboard with 
the great lakes which were then supposed to form the northwestern 
limits of any possible civilisation in the United States. In 1808 the 
legislature appropriated $6oo to pay for an accurate survey to be made 
for a canal to connect the tide- waters of the Hudson with Lake Erie. 



Si LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

James Geddes, beinj^ appointed to do the work, did it in the most 
ridiculous manner possible, recommending the use of Mud creek, the 
Genesee river, I^lack creek, the Tonawanda swamp and the Niai^ara 
river as parts of the channel. The matter slumbered for two or three 
years, then De Witt Clinton tiH)k it up in the state Senate and efforts 
were made to enlist Congress and then other states in the enterprise, 
but the war with Great l^ritain put a stop to the project. On January 
8, 1817, a meeting was held at Canandaigua, which was attended b)' 
many from this immediate region ; Colonel Troup presided, Colonel 
Rochester was secretary, and resolutions, drawn up by Myron IloUey 
and presented by John Greig, were adopted, reciting the supreme bene- 
fits to be derived from a canal. It was to the action of this meeting 
that the adoption of the plan was due. In April of that year the legis- 
lature passed an act authorising the construction of a canal from the 
Mohawk to the Seneca river. 

The work was begun on the 4th of July, 18 17, running west from 
Utica, and, as it progressed, the legislature extended the limits of the 
water-way; in October, 1819, the middle section was completed and 
the commissioners then gave out the contracts from Rochester to 
Palmyra ; as fast as one piece was finished the water was let into it 
from streams which it traversed and transportation took place at once ; 
the last part of the labor was hardest, that of cutting through the 
mountain ridge at Lockport and building the admirable locks at that 
place ; this took up all of 1824 and much of the next year; on October 
24, 1825, the guard gates at Lockport were raised, the long level east 
of there was filled, and the grandest work on the continent up to that 
time was finished ; the celebration lasted more than a week, beginning 
at Buffalo on the 26th, when, as the mooring-lines were cast off from 
the leading boat of the flotilla, with De Witt Clinton and other officials 
on board, its departure was announced by a signal gun, and this report 
was repeated by cannon stationed along the line, so that the news 
reached New York in one hour and twenty minutes ; at each important 
place the procession halted for the day, while festivities were indulged 
in, terminating at New York on November 4. 

Stupendous as this work was, it was soon perceived that the canal 
was inadequate for its purposes, its use far transcending all previous 



DEVELOPMENT OP TFIE COUNTS. 86 

conceptions. As originally constructed, it was forty, feet in width by 
four in depth, was three hundred and sixty-three miles long and cost 
$7,143,789. In 1838 the legislature appropriated $4,000,000 annually 
for its enlargement ; when this was completed it had cost, in all, 
$51,609,203; its width was increased to seventy feet, its depth to 
seven ; by straightening the line twelve and a half miles were taken 
from its length, and several locks were added, making seventy-two in 
all. Rochester was always largely interested in the Erie canal; of the 
nine engineers engaged in building it three lived in that place, then or 
afterward ; of the tolls taken, about one eighth were received there. 
These increased steadily for twenty- five years, after which they de- 
clined with almost equal regularity and were abolished in 1883, their 
abandonment involving little loss to the state. The canal was of incal- 
culable benefit in building up the region which it traversed and in 
developing traffic along its course ; whether it has outlived its useful- 
ness is a question. 

To connect this water-way with the fertile country through which 
our river flows, the Genesee Valley canal, from Rochester to Olean, 
was begun in 1837 but not finished till 1856. Its business never equaled 
anticipations, and after dragging along an unsatisfactory existence it 
was abandoned by the authorities in 1878 and sold in 1880 to the 
Genesee Valley Canal railroad company., now the Western New York 
& Pennsylvania. A short canal was constructed in 1837 from Scotts- 
ville to the Genesee and for several years it was of great service in 
getting grain and flour to market from the southwestern part of the 
county. 

River navigation was not neglected. On the upper Genesee, flat- 
boats, of the Durham pattern, propelled by poles pushed against the 
bottom of the stream, were in use from the rapids to Geneseo and be- 
yond, and immense quantities of produce were shipped to Rochester by 
the bateau system. These craft were supplemented, rather than super- 
seded, by a steamboat, called the Genesee, a stern- wheeler, capable of 
carrying more than three hundred passengers, which ran between the 
points named and performed its principal labor in towing the more 
tardy carriers that were worked by hand. Its captain was J. W. 
Phillips. After two seasons the enterprise, though alluring at first, be- 
came unprofitable, so the vessel was run over the dam and broken up. 



8G LANt)MARKS OF MONtlOfi COtJNTY. 

After the completion of the P^rie canal, the next undertaking that 
engaged the attention of the county was the erection of a jail. The 
original quarters on North Fitzhugh street were soon found to be in- 
sufficient, and in 1832 a new place of confinement was built, on the 
island between the river and the Fitzhugh and Carroll race, where the 
Erie railroad train house now stands. It cost, including the land, $12,- 
500, was constructed of stone, was one hundred feet long by forty wide 
and had forty cells. Within its walls were executed Octaxius I^arron, 
July 25, 1838; Austin Squires, November 29, 1838; Maurice Antonio, 
June 3, 1852; Ira Stout, October 22, 1858: Franz Jo.seph Messner, 
August II, 1871, and John Clark, November 19, 1875. Before they 
would go to the expense of building a new jail, the successive boards 
of supervisors allowed this structure to become so dilapidated that it 
almost fell to pieces, and escape from it was easy and frequent. Public 
clamor at last overcame their parsimony, and in 1885 the present jail 
was erected, at an expense of $56,419.91, which stands on Exchange 
street, immediately southwest of the location of the former building. 
One execution has taken place in it, that of Edward A. Deacons, who 
was hanged July 10, 1888. 

The first court-house was expected to last for a century ; it stood for 
less than thirty years, being taken down in 1850, to make way for its 
successor. For many years before that, in consequence of the increase 
in business, the county clerk's office had been located in a little stone 
edifice after the model of a Grecian temple, which Dr. Elwood and Dr. 
Coleman had erected for their office, at an early day, on the northwest 
corner of the court-house plaza. This was demolished when the new 
building was begun, but its companion structure, on the other corm r. 
at Irving place, which had been used originally as the law office of Vin- 
cent and Selah Mathews, but which for some time previous had been 
occupied by the surrogate, was allowed to remain till the time of the 
civil war. For the new county court-house the board of supervisors 
had appropriated originally $25,000, but, before the contract was given 
out, the common council of Rochester decided to unite with the county 
for a joint structure and the amount was raised to $61,931.35. With 
this sum, increased by $iO,ooo a few years later, a building was erected 
that was an ornament to the city in which it stood and a credit, exter- 
nally at least, to the county of which it was the capitol. 



DEVELOPAIENT OF THE COUNTY. 87 

The foundation, the steps and the pavement of the portico were of 
Onondaga h'mestone ; the superstructure was of brick, three stories 
above the basement; four imposing columns of stone upheld the roof 
of the portico; the west half of the ground floor, containing the clerk's 
records, was made fireproof twenty-five years ago. The edifice was 
surmounted by a wooden dome, and that by another, the two being'so 
proportional that the effect was pleasing, and upon the upper dome 
stood a figure of Justice.^ The corner stone was laid on the 20th of 
June, 1850, by Mayor Richardson and the chairman of the board of 
supervisors, the prayer was delivered by Rev. Dr. A. G. Hall and the 
address was made by Judge Moses Chapin. In December, 1851, the 
building was completed, and it was used by the county and city together 
till 1875, when the municipal offices were moved into the city hall, then 
just finished. Nearly forty- four years after its imposition the corner- 
stone was opened and its contents were disclosed. All those whose 
material was paper, whether books or manuscript, were badly injured 
by the moisture that had penetrated the cavity through the solid ston'" 
and the ink on many documents was wholly effaced. Several of the 
articles were those that had been placed in the foundation of the first 
court-house — one of which, a parchment containing statistics of the vil- 
lage, was in an admirable state of preservation — and it was intended 
to redeposit them in the third, but this idea was abandoned and, with 
the exception of the parchment alluded to, an old map of Monroe 
county and a few city directories of different dates, only objects relating 
to the present time were put into the new corner-stone, having been 
first put into an aluminum box and that inclosed in a copper receptacle. 

The ceremony of laying this stone took place on the 4th of July, 
1894 (after an old-fashioned celebration in the morning), with the full 
Masonic ritual for such occasions, under the direction of John Hodge, 
the grand master of the grand lodge, preceded by an address from 
Mayor Aldridge, an invocation by the chaplain, Rev. W. C. Hubbard, 
and an oration by George Raines, with singing by the public school 
children. For the new court-house, which is now in process of erection 
and which is to be completed by the ist of April, 1896, the contract 

' This was used in 1876 by the officers of the coast survey as one of the points of trianjarulation, 
whereby it was found that the meridian of Rochester is 77 degrees, 36 minutes, 50.97 seconds west 
longitude, 43 degrees, 9 minutes, 22.44 seconds north latitude. 



88 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

price is $295,343, besides $25,120 for the steam heating apparatus, and 
the future cost of plumbing, interior finish and other items. It is vastly 
larger than either of its predecessors, with a frontage of one hundred and 
forty feet and a depth of one hundred and sixty, coming almost flush 
with the sidewalk on West Main street, and leaving but little open space 
in'the rear between it and the city hall; with a high basement and four 
stories on the Main street front, eighty- seven feet in all ; built of New 
Hampshire granite all smooth-dressed and with a heavy cornice of the 
same stone ; Romanesque in general design, with four polished columns 
on the north front, guarding a vestibule that opens into a central court 
covered by a skylight ninet)'-two feet above the level of the ground 
floor ; the first floor will be used by the county clerk, the county treas- 
urer and the surrogate, the trial courts will occupy the second floor, the 
third will be taken up with the general and special term and the law 
library, and the fourth will be devoted to the supervisors, the district- 
attorney and the grand jury ; the edifice is to be fireproof throughout ; 
the architect is J. Foster Warner, the contractors are Friedrich & Sons. 
It took a great many years for people to learn that tlie jail is not the 
proper place for the confinement of convicted criminals, and it was 
1854 before the Monroe county penitentiary was erected. It was put 
up in that year at a cost of $22,707.60, but in 1865 it was nearly de- 
stroyed by fire and was rebuilt, a large workshop being added in 1873. 
The main part of the penitentiary proper is a four story brick structure, 
with two wings, the cells for the men being in the northern part, those 
for the women in the southern. A large addition, which was finished 
last December, contains two hundred and fifty cells, arranged in five 
tiers, most of which are occupied by inmates who were transferred from 
their former crowded quarters. Of the convicts, who average four hun- 
dred in number, though there were nearly five hundred there last win- 
ter, all who are able to work are made to do so during their term of 
commitment, greatly to their benefit, and, which is of less importance, 
to the benefit of the state, the expenses in most years being met by the 
receipts. Last year the income was $40,582.78, the outgo $32,343.14. 
Zenas R. Brockway was the first superintendent, and those who have 
succeeded him are William Willard, Levi S. Fulton, Alexander Mc- 
Whorter and Charles A, Webster, the present incumbent. 




^^^^ z^^-^^«^-2 




DEVELOPMENT OF THE COUNTY. 89 

Of far broader scope than the penitentiary, and with diiTcrent methods 
of treatment, is another place for the confinement of criminals — the 
State Industrial school. This was established, under the name of the 
Western House of Refuge, by an act of the legislature of May 8, 1846, 
$4,200 being paid for the site, the state paying $3,000, the citizens of 
Rochester $1,200. Under the supervision of William Pitkin, D. C. 
McCallum and Isaac Hills, commissioners for the purpose, the building 
was erected and inclosed, and on August 1 1, 1849, the institution was 
opened, with Samuel S. Wood as superintendent, Dr. H. W. Dean as 
house physician, H. H. Gofif as teacher and Elizabeth A. Taylor as 
seamstress, these having been elected by the board of managers, of 
which the president was Frederick F. Backus, the secretary and treas- 
urer Isaac Hills. At the outset the house could furnish room for only 
fifty, but wings were built on from time to time and other extensive 
additions were made, till the place became capable of holding a thousand 
people, though there have never been quite as many as that within its 
walls, and the population for the last year has averaged about nine hun- 
dred officers and inmates. The main building, with its wings, is three 
hundred and eighty-two feet in length, on Backus avenue, at the 
head of Phelps avenue, and just south of this, completely separated 
from it by a high stone wall, is the girls' department, with a frontage of 
two hundred and seventy-six feet, which was erected in 1876. In no 
other penal institution has so complete a change been wrought in tht 
system pursued. Created as a place for the confinement and reforma- 
tion of juvenile delinquents, it has become a school for their training 
and education, where twenty different trades are taught, where the 
original cells have given place to open dormitories and where order 
rules in'>tead of fear. The name of the reformatory was changed to the 
State Industrial school about twenty years ago. Mr. Wood was the 
superintendent for nineteen years, and Levi S. Fulton held the place for 
a still longer term ; the present incumbent is Franklin H. Briggs. The 
present president is Isaac Gibbard, the vice-presidents are Henry Lomb 
and Sarah H. Kuichling, the secretary and treasurer is John Desmond. 
The cost of maintaining the establishment is about $160,000 annually. 

Among the schools of its class none stands higher than the Western 
New York Institution for Deaf Mutes. It was organised in 1876 with 
12 



90 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY 

a board of managers of which the president was E. Darwin Smith, the 
vice-presidents were George G. Claikson and S. A. EUis, the secretary 
was Edward P. Hart and the treasurer Gilman H Perkins. The school 
was opened in October of that year, in the Mumford block, on the 
corner of South St. Paul and Court streets, with twenty-three i)upils, 
but before the end of the second year it had so far outgrown its present 
quarters that it was moved down to North St. Paul street, into the 
building previously used as the House for Idle and Truant Children, 
where it has remained ever since. A large jiart of the structure was 
destroyed by fire in 1882, but it was at once rebuilt and since then so 
many additions have been made that the property is now worth 
$125,000. Prof. Z. E. Westervelt was appointed principal at the out- 
set, and he still retains the position. To him alone is it owing that a 
new system of teaching was adopted twenty years ago, which involved 
the entire disuse of the arbitrary sign language and the substitution 
therefor of finger-spelling and speech, the deaf being taught tb under- 
stand the visible movements of the lips and tongue. This is uni- 
versally known as the Rochester method and it is now in use in many 
other institutions of the kind. There are at present one hundred and 
eighty-four pupils in the school. The present officers of the board are : 
George G. Clarkson, president; S. A. Lattimore and Charles F. Pond, 
vice-presidents; S. A. Ellis, secretary; G. H. Perkins, treasurer. 

In 1826 the first alms-house in the county was erected, a brick build- 
ing, with accommodations for nearly one hundred inmates, though it 
had only thirty-five occupants in its first year. Miss Benedict taught 
school to the unfortunate inmates in 1855. and four years later a 
separate building was put up as a school-house, where other charitable 
women gave instruction. The original structure stood until 1872, when 
a new house was erected, nearly fireproof, with brick partition walls and 
iron cornice, one hundred and eighty eight feet front on South avenue, 
with wings at the ends running back one hundred feet. The number 
of inmates admitted during the past year was 1,237, the average 
present at any one time being about five hundred during tlie winter, 
half that number in the summer. For the support of the alms- 
house during the past year $25,703.25 was expended ; $3. 522 was paid 
for outside relief of the county poor in Rochester, $3,209.29 for the 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE COUNTY. 91 

same purpose in the towns, which, with other expenses, brought the 
total up to $35,598.16. George E. McGonegal was the county super- 
intendent of the poor for twenty-four years up to the 1st of last Janu- 
ary ; the place is now filled by Clarence V. Lodge. 

Up to 1857 the insane poor of this county and surrounding counties 
were confined in a portion of the alms-house, but in that year a separate 
building was completed, Col. J. P. Wiggins and wife were put in charge 
and forty- eight: patients were moved into it. Dr. M. L. Lord was ap- 
pointed the warden and physician and held the ofiice for about twenty 
years Additions were made to the asylum from time to time, and in 
1872 a new main building was erected. In i8qo the legislature passed 
a law establishing the policy of state care of the dependent insane ; 
under this law the state purchased the asylum and all the land con- 
nected with it for $50,000 and changed the name to the Rochester 
State hospital, the transfer from one board of trustees to the other 
going into effect July I, i89[. There are now eleven of these state 
hospitals, and the system is generally recognised as beneficial to the 
insane. Dr. Eugene H. Howard is the superintendent of this hospital, 
and under his management the institution is conducted with ability and 
humanity. Patients are sent hither from other counties in the state, 
and the average population of the asylum is about four hundred. The 
buildings have been almost entirely reconstructed, with a view to 
meliorating the condition of the inmates, and the value of the property 
is now considered about $250,000. Of the board of managers the 
president is Frederick Cook ; vice-president, Jane E. Rochester ; secre- 
tary, E. H. Howard ; treasurer, Frederic P. Allen. 

On the 30th of May, 1821, the Monroe County Bible society 
was organised as auxiliary to the American Bible society, its sole 
object being " the circulation of the Holy Scriptures, without note or 
comment." Its first officers were: Vincent Mathews, president; 
William Atkinson and F. F. Backus, vice presidents ; I'2nos Pomeroy, 
corresponding secretary ; William Pitkin, recording secretary ; Levi 
Ward, treasurer. The present officers are : Rev. Dr. J. P. Sankey, 
president ; A. H. Mixer, corresponding secretary ; Edward Webster, 
recording secretary; O. D. Grosvencr, librarian and treasurer. 

Next to Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, which is the first, Monroe 



02 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

stands second among all the counties in the Union, according to the 
United States census of 1 890, in the value of its agricultural produc- 
tions. As far as can be learned, the first county fair was held October 
30, 1823, and there was a county society at that time, with James Sperry 
as president, but it must have lapsed, for the first Monroe County Agri- 
cultural society was organised May 28, 1840, Lyman B. Langworthy 
being the first president, Henry M. Ward secretary and Henry K. 
Rochester treasurer. In 1874 its scope was enlarged, and its name was 
changed, by act of the legislature, to the Western New York Agricul- 
tural society. The annual fairs that are held under its auspices, upon 
its grounds in Brighton, just south of Elmwood avenue, are creditable 
to the exhibitors and indicative of the fertility and prosperity of the 
county. The present officers are: J. H Sherman, president ; T. F. 
Crittenden, treasurer ; H. A. Kingsley, secretary. 

Akin to this is the Western New York Horticultural society, organised 
in 1855, of which the present officers are : William C. Barry, presi- 
denf; John Hall, secretary and treasurer It is the successor of the 
Genesee Valley Horticultural society, which held its first exhibition at 
the l^lossom House, on June 12, 1846. 

Of the 430,000 acres in Monroe county, 349,000 are subject to 
taxation. The total assessed valuation of the real estate is $134,203,- 
700, of which $98,759,400 is in the city, $35,444,300 in the towns. 
The tax levy for this year includes $334,356.04 for the county tax 
proper, $291,982 81 for the state tax, $114,353.94 for local taxes, and 
enough special taxes to make the total county tax $749,175.41. The 
state apportionment allotted to Monroe county for the support of com- 
mon schools for the year ending July 31, I095, was $117,77404. of 
which $80,599.73 goes to the city, $37,174.31 to the towns. 



THE COUNTY IN THE CIVIL WAR. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE COUNTY IN THE CIVIL WAR. 

The First Call — ^Monroe's Response— Our Regiments, Battalions and Companies of 
Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery, Sharpshooters and Engineers — Ten Thousand Men En- 
listed — Their Service in the Field — General Officers — Grand Army of tlu; Republic - 
The Veteran Brigade. 

President Lincoln's proclamation calling for 75,000 volunteers to put 
down the southern rebellion was issued on the 15th of April, 1861. 
Few sections of the country responded more promptly than did Monroe 
county, and few sent more troops into the field in proportion to the 
population. The census of i860 gave us 100,648, that of 1865 showed 
an increase of less than four thousand. Between those two years about 
ten thousand persons had enlisted, nearly, if not quite, one for every 
ten inhabitants, or about one-half of the entire voting population. 
There are several reasons why the number cannot be given exactly. 
One is that some companies or battalions raised here were credited to 
regiments raised elsewhere, while, to offset that, whole companies en- 
listed in other places were transferred to Monroe county regiments. 
But the principal cause of the want of accuracy lies in the fact that, 
toward the close of the war, when a certain quota was apportioned to 
each county, a deficiency in one county would be made up by the actual 
purchase of surplus enlistments in another, and sometimes the very 
county thus paying for outside recruits would find that it had an un- 
necessary number and would dispose of them in the best market. Be- 
sides all that, many actual residents of Monroe county joined the army 
in other places, where they happened to be at the time, while many en- 
listed here whose homes were elsewhere. 

Especially was the latter true in 1863, just before the conscription 
took place, and far more so in 1864, when another draft was ordered to 
fill out the last levy of half a million men. To avoid that, the county 



94 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

offered a bounty of $300 to each recruit, the city gave something more, 
and every town and ward an additional sum to fill up the quota, besides 
which large prices were paid by individuals for their substitutes, thus 
making an aggregate amount that was an irresistible inducement to 
many beyond the Canadian frontier. Thus our contingent was com- 
pleted at last, with foreigners and with those whose impelling motive 
was avarice rather than patriotism, so that desertion was far more com- 
mon than at the beginning of the conflict. Little more can be done in 
this connection than giving a list of the various regiments properly be- 
longing to Monroe, and of those in which our count)- had a company 
or a contingent that can be distinctly traced, together with a statement 
of the principal actions in which each was engaged. 

Thirteenth Infantry. — This was our first regiment, which has always 
been spoken of, with fond remembrance, as the " Old Thirteenth." Its 
nucleus was the old Rochester Light Guard, from among which Captain 
Robert V. Taylor raised a large part of company A on the very day 
after the proclamation reached the city. Other companies were soon 
enlisted in the county, under Captains Lebbeus Brown, Adolph Nolte 
(a company wholly German), Francis A. SchcL-ffel and Henry V>. Will- 
iams. These five companies were mustered into the state service on 
the 25th of April, and a few days later five more were raised, under 
Captains Hiram Smith, George W. Lewis, William F. Tulley, Horace J. 
Thomas (a company raised wholly in Brockport) and Carl Stephan (re- 
cruited in Livingston county, mainly in Dansville). These ten com- 
panies were transported to Elmira on the 4th of May and there organ- 
ised as a regiment, which on the 14th of May was mustered into the 
United States service for three months — though it actually served two 
years — with 780 officers and men, the regimental officers being Prof, 
Isaac F. Quinby, of the University of Rochester and a graduate of West 
Point, colonel; Carl Stephan, lieutenant-colonel; Oliver L. Terry, 
major; Charles J. Powers, adjutant ; Montgomery Rochester, quarter- 
master ; David Little, surgeon ; George W. Avery, assistant surgeon ; 
J. D. Barnes, of Binghamton, chaplain. On the 29th of May the regi- 
ment went through Baltimore, the company in the advance marching 
in full company front, the width of the roadway, to guard against attack 
by the mob. The Thirteenth's first battle was that of Bull Run, where 



TEIE COUNTY IN THE CIVIL WAR. 95 

it lost sixty-five men in all. In August Col. Ouinby resigned and was 
succeeded by John Pickeli, an old regular army ofificer, who left the ser- 
vice in the following spring, when Col. Elisha G. Marshall, also of the 
regulars, took the command. It participated in all the " seven days' 
battles " near Richmond, in one of which, that of Gaines Mills, where 
its strength was only 400, it lost loi in killed, wounded and missing. 
Having been engaged in the second battle of Bull Run, at Antietam 
and at Fredericksburg, it came home in May, 1863, with a loss in all 
its fights of 465 men. Its officers on the return were: E. G. Marshall, 
colonel; F. A Schoefifel, lieutenant-colonel; George Hyland, junior, 
major; Job C. Hedges, adjutant ; Samuel S. Partridge, quartermaster; 
David Little, surgeon ; Charles E. Hill and Isaac V. Mullen, assistant 
surgeons: E. M. Cooley, Mark J. Bunnell, Jerry A. Sullivan, John 
Weed, Charles C. Brown, A. Galley Cooper, Henry Lomb, captains ; 
James Hutchison, E. P. Becker, Homer Foote, J. Elliott Williams, J. 
M. Richardson, J. H. Wilson, John Marks, Edward Martin, W. R. Mc- 
Kinnon, first lieutenants; James Stevenson, James D. Bailey, Thomas 
Jordan, John Cawthra, Gustav Spoor, W. J. Hines, E. F. Hamilton, 
D. S. Barber, E. C. Austin, second lieutenants. 

Tiventy-fiftJi Infantry. — This regiment, though it had no enlisted 
men from Monroe county, was largely officered from the Thirteenth, 
after the former had become demoralised and its colonel, James E. Ker- 
rigan, dismissed from the service. The officers thus transferred wertf 
Lieut -Col. E. S. Gilbert, Major Sheppard Gleason, Captains Benj. F. 
Harris, Thomas E. Bishop, James S. Graham, W. W. Connor and 
Albert W. Preston, First Lieutenants Thomas Coglan and W. W. Bates. 
It was brigaded with the Thirteenth and passed through the same 
battles. 

Twenty -sixth Infantry. — This was raised mostly in Utica, but two of 
its companies, under Captains Gilbert S. Jennings and Thomas Davis, 
\A ere recruited in Monroe county. Its battles were those of Bull Run, 
Centerville, Antietam and Fredericksburg. 

Ttventy- seventh Infantry. — This was mainly a Syracuse regiment, 
with Henry W. Slocum as colonel, but one company was raised in 
Rochester, that of Capt. George G. Wanzer, with Charles S. Baker and 
v.. P. Gould as lieutenants. It suffered severely at Bull Run and was 
in the seven days' battles, at Antietam and at Fredericksburg. 



9G LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Tweiitj'-cighth Infantry. — In this there was no complete company 
from Monroe, but many men were enlisted here, and Charles H. Fenn, 
of Rochester, was one of the captains. Its hardest fight was at Cedar 
Mountain, where it lieaded a brigade that charged three times against 
the enemy's hnes, and after the battle only 150 men of the regiment 
could be mustered. 

Thirty-third Infantry. — Here, also, there was no complete organisa- 
tion from this county, although 240 recruits were sent to it from Roch- 
ester and its colonel was R. F. Taylor, transferred from a captaincy in 
the Thirteenth. It lost heavily at Antietam and at Fredericksburg, 
where it stormed the heights. 

Eighty-nintJi hifatttry. — One company from Monroe was in this 
regiment, which was raised principally in the southern tier and was 
called the " Dickinson Guards." Its first colonel was Harrison S. Fair- 
child, of Rochester. 

Otie Hundred and Fifth Infantry. — In this regiment, recruited in 
several of the western counties, there were three Monroe companies, 
those of Captains McMahon (who became colonel of the One Hundred 
and Eighty eighth), Bradle}' and Purcell. Its first lieutenant-colonel was 
Henry L. Achilles, senior, who was succeeded by Howard Carroll, when 
it was consolidated with the Ninety-fourth ; its adjutant was Daniel A. 
Sharpe — all three of Rochester. From the second battle of Bull Run 
Capt. Purcell's company issued with only thirteen men out of thirty- 
three ; at Antietam Col. Carroll, then in command, was mortally 
wounded. 

One Hundred and Eighth Infatitry. — This was the second regiment 
in the state organised under the call for 300,000 troops in 1862. 
Having been recruited in less than a month, it left Rochester on August 
19, under the following officers: Colonel, O. H. Palmer; lieutenant- 
colonel, C. J. Powers ; major, George B. Force ; adjutant, John T. 
Chumasero; quartermaster, Joseph S. Harris; surgeon, John F. Whit- 
beck ; assistant surgeon, William S. Ely ; chaplain, James Nichols ; 
captains, H. B. Williams, H. S. Hogoboom, William H. Andrews, J. G. 
Cramer, A. K. Cutler, F. E. Pierce, T. B. Yale, E. P. Fuller, William 
Graebe, Joseph Deverell. Receiving an ovation in New York city, it 
passed on to Washington and a month later was in its first fight, at 



THE COUNTY IN TflE CIVIL WAR. 97 

Antietam, where it lost nearly 200 men, among the killed being Major 
Force and Lieutenants Tarbox and Holmes. It distinguished itself by 
a furious charge at Fredericksburg, by its firm stand at Chancellorsville 
and by serving the guns of a battery at Gettysburg after the artillery 
men were swept away. At Morton's Ford Lieut. -Col. Pierce (who went 
out as a captain) lost an eye, at the first day's battle in the Wilderness 
Col. Powers (who had succeeded Col. Palmer, resigned) was shot 
through the lungs but recovered, at Spottsylvania and again at Cold 
Harbor the regiment was badly cut up and when it was serving in the 
front line at Petersburg it shrank to less than a hundred men fit for 
duty. On June i, 1865, it reached home with 169, the following officers 
being mustered out with the regiment : C. J. Powers, colonel ; ¥. E. 
Pierce, lieutenant-colonel ; F. B. Hutchinson, quartermaster ; Reuben 
H. Halstead, adjutant ; F. M. Wafer, surgeon ; Robert Stevenson, 
assistant-surgeon ; John B. Kennedy, W. H. Andrews, Samuel Porter, 
J. G. Cramer, S. P. Howard, A. J. Locke, A. J. Boyd, captains ; W. H. 
Raymond, J. W. Smith, John O. Jewell, Chris. Traugott, James West- 
cott, Alfred Elwood, H. F. Richardson, Solomon Fatzer, first lieu- 
tenants ; Alfred B. Hadley, John Galvin, second lieutenants. 

One Hundred and Fortieth Infantry. — Recruiting began for this even 
before its predecessor had left, and it followed that regiment in just a 
month, with these officers: Lieutenant-colonel, Louis Ernst; major, 
Isaiah F. Force ; adjutant, Ira C. Clark ; quartermaster, William IT. 
Crennell ; surgeon, Theodore F. Hall ; assistant-surgeons, Wm. C. 
Slayton and O. Sprague Paine ; chaplain, Charles Machin ; captains, 
Milo L. Starks, Christian Spies, W. J. Clark, Elwell S. Otis, Monroe M. 
Hollister, Benjamin P\ Harmon, Perry B. Sibley, W. S. Grantsynn, 
Wm. F. Campbell, Patrick J. Bowling; first lieutenants, Joseph M. 
Leeper, August Meyer, Bartholomew Crowley, Henry B. Hoyt, Patrick 
A. McMullen, James H. Knox, Henry E. Richmond, Joseph H. Suggett, 
Addison N. Whiting, Patrick H. Sullivan ; second lieutenants, J. D. 
Decker, Charles P. Klein, John Buckley, Alex. H. McLeod, Benjamin 
Ridley, Isaac Simmons, Porter Farley, Charles IT Burtis, Lewis Ham- 
ilton, Hugh McGraw. ' On the 8th of October it received its first 
colonel, Patrick H. O'Rorke, formerly a Rochester boy, a West Point 
graduate and an officer of brilliant promise. Though present at Yx^(^- 

]3 



98 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

ericksburg and Chanccllorsvillc, the first battle in which it sustained 
serious loss was that of Gettysburg, where it participated in the reten- 
tion of Little Round Top against all the assaults of the enemy and 
where Col. O'Rorke was killed and Captains Starks, Spies and Sibley 
were severely wounded, Lieutenants Klein and McGraw fatally. Lieut. - 
Col. r>nst and Major Force were successively in command till George 
Ryan, a captain in the Seventh regular infantry, was appointed colonel 
in August, 1863, and he brought the regiment to the highest degree of 
efficiency by his discipline and his care for the men. In a single charge 
in the first day of the Wilderness it lost nearly half its force ; at Spottsyl- 
vania, three days later, it suffered severely, Col, Ryan and Major 
Starks being among the killed, and at Bethesda Church it underwent 
further depletion, so that in less than a month it was reduced by 41 1 
out of a little less than 600. It was at Mine Run, Petersburg and 
Appomattox and came home with 290 men. The following were mus- 
tered out with the regiment : William S. Grantsynn, lieutenant-colonel ; 
William J. Clark, major ; Robert J. Lester, adjutant ; Eugene H. 
Shedd, quartermaster ; Henry C. Dean, surgeon ; Matthias L. Lord 
and George L. Menzie, assistant-surgeons. The muster-out roll of the 
line officers cannot be obtained. 

One Hundred and Fifty-first Infantry. — Although Col. William 
Emerson, of Rochester, commanded this regiment, it had only one 
Monroe company, under Capt. Peter Imo, First Lieut John C. Schoen 
(who took the place of Imo, resigned, and who was killed while lead- 
ing his men in a charge at Cold Harbor), and Second Lieut. George 
Oaks, who was brevetted major and came home in command of the 
company. In this company was Julius Armbruster, who, af the battle 
of Winchester, was shot directly between the eyes, the ball coming out 
at the back of his neck, yet he returned to the ranks a few weeks later^ 
one of the most remarkable medical cases of the war. 

Monroe Couniy Sharpshooters. — This company was formed in the 
early part of 1863, under Abijah C. Gray; it was known as the Sixth 
company of Sharpshooters and was not attached to any regiment. 

Third Cavalry. — During the summer of 1861 this regiment was re- 
cruited. One company was from Rochester, that of Capt. Charles 
FitzSimmons, which, with another company, raised in Syracuse, was the 



THE COUNTY IN THE CIVIL WAR. 99 

first volunteer cavalry mustered into the United States service. Four 
other ccnnpanies, under Captains Alonzo Stearns, Judson Downs, John 
M. Wilson and Nathan P. Pond, were raised in the county, mainly 
outside of the city, and another company, added just before the regi- 
ment started, was tliat of George W Lewis, who had been transferred 
from the " Old Thirteenth." The officers were: Colonel, James H. 
Van Allen ; lieutenant-colonel, Simon H. Mix (appointed colonel on 
the resignation of Van Allen in 1863); major, John Mix (appointed 
lieutenant colonel) ; adjutant, Samuel C. Pierce (subsequently lieu- 
tenant-colonel); surgeon, Wm. H. Palmer; assistant surgeon, TVed- 
erick Douglas. Capt. Lewis became ranking major; the junior majors 
were Charles P'itzSimmons, Jephthah Garrard and George W. Cole ; 
Alonzo Stearns and Israel Henry Putnam became majors; Capt. Pond be- 
came lieutenant-colonel of the First United States colored cavalry, and 
among others who gained promotion were Major Maurice Leyden, 
Adjutants George D. Williams and Wm. L Ogden, Captains Walter S. 
Joy and James R. Chamberlin, Lieutenants Milton H. Smith, Sherman 
Greig and John Gregory. The regiment was with Burnside in North 
Carolina and after that it performed gallant service with the army of 
the James. 

Eighth Cavalry. — This was recruited in the autumn of 1861 — very 
largely from the towns of Monroe, though enlistments were made in 
other counties — and marched away on Thanksgiving day. Its original 
enlistment was for one year, but the whole regiment was then mustered 
in again and served during the war. Its first officers were Samuel J. 
Crooks, colonel (who resigned the next February) ; Charles R. Babbitt, 
lieutenant-colonel ; William L. Markell and W. H. Benjamin, majors ; 
James Chapman, surgeon ; Rev. Dr. John A. Van Ingen, chaplain. In 
1862 Capt. Benjamin F'. Davis, of the regular army, became its colonel, 
but he was shot dead at Beverly Ford by an ambushed Confederate, 
who, in turn, was instantly killed by Adjutant E. Bloss Parsons. Col. 
Davis was succeeded in command by Lieut.-Col. Markell, he by Lieut.- 
Col. Benjamin, and he by Edmund M. Pope as full colonel. The 
P2ighth was in nearly forty battles and won its greatest distinction in 
charging Gen. Early's entrenchments at Waynesboro, where, under 
command of Major Hartwell B. Compson, it captured ten battle-flags, 

LofC. 



100 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

six guns and 1,300 prisoners. It returned lionic under command of 
Col. Pope and Lieut.- Col. James Bliss. 

Twenty -first Cavalry. — Four companies from Monroe, under Cap- 
tains John S. Jennings, William Godley, David A. Signor and James S. 
Graham, were in this regiment, which was raised in the fall of [863. 
Its first lieutenant-colonel was Chas. FitzSimmons, previously of the 
Third cavalry. Its hardest fighting was in the Shenandoah valley, 
where it was left as a guard after Sheridan moved on to Richmond for 
the last struggle. After Lee's surrender it was sent to Colorado and 
mustered out in detachments 

Ttvcnty second Cavalry. — Seven companies recruited partially in 
Monroe were in this regiment, which left the state in March, 1864. 
Samuel J. Crooks, previously of the Lighth cavalry, was tiie first 
colonel, but during most of its service it was commanded by Major 
Caleb Moore, who had been detailed from the Eighth, the two regi- 
ments being brigaded together, in Custer's division, and fighting in the 
same battles during the last year of the war. Among the officers were 
Jacob Fisher, A. K. Tower, James H. Nellis, Frank A. Callister, Henry 
P. Starr and others from this county. 

First Veteran Cavalry. — Of the twelve companies of this regiment, 
eight were raised partially in this county. It was recruited by Robert 
F. Taylor, its first colonel, in 1863, leaving the state in detachments, as 
the companies were mustered in. 

The Reynolds Battery. — By this name the company of artillerymen 
raised in September, 1861, was always known, though its real name 
was Battery L, P^irst New York artillery, as it was incorporated with 
that regiment after leaving Rochester. It served with distinction during 
the whole war after its enlistment, its principal engagements being at 
Front Royal, South Mountain, Antietam, Gettysburg (where it lost one 
gun, which, at a later period of the war, was recaptured and restored 
to the battery), Spottsylvanii the North Anna and Petersburg. Its 
first officers were Capt John A. Reynolds (who left the battery in May, 
1863, having been promoted major and rising afterward to be chief of 
artillery, first of the twelfth corps, then of Hooker's command at Look- 
out Mountain, then of the army of Georgia during Sherman's march to 
the sea) and Lieutenants Edwin A. Loder and Gilbert H. Reynolds, 



THE COUNTY IN THE CIVIL WAR. 101 

the last-named becoming the captain after the promotion of his brother, 
Loder having been wounded. The battery came home with the fol- 
lowing officers: George Breck, captain (brevet major); William H. 
Sheldon, D. M. Perrine and E. O. Kinne, lieutenants. 

Mack's Battery. — This was always the home name of an organisation 
recruited in the summer of 1862 and mustered in September 13. It 
was not attached to any regiment and its official title was the Eighteenth 
Independent Battery New York light artillery. Its first officers were: 
Albert G. Mack, captain; George H. Mumford and George S. Curtis, 
first lieutenants ; George P. Davis, second lieutenant. Franklin Van 
Dake subsequently became first lieutenant; Stalham L. Williams, A. B. 
McConnell and D. W. McConnell, second lieutenants. Its principal ser- 
vice was in the department of the Gulf, where it won the highest official 
praise. 

Barnes s Rifle Battery. — This was always the Twenty- sixth independ- 
ent battery. It left the state December 4, 1862, under Capt. J. Warren 
Barnes. Like the foregoing, it served in the far South, and was in 
Banks's expedition. 

Eleventh Artillery. — Recruiting for this regiment began in Roches- 
ter in February, 1862, under Col. William B. Barnes. Four companies 
had been raised, under Captains William Church, Seward F. Gould, 
Henry P. Merrill and William F. Goodwin, up to June 24, when 
they were hastily ordered to Pennsylvania, to defend the state against 
Lee's invasion. After that campaign those companies were transferred 
to the Fourth New York artillery, and others who had been recruited 
by Major H. B. Williams were put into the Thirteenth artillery. 

Fourteenth Artillery. — Of this, too, a portion was sent away before 
the enlistment was half completed, 200 being ordered off in July, 1863, 
to protect New York city against the hideous draft riots. On August 
15 they returned and the regiment was mustered in by companies 
during the latter part of the year. Its first officers were : P^lisha G. 
Marshall, colonel; Clarence A. Corning, lieutenant- colonel ; William 
H. Reynolds, major; Job C. Hedges, adjutant. It consisted largely of 
veterans, many of the men recruited in Monroe county having been 
members of the " Old Thirteenth." Having served during its first win- 
ter as heavy artillery in the forts of New York harbor, it went into the 
field as infantry in April, 1864. Its first engagement was at Spottsyl- 



102 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

vaiiia and its most brilliant achievement at Petersburg, where it stormed 
the breastworks and captured 300 prisoners, but in doing this Col. 
Marshall was wounded and Major Hedges was killed, being succeeded 
by Joseph P. Cleary. 

Fiftieth Engineers. — This was a regiment raised as the Fiftieth in- 
fantry, in 1 86 J, and afterward converted into an engineer regiment, its 
original numerical designation being retained — most absurdly, as there 
were only three engineer regiments from this state. One of the later 
companies, mustered into service in December, 1863, was recruited 
partially in Rochester. 

Besides the regiments named above, men from Monroe were in many 
others, so many that it would be difficult to trace out even those in 
which the number was quite ap[)reciable. All through the conflict the 
honor of the county was fully sustained by those of its sons who laid 
down their lives to save the country and b}' those who survived to en- 
joy the blessings of a more perfect Union. Those of our citizens who 
acquired the title of general were John H. Martindale, brigadier and 
brevetted major-general; Isaac F. Quinby, brigadier; Elisha G. Mar- 
shall and Charles J. Powers, both brevetted major-general. The follow- 
ing were brevetted brigadier- general : Harrison S. Fairchild, Charles 
FitzSimmons, W. H. Benjamin, John McMahon, Francis K. Pierce, 
Edmund M. Pope, Oliver H. Palmer, Elwell S Otis. The last named- 
entered the regular army as captain soon after the close of the war and 
rose in the service till he became brigadier-general. 

The organisations of the nation's defenders arc well represented in 
this county. There are twelve posts of the Grand Army of the Re- 
public, of which five are in the city — the O'Rorkc (which was the first 
in the state), the Peissner, the George H. Thomas, the C. J. Powers 
and the E. G Marshall — and seven in the villages — the Martindale 
post, in Spencerport; the Gates post, in Gates; the Goodrich post, in 
Churchville ; the Farr post, in Webster; the Slocum post, in Fairport; 
the Tyler post, in Pittsford ; the Cady post, in Brockport. 

These posts, together with various regimental and company organisa- 
tions, make up the First Veteran Brigade, which was formed in Janu- 
ary, 1879, for the specific purpose of maintaining the observance of 
Memorial day. The first commander was John A. Reynolds; the 
present commander is Henry S. Redman. 



A SKETCH OF ROCHESTER. 

BY WILLIAM F. PECK. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE GENESIS OF THE COMMUNITY. 

The One-Hundred-Aere Tract — Its Successive Owners — Purchased by Rouliester, 
Fitzhugh and Carroll — Sketch of Col. Rochester — Jeremiah Olmstead — Charles Harford 
— Enos Stone — The First White Child — The First Log Cabin — Hamlet Scrantom — 
Abelard Reynolds — The Postmasters— The Early Bridges — Business Enterprises— In- 
corporation of the Village— Its Officers — Its Population in Succeeding Years. 

In the first part of this work mention has been made of the One- 
hundred-acre tract. That tract, which forms the nucleus of Rochester, 
extends from a point on the river about four hundred feet south of 
Court street (or near the foot of the Erie railroad train -house) due west 
to a point near the corner of Spring street and Caledonia avenue, thence 
north to a point a little northwest of the corner of Center and Frank 
streets, thence due east to the river, striking it a little north of where 
the foot of Market street extended would be. Of all this land Indian 
Allan cleared only half an acre for the erection of the saw- mill and 
grist mill that were the first human structures in Rochester. On the 
27th of March, 1792, he sold the tract, so far as he could do so, giving 
to Benjamin Barton, of Sussex county, New Jersey, a writing empower- 
ing him to call on Phelps and Gorham for a deed of the land which they 
had promised to give to Allan and which was described in the instru- 
ment as running " northerly from said mills sixty-three rods also south- 
erly of said sixty-three rods from thence turning westerly so as to make 
one hundred acres strict measure." There being no deed of this land 



104 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

on record — and probably none was ever sii^ned — from Phelps and Gor- 
liam to Allan or Barton or anyone else, the document above-mentioned 
is the final source of title, which, probably, was strengthened, afterward, 
by guarantees in the various transfers. It is stated in the instrument 
that the price paid was iJ"500, New York currency, but that can hardly 
be so, for, if it were, tiie subsequent sales must have been made at a 
loss. 

Just before he sold the place, Allan installed his sister and her hus- 
band, Christopher Dugan, in the mills, and they were not disturbed in 
the course of change of title, as indeed the principal difficulty seems to 
have been to get anyone to live there, rent free, and to derive any toll 
from the mills. The Dugans, the second family living,- though not 
permanently, in Rochester, were very reputable people, in contrast to 
the Allans, who had preceded them. Christopher was in 1797 chosen 
one of the three pathmasters between the Genesee river and Lake Erie, 
while his wife, who had in early life been a governess in the family of 
Lord Stirling, was a woman of unusual cultivation, out of place in this 
unsettled region. December 24, 1793, Barton sold this One hundred- 
acre tract to Samuel B. Ogden, and he transferred it, November 29, 
1794, to Charles Williamson, as manager of the Pulteney estate. Dugan 
tried to get Williamson to repair the mills, but in vain, so the family 
moved away, and when Aaron Burr came here in 1795, to look at the 
falls, there was not a human being living in the neighborhood. 

A man named Thompson and another named Sprague were occa- 
sionally put in charge of the mills, and in 1796 Williamson spent about 
$500 in improvements and induced Col. Josiah h'ish to undertake the 
ofiice of miller. Fish built three sides of a log house, using the stone 
ledge for the back wall, remained there six years and was followed by 
a son of Gideon King, who came from the landing. The saw- mill was 
swept away by a freshet in 1803, and the grist mill burned down in 
1807, which was no loss, for the grinding-stones had been transferred 
before that by Salmon Fuller, the last occupant, to his own mill in 
Irondequoit. After many mutations of ownership the stones were 
brought to the city in 1861 and placed just south of the court-house, 
in 1873 they became the foundations for lamp-posts in front of the city 
hall, then just completed, and this year (1895) ^^^^Y "^^^^ imbedded in 



THE GENESIS OF THE COMMUNITY. 105 

the wall of a corridor of the new court-house, with a suitable inscrip- 
tion placed beneath them by the Rochester Historical society. 

In 1800 three men came to the Genesee country, riding on horseback 
from their homes in Maryland, whence they had started on a leisurely 
prospecting tour, not in search of gold or other productions of the 
earth, but to find a new country in which to settle and bring up their 
families. They were all men of means, if not of great wealth, all 
were in middle life, all had acquired honorable distinction in the service 
of their country and all were citizens of influence in their community. 
They were Col. Nathaniel Rochester, Col. William Fitzhugh and Major 
Charles Carroll. Of the first and oldest of these, as the one for whom 
our city is named and who did much for its establishment, it is fitting 
that a few words should be said. Born in Westmoreland county, Vir- 
ginia, February 21, 1752, he passed his ten years from sixteen to 
twenty six at Hillsboro', in North Carolina, where, during the Revolu- 
tionary war, he was prominent in military and civic capacities, being a 
member of the constitutional convention of that state and of the legis- 
lature, together with service in the militia, rising till he became deputy 
commissary- general of military stores in North Carolina for the use of 
the Continental army, besides being commissioned to superintend a 
manufactory of arms for the same object. Five years after the war he 
went to Hagerstovvn, Md., where he remained in business till he re- 
moved to this region, holding, in the meantime, the offices of post- 
master, county judge, presidential elector, member of the legislature 
and first president of the Hagerstown bank. In 1810 he migrated to 
Dansville, now in Livingston county — the calvacade embracing his wife 
(born Sophia Beatty), five sons, five daughters, ten slaves, two family 
carriages and three wagons with household effects — where he built a 
saw-mill, a grist mill and the first paper mill in Western New York ; in 
181 5 he sold that property and moved to his farm in East Bloomfield ; 
in i8i6hewas again a presidential elector; in 1821 he settled down, 
at last, in the village that bore his name, living at first on the corner of 
Exchange and Spring streets but a little later erecting and occupying 
the house still standing on the northeast corner of Washington and 
Spring streets; he was the first clerk of the county, in 1822 a mem- 
ber of the legislature, and in 1824, when the Bank of Rochester, the 

14 



IOC. LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

first in the village, was organised, he became its president ; he died 
May 17, 1831, universally respected by a circle that far exceeded the 
limits of his personal acquaintance. Messrs. Carroll and Fitzhugh 
moved to Livingston county a few years after Col. Rochester, but never 
came to the city to live ; the name of the latter is perpetuated in one 
of our oldest streets, but that of the former has long been blotted from 
the map in consequence of an unfortunate disagreement with the au- 
thorities over a question of riparian rights. 

These three men, after making extensive purchases further up the 
valley at the time of their first visit and in the following year, bought 
the Qne-hundred-acre tract in 1803 (not in 1802, as is stated in most 
histories), the contract being signed on November 8 of that year. The 
instrument, executed at Bath, was signed, as well as by the three pur- 
chasers, by John Johnston as attorney for Sir William Pulteney, John- 
ston having been substituted, temporarily, for Robert Troup, who had, 
in 1801, taken Col. Williamson's place as agent for the Pulteney estate. 
Seventeen dollars and a half per acre was to be paid, one- fifth in the 
following May, the remainder in four equal annual installments, but in 
spite of that the last payment was not made till 1808 and the deed was 
given in 181 1. 

The decadence of the mills has been noted above ; the settlement at 
the falls was obliterated and had to be begun anew, but, before that was 
done, a few other arrivals occurred in the vicinity. In 1798 or 1799 
Jeremiah Olmstead moved to this locality and settled with his family in 
a cabin that had been built a year or two before that by a man named 
Farewell, on Lake avenue, near the present State Industrial school. 
Olmstead produced the first crops raised within the present limits of 
the city, and indeed he may be called, in a way, the first permanent 
white settler of Rochester ; though the name, of course, did not cover 
his residence till many years afterward Charles Harford, an English- 
man, having purchased an interest in the Twenty- thousand acre tract, 
came here in 1807 and erected a block house on State street, near the 
corner of Lyell avenue ; in the next year he built a mill on the same 
side of the river, just south of the high falls, and for as much as four 
years that did the grinding for all this region. 

Mention was made, in the sketch of the county, of Knos Stone, 



. • THE GENESIS OF THE COMMUNITY. 107 

junior, who came here in 1790 but continued, with several visits to this 
country, to Hve in Lenox till March, 18 10, when lie came here to dwell 
on the east side of the river. He built, first, a log cabin, and then, in 
October, a larger house, on South St. Paul street, near Court — the lat- 
ter being the first frame dwelling erected within the present city lines — 
which still stands, inclosed within a more modern covering, on Elm 
street, whither it was moved several years afterward. During the in- 
terval between March and October his family lived with his brother 
Orange, near the " big rock and tree," on the Brighton road, and there, 
on May 4, 18 10, his son, James Stoddard Stone, was born, who died at 
Charlotte only three years ago and around whom two successive tradi- 
tions have clung, with a persistency that makes one despair of the 
truth of history. In every narrative, long and short, touching upon 
this region, published previously to twelve years ago, it has been stated 
that he was the first white child born in Rochester — meaning, of course, 
within the present limits of the city, for no one then thought of applying 
the term to that side of the river. 

But that honor, such as it is, belongs to the late Mrs. John F. Bush, 
the daughter of Isaac W. Stone. Her father, mentioned on a preceding 
page as the commander of our forces at Charlotte, purchased of Enos 
Stone (no relation) in 18 10 five acres on the corner of South St. Paul 
and Main streets, where he erected a frame house soon after Enos had 
built his; there he kept the first tavern in what is now the city, and 
there his daughter Mary was born, August 16, 181 1. After it had been 
shown, in a history of Rochester published eleven years ago, that James 
S. Stone was not born in that city at all, but in what is still the town of 
Brighton (and was then Boyle), it was written and printed and said in 
public addresses, from that day to this, that he was the first white child 
born in the county. Which is no more true than the other assertion. 
That initial infant was, as stated on a preceding page, the daughter of 
Peter Sheffer. After that a granddaughter of Gideon King was born at 
King's Landing in 1799 and one of Zadock Granger at the same place in 
1800, while three or four Stones (children of Israel and Simon) and at 
least one Agate were born in Pittsford before the close of the century. 

After Col. Rochester moved to Dansville, he visited the falls every 
few weeks, surveying and laying out the lots himself, one-quarter of an 



"108 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

acre in each lot. As he was the one who did all the work, it was evi- 
dent to the two other owners, who were still living in the South, that 
the honor should be his also, and at their request his name was conferred 
upon the village that he was determined to have here. That was early 
in i8 1 I, before a single sale had been completed. On November i8 
the title was passed from Sir William Pultcney, and two days later the 
first lot was sold, to Imios Stone, nominally for fifty dollars, but really 
the land was given to him to compensate him for his services as resi- 
dent agent. Fifty dollars was the price for some of the lots, thirty for 
more of them ; either was a low valuation, compared with other places, 
but the owner coupled with each sale the condition that a dwelling or a 
store- house should be erected within a year or the lot should revert to 
the grantor, with the forfeiture of the five dollars already paid. The 
third sale was of lot number one to Henry Skinner, of Geneseo, which 
brought $200, the highest price of any, for the lot was on the corner of 
Buffalo street — which was a part of the " new state road " — and Carroll 
street (now State) and was the site of the present Powers block. Ham- 
let Scrantom had come on from Durham, Connecticut, to settle in this 
country, and as he was stopping at Geneseo Mr. Skinner offered to build 
a house for him on the lot mentioned if he would occupy it and locate 
in the future village. The offer was accepted ; in May, 18 12, the house 
was completed — the first dwelling in what was even then called Roch- 
ester — built of logs, to be sure, but well roofed with slabs from linos 
Stone's saw-mill across the river. Into it the Scrantoms moved at once^ 
living there for a year or more and then building a house for themselves 
on a lot which they had bought nearer the river. One of the sons of 
this first family of Rochester was Edwin, a prolific writer of fugitive 
pieces on pioneer history, and another was Hamlet D., who became 
mayor of the city. 

The only one who could compete with Mr. Scrantom for priority of 
settlement in the One-hundred-acre tract was Abelard Reynolds, who 
came on here from Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in April, 181 2; bought 
two lots where the Arcade now stands, contracted with mechanics to 
build a two-story frame house for him, returned to Pittsfield, found 
there waiting for him an appointment as postmaster of Rochester,^ came 

' Since there was only one family then livinjj here, it niij^ht seem that the establishment of a 
post-otlice was in the nature of an official jest, but Col. Rochester was in earnest about the luatter 



THE GENESIS OF THE COMMUNITY. 109 

back here in the autumn and put up a smaller house on his other lot; 
then, in February, 1813, he moved his family — consisting of his wife, 
his son William A., and his sister-in-law, Huldah M. Strong — from 
Pittsfield to their new home, and there Mortimer F., his second son, 
was born on December 2, 1 8 14, the first white child born in what was 
then Rochester. After Abelard Reynolds recovered from the universal 
fever and ague, which prostrated him for the first six months of his resi- 
dence here, he carried on the business of a saddler and for some years 
opened his house as a tavern Neither occupation at all interfered with 
his duties as postmaster, and he held that position for nineteen years, 
longer than any of his successors, who were the following ; John B. 
Elwood, 1829; Henry O'Reilly, 1838; Samuel G. Andrews, 1842; 
Henry Campbell, 1845 ; Darius Perrin, 1849; Hubbard S. Allis, 1 853 ; 
Nicholas E. Paine, 1858; Scott W. Updike, 1861; John W. Stebbins, 
1867; Edward M. Smith, 1871 ; Daniel T. Hunt, 1875; Valentine 
Fleckenstein, 1887; Henry S. Hebard, 1890; John A. Reynolds, 1890; 
George H.Perkins, 1894. 

This opening year of 1812, though it saw but little growth at the 
falls, gave promise of what should be speedily in the future. In the 
first place, the bridge across the river was completed. Three years be- 
fore that, it had been petitioned for, and the legislature had received 
the request with shouts of derision, saying that only muskrats would go 
across the bridge after it was built. Finally, however, it dawned upon 
the legislators that, even though there were no settlers just at that spot, 
it might be well to have some means of transit for emigration on the 
new state road, without which accommodation travelers had to go to 
Avon for the nearest bridge or run the risk of drowning if they at- 
tempted to ford the river. So the bill was passed in 18 10 and the 
bridge was built in two years, at a cost of 5^i2.ooo, divided equally be- 
tween the counties of Ontario and Genesee. It was more of a stimulus 
than the erection of a hundred houses would have been, for it was a 
pledge of permanence, but its own durability was not great and it had 
to be replaced in 1824 by another, far better, built by Elisha Johnson 
at a cost of $6,000, paid by the county. Connected with this was a 

and he got the office created and the officer appointed through the influence of his old Hagerstown 
partner, Thomas Hart, whose daughter was married to Henry Clay. 



110 LANDMARKS OP MONROE COUNTY. 

market, built at a right angle to it, in 1827, and extending over the 
water of the river. Buildings were erected, a few years later, on both 
sides of the bridge, and these, occupied as stores, stood there till the 
structure was taken down in 1857. 

It may be as well to make, in this connection, a statement of the 
other river bridges within the city, except those that are now standing, 
which will be mentioned in another place. In 18 19 a toll bridge was 
thrown across by Messrs. Andrews, Atwater and Muiiiford, a little 
south of the present Central avenue, at a street put down on the early 
maps as Bridge street, but since then closed up on both sides ; it lasted 
only about ten years and was never replaced ; it must iiave been a 
perilous crossing, for when the Duke of Saxe Weimar came to the 
village in 1827, to see the falls, he hastily withdrew as he was about to 
set his foot on the structure, remarking that he had a wife and children 
at home. In 1823 the first aqueduct for the P.rie canal was completed, 
at a cost of $83,000; its west end was on the same spot with that of 
the present one, while its eastern termination was a few rods north of 
where this turns southward ; it was built of red sandstone, with coping 
and pilasters of gray limestone ; the blocks at the bases of the piers 
were trenailed to the solid rock, in which they were sunk, and each 
column was so cramped and cemented as to present the strength of a 
sinole piece; it was 804 feet long, built on eleven arches. In 1826 a 
bridge was built at Court street, by private enterprise, the same persons 
cutting the street through to the Pittsford road and at the same time 
erecting the Rochester House on the southwest corner of Exchange 
street and the canal, in order to draw travel in that direction ; another 
bridge was built there in 1858, costing $12,000, which was partly torn 
away by the flood of 1865, but after its repair it stood until the present 
viaduct was erected. The first Andrews street bridge was laid down in 
1838, by private capital ; its successor, constructed of iron in 1857, cost 
$12,000 and stood for thirty-six years. Mount Hope having been 
dedicated in 1838, the first Clarissa street bridge was built two years 
later to serve as an avenue to the cemetery ; it was of wood, with high 
partition walls between the roadway and the foot-paths and still higher 
walls outside of the latter ; the second, far better, was constructed in 
1862, costing $15,000. 



THE GENESIS OF THE COMMUNITY. HI 

The second year of the settlement saw the opening of the first store, 
built by Silas O. Smith and conducted by Ira West ; the first school in 
the neighborhood was begun, in Enos Stone's barn, by Huldah M. 
Strong, who afterward married Dr. Jonah Brown ; the Fitzhugh and 
Carroll race was opened on the west side ; Francis Brown, Matthew 
Brown, junior, and Thomas Mumford started a rival settlement just 
north of this, calling it Frankfort, after the first named, and three years 
later they finished a mill canal from the head of the high falls, which has 
been called Brown's race ever since. It was these water privileges, 
together with that of the Johnson and Seymour race on the east side, 
with the dam across the river, both made in 1817 at an expense of 
$12,000, that laid the foundations for Rochester's swift prosperity, the 
" red mill " being put up by the Elys and Josiah Bissell, on the west 
side, in 181 5 (the first building here of any magnitude), a cotton factory 
in the same year and the "yellow mill," by William Atkinson, on the 
east side, two years later. The first wedding, that of Jehiel Barnard 
and Delia, daughter of Hamlet Scrantom, occurred October 8, 1815, 
in a house on Brown street, near State. The first religious society 
(Presbyterian) was organised in 181 5, Rev. Comfort Williams was in- 
stalled as pastor the next year and the church was erected in 18 17, on 
the west side of State street, where the little gray stone building 
stands that was used as a banking-house by many successive corpora- 
tions. 

By that time Rochester had become a compact community, far out- 
reaching its original limits within the lines of the One-hundred acre 
tract and embracing, by ties of identical interest, the hamlet of Frank- 
fort on the north and that of Brighton on the other side of the river. 
By an act of the legislature passed April 21, 18 17, the village of 
Rochesterville was incorporated, on the west side of the river, though its 
confines soon became too restricted, as trade expanded in all directions. 
It lay wholly within the town of Gates till Brighton was annexed to 
it in 1823. The name selected was unfortunate, so distasteful to 
the inhabitants that it was seldom used even at the beginning and in 
1822 it was exchanged for the simple form of Rochester. At the 
village election, held on the 5th of May, five trustees were elected — 
Francis Brown, Daniel Mack, William Cobb, Everard Peck and Jehiel 



112 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Barnard. F"rancis Brown was the first president of the village, his suc- 
cessors being Matthew Brown, junior, John W. Strong, Elisha Johnson, 
Joseph IMedbery, Nathaniel Rossiter, Jacob Thorn and h^ietcher M. 
Haight. At the time of its incorporation the village contained about 
seven hundred people, for the first census, taken in 1815, gave a popu- 
lation of 331, and the next, in 18 18, showed that it had grown to 1,049. 
Successive enumerations since then have been as follows : 1820 — 1,502 ; 
1822 — 2,700; 1825 — in February 4,274, in August 5,273; 1826 — 
7,669; 1830—10,863; 1834—12,252; 1835 — 14,404; 1840—20,191; 
1845—26,965; 1850—36,403; 1855—43,877; 1860—48,204; 1865— 
50,940; 1870—62,386; 1875—81,722; 1880—89,363; 1890—133,896; 
1892 — 145,684. The present population (in 1895) is probably a little 
over 160,000. 



CHAPTKR II. 
VILLAGE LIFE. 



The Newspapers of Rochester — The Gazette and the Telegraph— The Principal 
Journals to the Present Time — German Newspapers — Sunday Journals — \'illa<re 
Churches — St. Luke's, St. Paul's and St. Patrick's— The Second Presbyterian— The 
Friends, the Methodists, the Baptists and the Unitarians — Lafayette's Visit in 1825 — 
Canal Celebration— Commerce and Transportation— Travel by Canal and by Stage — 
The Bank of Rochester— The Bank of Monroe — The Morgan Abduction— The A^'illage 
Divided into Wards— Directory of 1827— The Village Fire Department— Sam Patch — 
Beginning of Mormonism— The Cholera in 1832, and in Other Vears— Incorporation of 
the City — List of the Oflicials and their Successors. 

Compared with what it is to-day, the power of the press was slight 
in the early time of the republic, but even then it made itself felt quite 
on the frontiers of civilisation, and in every well-settled community the 
newspaper followed close upon the heels of the school-house and the 
church. In the year before the incorporation of the village a weekly 
paper liad been started in the little place — the Rochester Gazette, pub- 
lished by Dauby and Sheldon — two years later, on the 7th of July, 18 18, 
Everard Peck & Co. established the second weekly here, entitled the 




Z^£^(A^^ K^Ek^€uM^ 



VILLAGE LIFE. 113 

Rochester TelegrapJi, and in October", 1826, the Rochester Daily Ad- 
vertiser appeared, issued by Luther Tucker & Co. There can be no 
better point from which to consider the progress of journalism to the 
present time. The Gazette, edited by Augustine G. Dauby and printed 
at first on the east corner of West Main and Aqueduct streets, was 
never remunerative and was sold in March, 1 821, to Levi VV. and Deritk 
Sibley, who changed its name to the Monroe Republican; four years 
later it came into the possession of Edwin Scrantom and others, and in 
1827 its independent existence ceased. The Telegraph was more pros- 
perous ; in 1824 it was enlarged under the editorial management of 
Thurlow Weed, who then began the journalistic and political career in 
which he attained a power never equaled in this country by anyone 
else not in official station ; the next year he purchased the property from 
Mr. Peck, the paper became a semi- weekly in 1827, and in 1829, hav- 
ing in the meantime absorbed a small sheet called the Album, it became 
merged in the Advertiser. 

This last named journal, the first daily paper in the state west of 
Albany, had from its beginning issued also a weekly named the Roch- 
ester Mercury, and when the Telegraph was consolidated with it the 
regular hebdomadal edition became known as the Rochester Republican. 
So many changes occurred afterward in the editorial and proprietary 
departments that only the principal ones can be noted here, and the 
same restriction will apply to other journals that shall be mentioned.' 
In 1830 Hoyt & Porter became the owners and Henry O'Reilly was the 
editor till 1838, when he became postmaster; in 1845 Isaac Butts be- 
came the sole owner and editor, and the paper in 1848 supported the 
Free Soil candidate of that faction of the Democratic party for the 
presidency ; Gen. Taylor, the Whig nominee, having been elected, Mr. 
Butts sold the paper to the Hunker element, by whom it was consoli- 
dated with the Daily Courier, E. Darwin Smith and Horatio G. Warner 
being the editors, J. Medbery & Co, the publishers. In 1857 the paper 
was consolidated with the Daily Union, which had made its first ap- 
pearance on August 16, 1852, the original publishers of the joint con- 
cern being Isaac Butts, Joseph Curtis and John E Morey, with Mr. 
Butts as political editor, George G. Cooper as local editor; in 1864 
Mr. Butts retired, giving place to William Purcell; after the retirement 

15 



114 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

of Mr. Cooper, in 1872, the city editorship was filled by George H. 
Lane, George Moss and David L, Hill, successively; in 1873 a stock 
company was formed, the publishers and editors becoming shareholders, 
and the paper is still issued by the Union & Advertiser company, with 
William F. Balkam as business manager ; William Purcell is the editor, 
Albert R. Haven associate ; Pierre Purcell city editor. 

What was originally the National Republican — started as a weekly 
by Sydney Smith in 1831 — became, by consolidation with the Anti- 
Masonic Inquirer, which had been edited for six years by Thurlow 
Weed, the Rochester Daily Democrat, the first number of which was 
issued on February 18, 1834, by Shepard & Strong ; soon afterward 
George Dawson purchased an interest and became the editor, being 
succeeded by Henry Cook, who was followed by Samuel P. Allen. In 
December, 1857, the paper absorbed the Rochester American, the firm 
becoming Strong, Allen & Huntington ; Mr. Allen resigned the editor- 
ship in April, 1864, and after a brief ownership by William S. King & 
Co., with George S. Tuckerman as editor, the journal passed into the 
possession of D. D. S. Brown & Co in 1865, Robert Carter taking the 
editorial management and holding it for four years. On December i, 
1870, the name was changed to the Democrat & Chro)iicle, the latter 
paper having been purchased by Freeman Clarke, and both journals 
turned in to the stock company that was formed under the name of the 
Rochester Printing company, Stephen C. Hutchins being the editor till 
January, 1873, succeeded by Joseph O'Connor and he by Charles E, 
Fitch, who assumed the position November of that year and held it till 
1889, resigning on his appointment as collector of internal revenue. 
The publication of a Sunday edition was begun July 29, 1879, which, 
having continued for some years, was dropped and then resumed aifter 
an interval ; Ernest R. Willard is now the editor of the paper, with 
Henry C. Maine and Oliver S Adams as associates, George F. Warren 
as assistant and Walter Buell as city editor. 

Of the two other papers mentioned in the preceding paragraph, the 
Daily American was established on December 23, 1844, by Leonard 
W. Jerome and Josiah M. Patterson, Lawrence R. Jerome being admit- 
ted to the firm a year later ; begun as a Whig paper, it became a 
"Know-Nothing" journal when that party sprang up; Alexander 



^ VILLAGE LIFE. 115 

Mann, assisted afterward by Dr. Daniel Lee and Reuben D. Jones, was 
the editor from the beginning and until 1856, when he was succeeded 
by Chester P. Dewey, who was in the chair when the separate life of the 
paper ceased. Owing to factional quarrels in the Republican party, the 
Daily Chronicle was started in November, 1868, its sole owner being 
Louis Selye, then member of Congress ; during the whole period of its 
existence of two years Charles S. Collins, who for a long time before 
that had been at the head of the local department of the Democrat, was 
its editor, with William F. Peck and Henry C. Daniels, the veteran city 
editor of the Express, as his associates, and Isaac M. Gregory, now the 
editor oi Judge, for the same period after the first two months. 

In the autumn of 1859 Charles W. Hebard began the publication of 
the Times, the name being changed a few months later to the Evening 
Express, which was sold for one cent and devoted largely to the inter- 
ests of the workingmen ; in the next year the price was raised to two 
cents and the paper became distinctively Republican, with Francis S, 
Rew as its editor and, a year later, William J. Fowler as his associate ; 
in 1865 the Wilder brothers (A. Carter and D. Webster) became half 
owners of it, Webster going on to the editorial staff; in 1874, the 
Wilders having withdrawn, the paper passed into the hands of a stock 
company, and in 1882 into those of another, the name being changed 
to the Post Express and Daniel T. Hunt becoming the business manager, 
with George H. Ellwanger as managing editor ; George T. Lanigan' 
was the editor for one year, then Isaac H. Bromley, then William Mill 
Butler, then Joseph O'Connor, who took the editorial charge in 1886, 
when the paper became independent in politics; a reorganisation of the 
company was effected in 1889 and still another in 1894, by the last of 
which Louis Wiley became the business manager; the principal mem- 
bers of the journalistic staff at this time are Joseph O'Connor, editor; 
William H. Samson, associate; Charles M. Robinson, assistant; Jacob 
A. Hoekstra, city editor; George S. Crittenden, news editor. 

On the 5th of August, 1879, the first issue of the Rochester Morning 
Herald Si^Y^Qdixed, published by a company almost all the members of 
which were editorially connected with it ; Samuel H. Lowe was the 
editor-in-chief, Samuel D. Lee the managing editor, C. Smith Benjamin 
city editor, Jacob A. Hoekstra taking the place of the last-named after 



no LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

tlie first three months; three years after its inception tlie patronage of 
the paper increased so much that it removed from Smith's arcade, 
wiiere it started, to its present building on Exchange street ; soon 
thereafter it began the pubhcation of a Sunday edition, which has never 
been intermitted ; in the fall of 1892 its original owners sold the paper 
to another company, by which change it became Democratic in politics 
and its name was altered by dropping out the word Morning; Mr. 
Lowe retired from the editorship nnd was succeeded by John B. Howe, 
besides whom the present editors are Franklin P. Smith, associate and 
managing editor, and Robert K. Beach, city editor ; Louis M. Antisdale 
is the business manager. 

The Rochester Daily Times was started a few years ago as a work- 
ingmen's paper ; it has always been issued at noon ; it consists of four 
pages, and it is sold for one cent ; its present business manager is 
G. A. Tanner. 

A German paper was issued here in 1S48, called the Allgemcine 
Handelsblatt, and another, named the Anrjeiger des Nordens, was estab- 
lished in 1852, but both expired within a few years. In 1852 the 
Beobachter am Genesee appeared as a weekly, published by Blauw & 
Haass ; four years later Adolpli Nolte became the editor and proprietor, 
dropping the last two words of its title; since 1864 it has been issued 
as a daily; in 1883 it became consolidated with another journal, 
started the year before, the nayie of the new concern becoming the 
Abend-Post 7ind Beobachter; Herman Pfiifflin is the present editor, 
Julius StoU the publisher; it has a Sunday and weekly edition. 

As an offset to the foregoing, which was always Republican in poli- 
tics, the Rochester Volksblatt came into existence in 1853 as a Demo- 
cratic journal ; it was published by \V. L. Kurtz and was a daily issue 
from the beginning ; some years later Louis W, l^randt became the 
possessor and the editor of it and remained so until his death in 1881 ; 
his widow sold it in 1883 to Dr. Edward H. Makk, who has owned and 
edited it since then ; it publishes a Sunday and a weekly edition. 

Sunday journalism was a thing unknown in Rochester till 1 871, when 
Charles S. Collins, mentioned above, started the News Letter as editor 
and publisher, but he went to Troy in less than a year, when the prop- 
erty was purchased by others and the paper became the Snnday Times, 



VILLAGE LIl^E. 117 

continuing under that appellation, with a great number of successive 
owners and etlitors, till 1878, when the title was changed to the Sunday 
Tribune and it so remained till the enterprise was abandoned in 1882. 
The Sunday Morning Herald, which never had any connection with 
the daily of a similar name (except that they occupied the same rooms 
and used the same press for two years) began publication in 1876 under 
Barber & Benjamin ; Joseph L. Luckey became the editor a little later 
and continued so for several years; the journal was discontinued a year 
ago. The Sunday Truth was begun in 1880, under the editorship of 
Hume H. Gale and was maintained for several years in the labor in- 
terest. 

In the foregoing record of Rochester newspapers it may be observed 
that no mention has been made of the evanescent periodicals that 
sprang up from time to time and passed away, having served their pur- 
pose or ending in the disappointment of their projectors. The multi- 
tude of these, most of which were very short lived, precludes even a 
classification of them in this place. Neither is it deemed worth while 
to give any account of the special papers that are published iiere to 
further some particular cause — religious, educational, industrial or other- 
wise — for they are not newspapers in any sense of the term. 

To return to our village. The first Episcopah'an society was formed 
and the parish organised, as St. Luke's, by the efforts of the Rev. H. 
U. Onderdonk, in 1 8 17, although the Rev. Francis H, Cuming, the 
first rector, did not enter upon his duties till 1820, when the church 
building was erected ; this was a wooden structure standing in the rear 
of the present stone edifice on Fitziiugh street, wliich was built three 
years later. In 1822 the Friends (or Quakers) built their meeting- 
house, on Fitzhugh street, near Allen ; Isaac Colvin was clerk of the 
meetings. In the same year the Methodists began theirs, on St. Paul 
street, just south of the present site of the opera house, but it was 
1826 before it was finished and dedicated ; in 183 I the same society, its 
numbers having increased, built a spacious tabernacle on the corner of 
Fitzhugh and West Main streets, which was burned in 1835 and an- 
other erected just four years later, which stood till 1854; the first class- 
leader was the Rev. Elisha House. St. Patrick's church, the predeces- 
sor of the cathedral, was completed by the Roman Catholics in 1823, 



118 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

the Rev. Patrick Kelly being then the pastor of the congregation , 
though the Rev. Patrick McCormick was the first priest of the society 
in i8i8. In 1825 the F"irst Presbyterian society, being cramped for 
room, erected its church in the rear of the court-house (where the city 
hall now stands) and gave up its former quarters to the Second Presby- 
terian society, under the pastorate of the Rev. William James, which 
occupied them till the Brick church was built in 1828. In 1826 the 
Dissenting Methodists began the erection of a chapel. In 1828 the 
Baptists, having met in different places for a few years before that, pur- 
chased and occupied, under the ministrations of the Rev. Dr. O. C. 
Comstock, the building on State street that had been used by the two 
Presbvterian societies, and there they remained till 1839, when they 
built on Fitzhugh street. St. Paul's Episcopal church was begun in 
1828, but not finished till 1830, when it was consecrated, with the Rev. 
Sutherland Douglass as the first rector. In 1829 the Unitarians, 
having purchased the old wooden building originally used by St. Luke's 
people, moved it to West Main street, near Sophia, and occupied it for 
a year or two, with the Rev James D Green as pastor, when the 
society was disbanded; it was not reorganised till 1841 and the church 
was built, in the following year, on Fitzhugh street, where St. Paul's 
German church now stands. About 1829 (the records do not show just 
when), during the pastorate of the Rev. Dr. Joel Parker, the Third 
Presbyterian society, which had been formed in 1826, built on the 
northeast corner of Main and Clinton streets, but in 1834 they sold the 
church to the Second Baptist society; it was burned December 10, 
1859. A small African Methodist church was built on PLly street in 
1828, but for some cause was abandoned and another erected on P^avor 
street in 1831 ; the first pastor was the Rev. Isaac Stewart. 

Long before the P>ie canal was finished, commerce began upon it A 
preliminary survey was made through the village in September, 1819, 
the ditch was dug by sections, as described in a previous chapter, and 
on the 29th of October, 1822, the first canal boat left Rochester for 
Little P^alls, laden with flour. Pearly in 1825 the piece immediately 
west of here was so far finished that on June 7, of that year, Lafayette 
came on a boat from Lockport and was welcomed by the entire popula- 
tion, a staging having been erected over the aqueduct, from which 



VILLAGE LIFE. 119 

William B. Rochester delivered an address, after which the nation's 
guest, having been escorted through the streets by the villagers, was 
entertained at dinner at the Mansion House, kept by John G Christo- 
pher. On the 27th of October the local celebration connected with 
the completion of the entire canal took place, all the uniformed militia 
turning out as the squadron of boats from Buffalo appeared in sight ; 
the entrance to the aqueduct being guarded by a vessel called the 
Young Lion of the West, the approaching fleet was halted and a pre- 
arranged colloquy ensued between those on board of that craft and the 
officials on the Seneca Chief, the leading boat of the procession, after 
which they all entered Child's basin, at the end of the aqueduct, where 
congratulations were formally tendered by Gen. Vincent Mathews, on 
behalf of Rochester, and John C. Spencer for Canandaigua ; all then 
adjourned to the First Presbyterian church, where Timothy Childs de- 
livered an oration; the proceedings closed with the inevitable banquet 
at the Mansion House, where Gov. De Witt Clinton and Lieut. -Gov. 
Tallmadge offered the principal toasts. 

The rapid growth of transportation may be judged by a list given in 
the Daily Advertiser of October 24, 1826, of the canal commerce of 
the day before, in which twenty-two vessels arrived and twenty de- 
parted, most of them being in both lists ; the articles brought here 
were of all kinds of merchandise, while those carried away consisted 
largely of flour and of potash, the manufacture of whicii was a specialty* 
with the farmers, and occasionally a cargo of rattlesnakes, destined for 
the European markets. So much were the church- going people an- 
noyed by the blowing of horns and bugles by the captains of outgoing 
and incoming vessels on Sunday that a village ordinance was passed in 
1827, forbidding the distracting melody on that day; a few years later 
a line of Sabbath- keeping boats was established, and shortly afterward, 
in connection therewith, the Pioneer line of stages, with the same de- 
vout object in view. 

Travel was maintained on the canal from the beginning, the easy 
passage of the boats rendering it a favorite mode of locomotion for 
those with plenty of time on their hands and who had no objection to 
spending two weeks, which was the usual time, in going to New York; 
at a later period the Red Bird line of packets, with excellent sleeping 



120 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

quarters and good meals, came into operation and for a long term they 
held a high place in the estimation of those whose journeyings were for 
pleasure rather than for business. But for those whose time was pre- 
cious and whose preference was for a more rapid conveyance another 
means was provided, the swiftness of whose flight may be appreciaced. 
In the journalistic issue mentioned above is the announcement of three 
daily lines of coaches, starting from the regular Mail and Pilot coach 
office, opposite the Eagle Tavern (which stood on the present site of 
the l\)wers block and was then kept by Russell luiswortli), the vehicle 
for Albany being guaranteed to arrive at the capital in three days, 
while that for Buffalo was promised to get to its destination on the very 
day of its departure, though it had to leave at 3 in the morning to do 
it; the coach for Olean, however, notwithstanding the fact that it 
started at the same bewitching hour, was compelled to " sleep " at Hor- 
nelhville (as the advertisement had it), reaching its objective point on 
the following day. 

Charles J. Hill built the first brick house in the village — on the west 
side of F"itzhugh street, between Spring and Troup — in 182 i, and from 
that time there was a steady increase in the erection of private dwell- 
ings, churches and commercial structures. As trade advanced, as the 
merchants set up new shops, as flouring- mills multiplied and grain was 
brought here in immense quantities, the demand for banking facilities 
became urgent. As early as 18 17, in the very year of the incorpora- 
tion of the village, application was made to the legislature for a bank 
charter by Harvey Montgomery and others, and the request was re- 
newed si.x years later, but the demand, reasonable as it was, was 
rejected, through the selfishness and greed of the Ontario bank, at 
Canandaigua, and two smaller concerns at Geneva and Batavia, all of 
which grew rich by discounting the bills of our merchants On Febru- 
ary 19, 1824, a charter was finally granted to the Bank of Rochester, 
with Matthew Brown, Nathaniel Rochester, Elisha B. Strong, Samuel 
Works, h^nos Pomeroy and Levi Ward as incorporators, the capital be- 
ing fixed at $250,000. A. M. Schermerhorn was its cashier, John T. 
Talman its teller; Colonel Rochester was its first president, but he 
retired within a few months and was succeeded by Elisha B. Strong, he 
by Levi Ward, and he by James Seymour; the location was on Ex- 




Ci4H-t' vx<^!6^^^'^/^^<^t,^^^^^^'«--) 



VILLAGE LIFE. 121 

change street, where the Bank of Monroe now stands ; the charter of 
the bank, once renewed, expired in 1846 and its affairs were tlien wound 
up. There was one other financial institution in the village, the liank of 
Monroe, organised in 1829, with a capital of $300,000; its successive 
presidents were A. M. Schermerhorn, Alexander Duncan, Moses Cha- 
pin and James K. Livingston; its location was on the present site of 
the Powers banking house;, its charter expired in 1849. 

In 1826 a mysterious affair occurred in this vicinity which stirred tiie 
hearts of the community to their depths, causing more dissensions and 
having a more wide-reaching effect than any other event connected with 
this region. Early in 181 7 Wells lodge of Free Masons was instituted 
in the little settlement; on March 23, 1819, Hamilton Royal Arch 
chapter was installed here, and in June, 1826, Monroe encampment of 
Knights Templars was organised, these events indicating the rapid 
growth of the order in numbers and influence. Among its members 
was William Morgan, at first a resident of Rochester, though he had 
removed to Batavia before he became prominent by the announcement 
that he was writing a book to reveal the secrets of Freemasonry. In- 
tense excitement was roused by this, and Morgan was subjected to all 
kinds of treatment calculated to make him forego his purpose ; all 
failed, and an attempt to burn the printing-office in which the book was 
being put in type was equally abortive. Finally he was arrested for 
petty larceny and taken to Canandaigua, where the offense was alleged* 
to have been committed ; once there, the charge was dismissed but he 
was immediately re-arrested and imprisoned for a debt of two dollars, 
which he admitted ; the next night four men came to the place and 
paid the debt, with the costs, after which they seized Morgan as he was 
leaving the jail and threw him into a carriage, which drove rapidly 
away ; he was never seen in public again. 

Indictments for the abduction of Morgan were found by the grand 
jury of Ontario county against four persons, three of whom pleaded 
guilty, although they had before that engaged several of the most emi- 
nent lawyers in the state as their counsel. The carriage containing the 
prisoner was traced to Rochester, where it was driven down to the old 
Steamboat Hotel at Hanford's Landing, whence it took the Ridge road 
for Lewiston, where, as seemed to be shown by the evidence brought 
16 



122 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

out at subsequent judicial trials, he was taken across the Niagara river 
into Canada ; so strongly was this indicated that Governor Clinton, 
himself a Mason and the highest authority in the order in the United 
States, wrote to the Earl of Dalhousie. the governor of Lower Cauda, 
stating the known facts in the case and asking for the hberation of Mor- 
gan if he could be found, but nothing further was learned in the matter. 
Morgan's fate was never known, except to those who decreed it and 
those who executed the decree, but the most prevalent belief has always 
been that he was brought back from Canada, secreted for some time 
and then drowned in the Niagara river. That the great body of the 
Masonic fraternity were not only innocent of the conspiracy but abso- 
lutely ignorant of its existence, no one has now the slightest doubt, but in 
that unhappy time the charge of general knowledge, if not participation, 
was widely credited ; Rochester was the very center of the anti-Masonic 
fury, and Timothy Childs was twice elected to Congress from this district 
as an Anti Mason ; so great was the hostility to the order that all the 
lodges in Western New York, with the commendable object of allaying 
the turmoil, surrendered their charters to the grand lodge and it was not 
till 1845 ^^^^^ Masonry revived here and acquired a stronger position 
than it had possessed before in this community. 

Besides the act of 1822, changing the name of the village, a far more 
important one was passed on the lOth of April, 1823, by which the village 
of Brighton, whose interests were always identical with those of Rochester, 
was annexed to the latter. The law provided that the inhabitants of 
the territory thus annexed should have all the rights, privileges and 
immunities enjoyed by those living in the original part of Rochester, 
but all the moneys assessed upon the new inhabitants for the improve- 
ment of streets were to be applied only to streets in what was previ- 
ously Brighton, and vice versa. Perhaps this peculiar adjustment of 
taxation was found to work inharmoniously ; certainly no other plausi- 
ble conjecture can account for the passage of another act three years 
later, to the very day, incorporating the village of Rochester, as though 
no such village had ever been heard of before, extending materially the 
limits on the east side and in a less degree those on the west, but giv- 
ing, queerly enough, the description of the territory not by metes and 
bounds but simply by including enumerated lots, the numbers being 



VILLAGE LIFE. 123 

considered, probably, sufficiently descriptive. The second section of this 
act divided the new village into five wards, the first ward covering 
almost the same area that it occupies now, the second lying north and 
west of it, the third south of the first and second, the other wards on 
the east side of the river, the fourth being south of Main street, the fifth 
north of it. 

Directories were not issued every year in those days, and the first that 
appeared in Rochester was in 1827, bearing the imprint of its publica- 
tion by Elisha Ely, from the printing-house of Everard Peck. It con- 
tained the names of all the male inhabitants over fifteen years old, 
divided into two lists — first, the householders, alphabetically arranged 
under the initial letter of the surname but divided into wards under that 
letter; second, the boarders, all grouped in like manner, followed by a 
summary of the principal occupations, from which it appears that, be- 
sides those who were laborers simply, the largest number were carpen- 
ters, of whom there were three hundred and four, with one hundred and 
twenty- four shoemakers, ninety-five masons, and so on. The little 
book gives in compact form a statement of the principal events in the 
village up to that time and a list of the societies of all kinds then in ex- 
istence, together with statistics concerning trade and commerce, and 
information regarding travel, such as the rates of fare on the canal. 
These were, on the freight boats, one and a half cents a mile, exclusive 
of board, for which there was an extra charge of about fifty cents a dayf 
while on the packets, designed for passengers only, the rate was about 
four cents a mile, including all expenses, the tariff on stage travel being 
three and a half cents a mile Ordinances are given for the orderly 
government of the place — many of which related to the prevention of 
fires, such as the regulation that fireplaces of every description must be 
kept in good repair so as to be safe, the penalty for neglect being ten 
dollars, and must be cleaned every three months, under a fine of five 
dollars, while at least one fire bucket must be kept in each house and all 
bell-ringers must ring on an alarm of fire, or pay five dollars — and for 
the good behavior of the people, such as the prohibition of the keeping 
of billiard tables for gaming and of nine- pin alleys for any purpose 
whatever, under a penalty of five dollars a day for each offense, all of 
which shows that the village was well conducted. 



124 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

The regulations alluded to call for some mention of a department 
that seems indispensable for the preservation of civilised communal 
life. At the' village election of 1817 five fire wardens were chosen to 
enforce the ordinances and to form, after conflagrations had begun, the 
line of citizens who were to pass the buckets. This being soon per- 
ceived to be inadequate, a fire company was created in the following 
year, of which Daniel Mack was the foreman and the members of which 
were the most prominent villagers, one of whom, Charles J. Hill, lived 
till 1883. An engine was purchased, into which water had to be 
poured from buckets, but, poor as it was, it did duty alone for seven 
years, being housed first on the court-house square and afterward on 
Aqueduct street. In 1824 the sum of fifty dollars was voted for one 
or more ladders, to be placed on wheels; in 1825 $470 was paid for 
a new engine and $100 appropriated for its house, located in Bugle 
alley, where the Corinthian Academy of Music now stands. In the 
following year, at the time of the re- incorporation of the village, a 
more regular organisation of a volunteer fire department was effected, 
consisting of two engine companies ("^tna " and "Torrent") and a 
hook and ladder company (" Pidncer "), with Samuel Works as chief 
engineer; a new machine was soon bought, which was given to one of 
the original associations, while a new company, then formed in Frank- 
fort under the title of " Red Rover," had to be content, at first, with 
the little old concern, built ten years before, and all the department 
turned out for its first inspection, in " Mumford meadow," in October, 
1828; in 1 83 1 " Cataract " number 4 and " Rough and Ready " num- 
ber 5 were formed, with " Protection " number 6 in 1833 

Sam Patch, after jumping into the Niagara river from a pro- 
jecting rock more than half the height of the great cataract, made his 
fatal leap over the Genesee falls on the 13th of November, 1829; his 
bones were broken upon his striking the water, and his body was not 
found until the following spiing, when it was buried at Charlotte. In 
the same year Joseph Smith, a youth not then known to fame, applied 
to Tlnirlow Weed, who was then issuing the Rochester Telegraph, to 
print for him an inspired book which Smith had copied from golden 
tablets found by him in the woods in Wayne county, but Mr. Weed 
declined the ofifer and the first edition of the Mormon Bible was printed 
at Palmyra in the following year. 




JUNIUS JUDSON. 



VILLAGE LIFE. 125 

In 1832 the cholera appeared here for the first time; its approach 
had been heralded and Dr. Ward, Dr. Coleman, Dr. Reid, Kverard 
Peck and Ashbel W. Riley were appointed a board of health ; Dr. 
Coleman went to Montreal, where the malady was then prevalent, to 
learn the accepted mode of treatment ; all possible precautions were 
taken, the physicians did everything in their power to stay the ravages 
of the disease, and Dr. McPherson came in from Scotlsville to devote 
himself wholly to the cause, but nothing seemed to do the slightest 
good ; one hundred and eighteen died of the plague during the sum- 
mer and General Riley, who had given himself up to the work, put 
eiglity of them into their coffins with his own hands. In 1 834 the 
pestilence came again and fifty-four were carried off" by it ; a third time in 
1849, when one hundred and sixty deaths resulted, and still again in 
1852, when over four hundred (it is not known exactly how many) 
perished, the scourge being fatal to more than half of those who were 
smitten by it. 

As all things grow, Rochester outgrew its village condition, and on 
April 28, 1834, the act of incorporation of the city of Rochester, con- 
taining its charter, was passed. This action was not premature, for the 
the population and the volume of business fully warranted it. The 
number of inhabitants was 12,289, there were thirteen hundred houses, 
fourteen churches or meeting-houses, nine hotels — the Eagle, the Roches- . 
ter. the Clinton, the Mansion, the Monroe, the Arcade, the Franklin,* 
the City and the Rensselaer — ten newspapers (so called) and two banks ; 
in the previous year $290,000 had been invested in mills and flouring 
machinery, $1,413,000 paid for wheat, barrels, etc , and 300,000 barrels 
of flour manufactured ; $157,000 had in that year been put into cotton 
and woolen mills, $31,000 invested in leather and skins. $25,000 in 
boat building, and so on, nearly $2,000,000 of merchandise had been 
sold and one-sixth of all the canal tolls in the state had been received 
here. The corporation was organised by the election of a board ot 
aldermen, consisting of Lewis Brooks for the first ward, with John 
Jones as assistant; Thomas Kempshall for the second, Elijah F. Smith 
assistant ; Frederick F. Backus for the third, Jacob Thorn assistant ; A. 
W. Riley for the fourth, Lansing B. Swan assistant; Jacob Graves for 
the fifth, Henry Kennedy assistant; this common council selected the 



126 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

following officers: Jonathan Child, mayor; Vincent Mathews, attor- 
ney and counsel ; Samuel Works, superintendent ; E. F. Marshall, 
treasurer; John C. Nash, clerk; William H. Ward, chief engineer. 
Mayor Child was inaugurated on tlie lothof June, and each year there- 
after his successor was elected by the board of aldermen until 1841, 
when he was chosen by the people and has been so ever since. It may 
be as well to give in this place a list of the successors of these officers, 
except of the city attorneys, who will be found in anotiier part of this 
work. 

The mayors have been : Jacob Gould, in 1835-36 ; A. M. Schcrmer- 
horn and Thomas Kempshall (in place of Schermerhorn, resigned), 
1837; Elisha Johnson, 1838; Thomas H. Rochester, 1839; Samuel G. 
Andrews, 1840; Elijah E.Smith, 1841 ; Charles J. Hill, 1842; Isaac 
Hills 1843; John Allen. 1844; William Pitkin, 1845-46; John B. 
Elwood, 1847; Joseph Eield, 1848; Levi A. Ward, 1849; Samuel 
Richardson, 1850; Nicholas E. Paine, 185 1 ; Hamlin Stilwell. 1852; 
John Williams, 1853; Maltby Strong, 1854; Charles J. Hayden, 1855; 
Samuel G.Andrews, 1856; Rufus Keeler, 1857; Charles H. Clark, 
1858; S. W. D. Moore, 1859 and 1866; Hamlet D. Scrantom, i860; 
John C. Nash, 1861 ; Michael Filon, 1862; Nehemiah C. Bradstreet, 
1863; James Brackett 1864; D. D. T. Moore, 1865 ; Henry L. Fish, 
1867-68; Edward M. Smith, 1869; John Lutes, 1870; Charles W. 
Briggs, 1871 ; A. Carter Wilder (two years' term after this), 1872; 
George G. Clarkson, 1874; Cornelius R. Parsons, 1876-89; William 
Carroll, 1890; Richard Curran. 1892; George W. Aldridge, 1894; 
Merton E. Lewis, acting mayor, 1895, Aldridge having been appointed 
superintendent of public works of the state. 

Of the city treasurers, after E. F Marshall, who held the office again 
in 1838, there have been Theodore Sedgwick, in 1835 ; Erasmus D. 
Smith, 1836; W. P:. Lathrop, 1837 and 1859; P:ben N. Bucll, 1839- 
42; James M, P^ish, 1843-44; Hiram Wright, 1845-46; Matthew G. 
Warner, 1847; Clarence H. Sweet, 1848; Elbert W. Scrantom (term 
two years then), 1849; Charles M. St. John, 1851-54; P. M. Bromley, 
1855; Abram Karnes, 1857; Thomas Hawks, 1861 ; Christopher T. 
Amsden, 1863; Harvey P. Langworthy, 1 865-70 ; John Williams, 
1871-74; George D. Williams, 1875-80; Ambrose McGlachlin, 1880- 



VILLAGE LIFE. 127 

84; John A. Davis, 1885-90; Valentine Fleckenstein, 1890; Samuel 
B. Williams, 1891 to the present time. 

The city clerks who succeeded Mr. Nash have been Ariel Wentworth, 
1835; ^ G Buchan, 1836; J.W.Gilbert, 1837; Isaac R. Ehvood, 
1838; T. B. Hamilton, 1839; W. R. Montgomery, 1839 ; J- A. East- 
man, 1842 ; A. S. Beers, 1843 i Chauncey Nash, 1845 ; James S. Tryon, 
1846; H. L. Winants, 1848; Newell A Stone, 1849 and 1861 ; John 
N. Drummond, 1850; E. B. Shepardson, 1851; Washington Gibbons, 
1852, C, N. Simmons, 1856-58 and 1862; Francis S. Raw, 1859; B. 
Frank Enos, 1864; Richard H. Schooley, 1868 ; William F. Morrison, 
1870; Edward x^ngevine, 1876; Lucius M. Mandeville, 1880; James 
T. McMannis, 1881 ; Frank N. Lord, 1883; Peter Sheridan, 1885; 
Henry W. Gregg, 1892 ; Theodore S. Pulver, 1895. 

After Mr. Ward the chief engineers were Theodore Chapin, Alfred 
Judson, P. W. Jennings, A. J. Langworthy, George W. Parsons, T. B. 
Hamilton, S. M. Slierman, James Cowles, William H. Sprung, Zachariah 
Weaver, George B. Harris, John McMuUen, P. H. Sullivan, Wendel 
Bayer, Law S. Gibson, Samuel Bemish and James Malcolm, the present 
chief. 

As superintendent of the city, Mr. Works was succeeded by Kilian 
H. Van Rensselaer, Theodore Chapin and Pardon D. Wright; the ofifice 
was abolished after a few years. 



128 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY 



A 



CHAPTER III. 

CITY LIFE. 

Changes in the Charter — Extension of the Limits — The City Fire Department — The 
Volunteer System — Change to the Paid Department — Notable Fires — Amusements — 
Early Theaters— The Museum— Corinthian Hall— Early Schools— Thp Old High School 
— Catholic Schools — The Free Academy — Early Burying-Grounds — Mt. Hope — Catholic 
Cemeteries — Railroads — The Tonawanua— The Auburn & Rochester — The New York 
Central and Others — The Carthage Road — The First Telegraph — The Western Union 
and Speculation therein — The Patriot War — The Mexican War — The Civil War — 
Anti-SUvery and the Underground Railroad — The Rochester Knockings — Disastrous 
Floods — Water Works — Our Semi-Centennial. 

By its original charter in 1834 the city covered about four thousand 
acres, the same ground tliat was embraced within its limits for the next 
forty years, except for the addition that was made in 1836. John C. 
Spencer, in spite of his hostihty to the erection of Monroe county in 
1 82 1, had been selected to draw this act of incorporation, and his char- 
acteristic of accuracy precludes the possibility of his having made a mis- 
take in describing the limits of the city, so that in all likelihood he had 
been directed to follow tlie general line that excluded all land then used 
for agricultural purposes. The eastern boundary was quite irregular, 
starting on the Ridge road, thence with many sharp turns getting on to 
what is now Alexander street and following that till it reached the Pitts- 
ford road (now P^ast avenue), up which it passed till it arrived at Good- 
man street, along which it pursued its way to the southern limits. To 
remedy an apparent omission and to straighten in part the eastern 
boundary line, an act was passed April 19, 1836, the first section of 
which is here given, as showing an utter absence of legal phraseology 
and interesting from the fact that this extension and subsequent com- 
prehension have never, so far as is known to the writer, appeared be- 
fore in any sketch or history of the city. The section is as follows: 

"The boundaries of the city of Rochester are hereby extended so as 





/^U{iJTZ<!>(, 



CITY LIFE. 129 

to include within the limits thereof the hum of William Pitkin, situate 
in the town of Brighton, and also all the land lying between said Pit 
kin's farm and the eastern boundary of said city." 

The " farm " thus alluded to, which comprised just one hundred acres 
and was afterward exchanged by Mr. Pitkin for a lot on South Washing- 
ton street, was not as speedily built up as some other parts of the city, 
but it became long since completely occupied and a part of it now con- 
sists of the university grounds. 

Having had a taste of amending the charter, the people kept on with 
the pernicious habit and have continued it to the present day, but few 
of the amendments need be mentioned here. The distinction be- 
tween aldermen and assistant aldermen was abolished after four years 
of trial, and from 1838 two aldermen were chosen from each ward till 
1877, since when one has been found sufificient. In 1874 the area was 
increased by the acquisition of territory that nearly trebled its dimen- 
sions, the land that was added on the west being formed into the fif- 
teenth ward, that on the east into the sixteenth. A few additions have 
been made since then, but of no magnitude except as to the parks, 
which will be mentioned later. This did not, however, prevent an in- 
crease in the number of the wards, in order to overcome the power of the 
town members in the board of supervisors ; in 1892 the boundary lines 
of the wards were so changed as to make twenty of them, instead of 
sixteen, but the demarcation was governed by political partisanship' 
and the projectors of the enterprise were overwhelmed at the polls at 
the following election ; much of the resentment against them was 
owing to the wanton alteration that had been made in the designations 
(except in the case of the first ward) of the five wards antedating the 
city's life by eight years, though the boundaries were practically un- 
touched ; two years later the rights of sentiment and tradition asserted 
themselves, and the historic wards received back their ancient titles. 

The thread of the fire department, like a length of hose, may be taken 
up at this point, the change from village to city making but little differ- 
ence except to give the chief engineer a second assistant in addition to 
the one that he had before. An engine, tub and hose company, two 
bucket companies and another for hose alone were soon formed, and in 
1838 " Storm 7 " blew into existence, a tumultuous combination that 
17 



130 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

did not contribute to the quiet of the Third ward. It was disbanded 
again and again, but in i86l it was large enough to furnish from its 
own ranks a full company, officers and men, for the " Old Thirteenth "; 
its record in the war was not wholly creditable, for its turbulent spirit 
made it insubordinate and many of its members were court-martialed 
and sent to the Dry Tortugas. " Osceola 8 " was the next and 
*' Champion 9 " was the last engine company under the volunteer 
system. Connecting that system with the new were two companies 
that sprang into being in 1858, after the general disbandment of the old 
department — the Protectives, organised for the preservation of property 
during and after fires, and the Alert hose company, to which was ad- 
ded, ten years later, Active hose company number 2, for the east 
side, as the others were on the west. These three were wholly volunteer 
companies, their services being gratuitous and the city paying only a 
part of their expenses for buildings and apparatus, while they acted in 
friendly rivalry with each other and in entire harmony with the paid 
department. 

This was fully organised in 1862, after an indefinite state of affairs for 
four years, during which two steam fire engines were brought to the 
city in P^ebruary, 1 861, and worked so well that six have been added 
since then. After the introduction of the Holly water works in 1874 
the attendance of steamers at ordinary fires in the center of the city was 
dispensed with till recently, the pressure being considered sufficient, but 
that plan has been given up and now not less than two steamers turn 
out at every alarm, while four respond to the call of the central boxes. 
The three volunteer companies were disbanded a short time ago, the 
Protectives being succeeded by a sack and bucket company, which, 
though the old name still clings to it, is now a portion of the regular 
department. A valuable adjunct to the service is the fire alarm 
telegraph, which was introduced in 1869, the superintendent being 
B. F. Blackall from the beginning till 1881, when he was succeeded by 
Charles R. Barnes, who still holds the position. The Firemen's Benev- 
olent association was organised in 1835 and incorporated in 1837, "ts 
object being to provide a fund for the relief of widows and orphans of 
firemen and for disabled members of the department ; from that day to 
this it has carried out admirably the purposes of its formation. 



CITY LIFE. 131 

Of fires in Rochester, the first one recorded was on December 5, 
1819, when the office of the Ga.zette was destroyed, and the first fatality 
at a fire was on December 21, 1827, at the burning of Everard Peck's 
paper mill on South Water street, when Thomas M. Rathbun, of the 
hook and ladder company, was killed by a falling chimney. On 
February 2, 1844, the old Mansion House, on State street, was de- 
stroyed ; May 2, 1846, the old stone block built by Hervey Ely in 18 17, 
where the Elwood building now stands, was burned; in July, 1847, 
Grace church (built as St. Paul's and standing on the site of the present 
edifice) was consumed ; April 29, 1853, the Rochester House, on Ex- 
change street, extending from the canal to Spring street, was burned, 
with four of the domestics; January 24, 1854, the Blossom House, on 
the northeast corner of Main and St. Paul, went up in flames — a long 
fire, the mercury falling to zero during its progress, so that men and 
machines were almost encased in ice; November 21, 1857, the Eagle 
bank block, where the Wilder building now stands, was destroyed, two 
firemen losing their lives; on the night of August 17, 1858, a blaze 
started in a livery stable on Minerva alley and the sun rose on the ruins 
of five blocks, twenty stores, Minerva hall and the Third Presbyterian 
church, everything on the south side of Main street, from St. Paul to 
Stone, being swept away ; the Unitarian church, on Fitzhugh street, was 
burned November 10, 1859; the Second Baptist just a month later, 
the Bethel church, on South Washington street, November 24, 1861,' 
Washington hall (where the Second Baptist had stood) May 4, 1867, 
three firemen perishing in the flames; St. Peter's (Presbyterian) church 
March 17, 1868 ; the Democrat office and most of the old Eagle Hotel 
block December 19 in the same year; the First Presbyterian church 
May 2, 1869; the opera house November 6 of that year, the old Hervey 
Ely mill, at the east end of the aqueduct, November 26, 1870, and tiie 
" Beehive," at the west end (the old mill of E. S. Beach and Thomas 
Kempshall, built in 1827 and used after 1865 for miscellaneous manu- 
factures), April 7, 1880. Those were the most notable fires up to eleven 
years ago ; those since then will be mentioned in the chronological 
record of events 

Public sentiment in the early days of Rochester was decidedly ad- 
verse to dramatic representation. The directory of 1827 remarks: 



132 LANDMARKS OP MONROE COUNTY. 

" The theater is situated on Carroll street, a few rods north of 
Buffalo street. It is open but part of tlie season, the company of per- 
formers not being permanently settled here and only exhibiting a few 
weeks at a time. Of the influence of theatrical exhibitions upon the 
habits and morals of a young community it does not become us to 
speak, but we are constrained to say that the character of the per- 
formances at this theater has not generally been such as reflects credit 
upon the taste of our citizens." 

These observations are preceded immediately by a description of a 
sulphur bathing establishment on BufTalo street, near Washington, the 
advantages of which are said to be that "it consists of a bar-room, a 
ladies' drawing-room and bathing- rooms " The incongruity in the 
standards of morality thus displayed is further exemplified by the devout 
thankfulness expressed in Henry 0'Reill)''s " Sketches of Western New 
York," published in 1838, that " neither theater nor circus can now be 
found in Rochester," while then, before and afterward, the little press 
teemed with enticing lottery advertisements which at this day would ex- 
clude the newspapers from the mails, though at that time the system 
was patronised by the religious and was keeping thousands in hopeless 
poverty. Apart from occasional concerts, the first source of amuse- 
ment in Rochester may be said to have consisted in a museum opened 
in tile Eagle Tavern in January, 1821, where thirty- four wax figures 
were displayed with a representation of the duel between Commodores 
Barron and Decatur. But this must have been short-lived, and so was 
the circus, in a frame building on Exchange street, where the jail now 
stands. In 18-5 the Rochester museum was opened by J. R. Bishop 
on Exchange street, on the present site of the Smith & Perkins building • 
some years later a large room in connection therewith was used for 
dramatic performances, but that was only transient, while the museum 
itself, with its attraction of wax figures, persisted till 1852. Two 
theaters were established in 1826 — one, which opened on April 8, three 
months before it came to an end, with Richard III., probably the first 
Shakespearean play given here, was on Buffalo street, where the Young 
Men's Catholic association building now stands ; the other dramatic 
temple, which lasted longer, being the place alluded to in the directory 
of 1827, was on the west side of State street, nearly opposite Market; 





i^ ^:^/2-^<f>-^^^^^^^ 




CITY LIFE. 133 

it may have endured for a year or two, no one can tell just how long, 
for the newspapers advertised the stage only by denouncing it as " a 
noisome sink of immorality," and a proffered benefit for the Female 
Charitable society was rigidly declined, though one might think that 
Edmund Kean had dignified the little house by acting there the part 
of Sir Edzvard Mortimer in the " Iron Chest." 

The foregoing allusions appertain more directly to village life, but the 
connection with subsequent amusements seemed to warrant their dis- 
position here. In 1837 ^he part of Helen McGregor, in " Rob Roy," 
was played somewhere here, probably at the Museum theater, by Mrs. 
McClure, afterward Mrs. Noah, the first histrionic genius that Roches- 
ter ever produced, and tlie only one except her superior, Julia Dean, 
afterward Mrs. Hayne, who made her first appearance as a little child 
at the theater of her father, Edwin Dean. This was opened in 1 840, 
in the building still standing on Exchange street, at the foot of Spring, 
and there Edwin Forrest, the elder Booth, Grattan Plunkett and other 
bright stars appeared, but public opinion was too strong for it and 
the house closed at the end of the third year. After an interval of five 
years, during which the moral inhabitants recreated themselves with 
itinerant concerts, circuses, panoramas and other shows of a harmless 
character, in which time also the Athenaeum lecture course began, 
wiiich held its own for nearly half a century, the theater was revived, 
and this time permanently. It opened on Christmas week, in 1848,' 
under Carr and Warren, on South St. Paul street, and continued at the 
same spot up to the present day, witliout interruption except for the 
summer recess and tlie compullsory vacations caused by the fires of 
1869 and 1 89 1, followed by the rebuilding, in each case, of the ruined 
structure. Its boards were trodden hy all the great actors of America 
and most of those of Europe, not with their own companies, as now, 
but acting in the leading roles, while their support came from the stock 
company, which, up to twenty years ago, it was the custom to main- 
tain constantly at the theater, scmietimes placing it without the added 
light from an imported star and sometimes sending it to Buffalo or any 
other neighboring city for a week, while our house was given up to some 
traveling troupe or combination. 

Not as a rival of the St. Paul street theater was Corinthian hall built 



134 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

and opened on June 28, 1 849. for it was intended from the beginning 
as a concert and lecture hall, and its walls re echoed with the divine 
notes of Jenny Lind, the sweet strains of Ole Bull's violin, the voices 
of Patti and Parepa, the eloquence of Phillips, Seward and Everett and 
the music of a line of artists too long to name even the most dis- 
tinguished. The marvelous acoustic properties of its auditorium gave 
it a preeminence that feared no rivalry, so that it suffered nothing 
from the competition of Washington hall, whicii was erected about 
thirty years ago for a similar purpose, l^iit the popular taste underwent 
a total change and tlie former blind hostility to dramatic representa 
tions on the part of one generation gave place to an equally indis- 
criminate demand for them by another, so Corinthian hall was remod- 
eled in 1879, being turned into a theater, with galleries added to it, and 
its name was altered to the Academy of Music. 

The school of Miss Strong, in 1813, antedating the village itself, was 
so satisfactory to the settlers here that it was soon determined to have 
a more formal academy than the little room over Jehiel Barnard's tailor 
shop on the corner of State and Main streets, and during the autumn 
of that very year a school district was established and a school-house 
begun, on South Fitzhugh street, where the Free Academy now stands. 
The site was given by Rochester, Fitzhugh and Carroll, and the cost of 
the original building, which was one story in height, about eighteen 
feet wide by twenty- four long, was borne, probably, by the people here, 
as the school fund of the state then yielded about $25,000 a year, and 
our small proportion of that would not have paid for the house and for 
the instruction given, even in those days of small salaries. Aaron 
Skinner was the first teacher, and he may have been the first male in- 
structor in Rochester, though that honor was claimed, in late years, by 
Moses King, who died in 1881. It is exceedingly difficult to determine 
whether that " district school number one " should be classed as a pub- 
lic or a private school, for it partook of both characteristics and the 
common school system of the state was not established till long after- 
ward. In 1 8 16 another school of the same nature was opened on the 
corner of Mill and Piatt streets, and a few years later the old stone 
school house on Brown square was built, both institutions being sup- 
ported largely by local appropriations. Probably the same was true of 



CITY LIFE. 135 

a school on the corner of Clinton and Mortimer streets, which for 
many years, beginning with 1818, was taught by Lyman Cobb, the 
author of the spelling book and the dictionary that were the standard 
works in those departments of knowledge till they were superseded by 
the productions of Noah Webster. 

About 1820 two schools were started that were wholly private enter- 
prises — a young ladies' academy on Mill street, where the Brackctt 
House now stands, which was taught very successfully by Miss Maria 
Allyn, and an English and Latin school conducted by Fairchild and 
Filer near St. Luke's church. From that time the seats of juvenile 
learning multiplied so rapidly as to preclude the individual mention 
here of any except the very prominent ones. On the east side of the 
river a boys' school was opened by Mr. Shafer and another by Richard 
Dunning; they were well attended, but both soon yielded to the pre- 
eminence of the Rochester High school. This was incorporated, in 
1827, and the building, between Lancaster and Chestnut streets, where 
the Unitarian church now stands, was erected in part from the proceeds 
of a tax of $4,000 that was authorised to be levied. In spite of this 
aid the school grew more in debt every year till 1835, when, by a 
desperate effort of the citizens, it was put on its feet again, and from 
that time till its destruction by fire in 1852 it occupied the most prom- 
inent place among the scholastic institutions of Rochester. Thousands 
of pupils received their education there, the number in a single year 
being sometimes about six hundred, and its influence was felt for a 
generation after it had passed away. During its lifetime it had many 
teachers of learning and ability, but foremost among them was Dr. 
Chester Dewey, a man of great erudition and kindness of heart, the 
typical educator of this city, who had been a professor in Williams 
college for some years before he came here and who was the principal 
of the school for fourteen years prior to 1850, when he became pro- 
fessor of natural sciences in the University of Rochester, retiring there- 
from in 1 86 1 and dying six years later, at the age of eighty three. 
Associated with him for a long time, as principal of the girls' depart- 
ment, was Miss Mary B. Allen, who afterward taught a private school 
of her own till 1869 ; at a late period of her life she became Mrs. Moses 
King and died two years ago at an advanced age. 



136 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Miss Sarah T. Seward, who afterward became the wife of General 
Gould, came here from Lebanon Springs in 1833 and immediately 
opened a school for young ladies, first on the corner of Main and Eliza- 
beth streets, then on the present site of the First Presbyterian church; 
her patronage increased so rapidly that in 1835 she erected on Alexan- 
der street a house large for those days, sixty-four feet front and situated 
in the midst of fine grounds four or five acres in extent ; the education 
there given was of a high character and very complete, the class- room 
equipments costing more than $12,000; on the marriage of Miss Sew- 
ard it passed into the hands of her brother, Jason VV. Seward, who con- 
ducted it till 1848; the site is now occupied by the capacious struct- 
ures of the HomcKopathic hospital. Quite an educational revival took 
place in 1835, for, besides the steps forward that have just been men- 
tioned, the Rochester female academy, on South h'itzhugh street, was 
begun, stock to the amount of $4,000 being taken by sixty- seven per- 
sons; the first board of trustees was made up of Jonathan Child, Moses 
Chapin, E. F. Smith, J. K. Livingston and William P. Stanton ; Miss 
Julia H. Jones was by them appointed the principal, with Miss Ara- 
minta Doolittle (who afterward succeeded her in charge of the school) 
as her first assistant, and under their auspices the seminary was opened 
in May, 1836; Mrs. Curtis followed Miss Doolittle in 1855 and three 
years later the seminary passed under the management of the Rev. 
James Nichols, after whose death, in 1864, li'S widow, Mrs. Sarah J. 
Nichols, became the sole possessor of the property and the manager of 
the school ; it is still conducted by members of that family, having out- 
lived all its early compeers and retaining the reputation it has possessed 
for more than half a century. 

In that same year of 1835 a Catholic school for the instruction of little 
children was started in the basement of St Patrick's church, the first 
teacher being Michael Hughes, and it continued till it was succeeded 
by the parochial school established in 1858 on the corner of Frank and 
Brown streets and now conducted by the order of Christian Brothers. 
Other Catholic schools were those of the Academy of the Sacred Heart, 
founded by the ladies of that order in 1855, which was at first located 
on South St. Paul street and eight years later removed to its present 
commodious quarters on Prince street ; the academy of the Sisters of 



CITY LIFE. 137 

Mercy, on South street, near St. Mary's church, opened in 1857, and 
the large academy of Nazareth convent on the corner of Jay and Frank 
streets, estabHshed in 1871 ; all of these institutions are still in success- 
ful operation. Of the many private schools that were started after 
1840 and that endured for several years there may be mentioned the 
Tracy female seminary, on Alexander street; Satterlee's collegiate in- 
stitute, on Oregon street; the schools of Mrs. Isabella J. Porter, Miss 
Mary Jane and Miss Almira Porter, first in the basement of the Unita- 
rian church and afterward on South Washington street ; Mrs. Green- 
ough's seminary, first on North street and then on Plymouth avenue ; 
De Graff's institute for boys, Eastman's commercial college, Mrs. Cur- 
tis's Livingston park seminary. Miss Bliss's on Spring street and Miss 
Cruttenden's on Gibbs street, some of which are still in existence, 
though most of them have passed away, to give place to their prosper- 
ous successors of the present time. 

Since 1841 the common school system of the state has had full sway 
in this city, though even before that there were public schools here, in 
attendance upon which there were 1.050 pupils out of a total of 4,343, 
when the school census was taken in January of that year. In June 
the first board of education was organised, with Levi A. Ward as presi- 
dent, and under the new regime the number of public scholars in- 
creased so rapidly that the annual report in June, 1843, shows that 
there were then fifteen districts, with eight commodious brick school- 
houses, an average attendance of 2,500 and an annual expenditure of 
$19,000. Although these schools were public they were not free till 
the passage of the act of March 26, 1849, ^"d even after that there was 
a frantic endeavor to take away that character from them, which was 
defeated only by the efforts of the free school convention held at Syra- 
cuse. After the burning of the old High school on Lancaster street 
there was nothing to take its place; arguments were continually ad- 
vanced to crown the work of the public school system in this city by 
the inauguration of such an institution in direct connection therewith ; 
these appeals were at last successful and school- house number one, on 
South Fitzhugh street, was opened in that capacity on November i , 
1857I (the school being incorporated as the Rochester Free Academy 

'For twenty years alter that tliere was no seliool number one, until in LSi^, the Imlustrial 
school, a strictly charitable affair, on Exchange street, was taken into the common school system 
18 



138 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

in 1862), C. R. Pomeroy being the first principal, followed by Kdward 
Webster in 1859, he by Nehemiah W. Benedict in 1865, he by Zachary 
P. Taylor in 1883 and he by John G. Allen, the present incumbent, in 
1886. Of the crowd of applicants at the beginning, only one hundred 
and sixty- five were admitted, and from that time there were so many 
continually pressing for admission that a new building was erected on 
the old site and completed in March, 1873, at a cost, including the ad- 
ditional land purchased, of $ I 50,000. The structure is ornate, rather 
than ornamental, but its serves its purpose, is well ventilated and ac- 
commodates, without crowding, the attendance of over four hundred 
pupils, besides furnishing room for the Central library and for various 
offices. The instruction is very thorough and of a high grade, the term 
being four years in the classical, English and scientific courses, one year 
in the business course. 

For the burial of their dead the early settlers used a half acre on the 
corner of Plymouth avenue and Spring street, which was formally 
deeded to the village corporation by Rochester, Fitzhugh and Carroll, 
being a free gift, in June, 1821, but in September of that year the 
authorities exchanged it on even terms for three and a half acres on 
West Main street, where the City hospital now stands, and the bodies 
were removed thither. On the east side of the river the first land used 
was on East avenue, near Gibbs street, but that was soon abandoned for 
a position further south, the deed to which was given in 1827, though 
interments were made there before that. In these two resting-places — 
one called the Buffalo street burying-ground and the other the Monroe 
street burying-ground — all bodies were laid till after the village had be- 
come a city. Perhaps the cholera of 1 832, with its widespread mortality, 
demonstrated the necessity of further expansion ; at any rate, soon after 
that the matter was agitated and public meetings were held, but no of- 
ficial action was taken till August, 1836, when the mayor, at the instance 
of the common council, appointed Aldermen Scoville, Woodbury and 
Whitney a committee to inquire into the expediency of buying land for 
a burying-ground. They followed the lead of a citizens' committee, 

in order that the salaries of some of the teachers and a few otlier e.\i)enses miKht be paid by the 
board of education; it then became known officially as ninuber one, though it still retains its origi- 
nal title. 



CITY LIFE. 139 

selected several months before, and recommended the purchase of Silas 
Andrus's lot, comprising the first fifty-three acres of what is now Mt. 
Hope cemetery. The recommendation was approved, the land was 
bought and paid for by the issue of city bonds to the amount of$8,ooo. 

No other selection equally advantageous, in point of beauty of scen- 
ery and diversity of landscape, could possibly have been found in 
Monroe county, and it is doubtful if there is in the whole country another 
spot as well adapted by nature to this purpose. The grounds were laid 
out in accordance, mainly, with plans prepared by Silas Cornell, the 
city surveyor, who. fortunately for posterity, made little alteration in the 
various elevations but left the undulations as they were, cutting a few 
winding roads among the hills and felling the forest trees only as they 
interfered with the arrangement of lots. More land was purchased in 
subsequent years — the largest amount in 1865, when seventy-eight 
acres were added — so that the cemetery contains now about one hun- 
dred and eighty-eight acres. Much of its completeness, in which the 
natural beauties are preserved but the roughness of its early period has 
given place to tasteful care, was owing to the intelligent skill of George 
D. Stillson, who was its superintendent for sixteen years before 1881 ; 
he was succeeded by his son, George T. Stillson, and he by David Z. 
Morris, who now holds the place. The first interment was on the i8th 
of August, 1838, and on the ist of June, 1894, the fifty thousandth 
burial was made there. 

The Catholics preferring to bury their dead in ground consecrated by 
their own church, land on the Pinnacle hills, southeast of the city line, 
was bought in 1838 by the trustees of St. Patrick's church, and the 
cemetery was established there that was always known as the Pinnacle 
burying-ground, in which the English-speaking Catholics of the city 
were buried till 187 1, since when there have been very few interments 
there and most of the hill has been razed, its light, sandy soil making it 
desirable for building purposes. About 1840 the German Catholics here 
opened St. Joseph's cemetery, on Lyell avenue, where at first all the 
dead of that nationality were buried, but seven years later Sts. Peter and 
Paul's congregation established one for themselves on Maple street 
(which was closed by the municipal authorities in 1877), and St. Joseph's 
was moved to the east side of the river. The cemetery of St. Boniface, 



140 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

on South Clinton street, opened in 1866 for the use of that congregation, 
is still used, but to a very Hmited extent, and most of the bodies formerly 
resting in all these Catholic cemeteries have been removed to that of 
the Holy Sepulcher, on Lake avenue, north of the city line and in the 
town of Greece. This comprises about one hundred and forty acres, 
most of it purchased in 1871, the last thirty acres six years later. The 
location is a beautiful one, the greater part of the grounds lying between 
the road and the river bank, though a small portion is on the west side 
of the avenue ; its distance from the city relieves it from the criticism to 
which Mt. Hope is sometimes subjected, of encroaching too much upon 
the environment of the living. In its brief existence, thus far, the Holy 
Sepulcher has been decorated by many fine monuments, and it will 
doubtless remain for many generations the principal Catholic burying- 
ground of Rochester. 

Just north of it is the Riverside cemetery, begun only three years ago 
by a company incorporated at that time, which purchased one hundred 
acres of land and laid them out with great expense and care, erecting 
a peculiarly tasteful office building at the entrance ; many of the lots 
have been sold and there have been a few interments there. At the 
opposite extremity of the city, far out on Genesee street, is the little 
Rapids cemetery, of two and a half acres, which is said to have been 
started in 18 12, though, if so, it must have been for the accommodation 
of the scattered residents of Chili or Scottsville ; it is still in use, and 
occasionally an old citizen is laid to rest within its narrow bounds. 

Steam as a motive power on land was first employed in this country 
on the Baltimore & Ohio railroad in the beginning of 1831, and its first 
application on any road proceeding from Rochester was on the 4th of 
April, 1837, when a mixed train of freight and passenger cars, in charge 
of L. B. Van Dyke as conductor, was run out on the Tonawanda rail- 
road. This road was chartered in 1832 for fifty years, with a capital of 
$500,000, Daniel Evans being the president, Jonathan Child vice-presi- 
dent, A. M. Schermerhorn secretary, Frederick Whittlesey treasurer. 
Elisha Johnson surveyed the route and built the road, completing it to 
South Byron in 1834, to Batavia in 1836 and to Attica, forty-three 
miles in all, in 1842. Its terminus in this city was on the western cor- 
ner of Main and Elizabeth streets. The first regular passenger train 



/-*^ 




^^ 




JBk Jk 


. 


^^mw 


hi 


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H^^^pFo^^Lj^^^^. 


m 


^H^^l^^^^s^^^^'^ 


m 


K ' 9 ^ ' ''4i\^^^ ^ 


m' 


■. 1 ^ Jli^--^_ 


^ 



Jm^O"^ A ChLi(^^^ 



CITY LIFE. 141 

left for Batavia on May 3, and on the I ith of that month there was a 
great celebration here over the event. In 1838 ground wa.s broken for 
the Auburn & Rochester railroad, but the line was not finished till three 
years later, the cost of construction being $1,012,783, of which more 
than half was met by capital stock taken by subscription in several 
places, Rochester being down for $58,000, Canandaigua for $141,700, 
Geneva for $168,500, and so on ; at a meeting of stockholders, held at 
Geneva, Henry D. Gibson of Canandaigua was elected president, with 
James Seymour of this city as vice-president ; the first train from Ro- 
chester eastward ran to Canandaigua on September 10, 1 840, the con- 
ductor being William Failing ; the road was finished to Auburn in 
September, 1841, and a train ran through to Albany in October of that 
year, the eastern connections having been laid before that. 

In 1850 the Rochester and Tonawanda railroad was consolidated with 
the Attica & Buffalo, which had been in operation for some years, 
Joseph Field of this city becoming president of the new corporation, 
but for some reason no through train ran from here to Buffalo till 1852, 
when the straight line from Batavia to that place was laid. In 1850, 
also, the little road from Lockport to Niagara Falls was purchased by a 
syndicate of capitalists and extended to this city, and in the same year 
work was begun on the direct road from here to Syracuse ; the Ro- 
chester & Charlotte was built in the latter part of 1852. By the con- 
solidation of all the roads named, together with others, in the eastern 
part of the state, the New York Central railroad company came into 
existence on May 17, 1853, with a capital stock of $23,085,600 and as- 
sumed debts to the amount of $1,947,815.72. As the tracks of this 
railroad crossed many of the streets of the city, numerous accidents, 
some of them fatal, were caused, besides an incalculable amount of in- 
convenience ; at last the company yielded to the just demands of the 
citizens, and the tracks were raised, ground being broken therefor in 
March, 1882, and the work finished in the summer of 1883, at a cost of 
$925,301.95, including $150,000 for the construction of the present 
train house extending from St. Paul to Clinton street, built by George 
H. Thompson ; it took the place of the old one, built by C. A. Jones in 
185 I, on land now devoted to Central avenue, between Mill street and 
the river. 



142 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

On observing the operation of these various roads, a desire, not felt 
before, was stimulated for more rapid communication with the southern 
part of the state, and after many attempts a company was formed with 
$800,000 capital and directors chosen equally from up the valley and 
from this city, with James Wadsworth as president and Freeman Clarke 
secretary and treasurer, which bepan the construction of a road from 
here in September, 1852, and opened it to Avon in 1854 ; it was intended 
at first that it should go further south, but it never did, and a little later 
it was leased for ninety-nine years by the New York, Lake Erie & 
Western. For some years after the change it continued to be called by 
its original name of the Genesee Valley railroad, but it is now uni- 
versally known as the Rochester division of the Erie road. In 1869 
the Rochester & State Line railroad company was formed, work was 
begun two years later, and in 1878 the road was completed to Sala- 
manca, its original terminus; a year later a majority of the stock was 
owned by William H. Vanderbilt and it was expected that the road 
would become a branch of the New York Central, but it was not 
profitable enough for that and although it was successful in a suit 
brought by the city of Rochester to recover $600,000 which had been 
advanced toward its construction, it was unable to pay the interest on 
its first mortgage bonds and was sold out in January, 1880, to New 
York parties, by whom its name was changed to the Rochester & Pitts- 
burg (the word Buffalo being prefixed afterward) and the line extended 
to Punxsutawney, in Pennsylvania. The Genesee Valley Canal rail- 
road, laid through the bed of the abandoned canal from here to Olean, 
was begun in 1881 and opened for traffic in 1883, doing for the towns 
on the west side of the river what our division of the Erie does for 
those on the east; it has had a fair measure of prosperity and makes 
good connection with the Delaware & Lackawanna, thus affording an 
easy means of reaching the eastern part of Pennsylvania ; soon after its 
opening it passed under the control of the Buffalo, New York & Phila- 
delphia company, the name of which was afterward changed to the 
Western New York & Pennsylvania, and this branch is now known as 
the Rochester division of that road. Other railways now running into 
the city will be mentioned elsewhere. 

Antecedent by four years to the steam railroads was another concern, 



CITY LIFE. 



143 



of a similar nature, which was really the predecessor of our present- 
day street-car system, though there was a long interval between the 
first essay and the second. In 1825 a small company with a capital 
of $30,000 was organised by Elisha Johnson, Josiah Bissell, Everard 
Peck and others, but it was six years before they could get the necessary 
act from the legislature empowering them to construct a railroad with 
a single or double line of track, connecting the head of ship navigation 
on the Genesee with the Erie canal in this city ; Elisha Johnson began 
building the road in 1831 and finished it in a little over a year, so 
that it was ready for use in January, 1833; the line began at the 
south end of Water street, touching the aqueduct, then, crossing Main 
street, it continued north along the bank of the river, with a total 
descent of two hundred and fifty four feet, till it reached Carthage 
connecting directly with the gravity railroad mentioned in a preceding 
chapter ; the coaches in use were open at the sides and were operated 
by two horses driven tandem, the driver being seated on the top of the 
car; the road was operated till 1843, when it was abandoned. There 
were no more horse railroads here for just twenty years, the first new 
line of that character being opened in July, 1863, on the Mt. Hope 
avenue route, and it is a little singular that that should have been the 
line to be taken up a few years later, from the end of South St. Paul to 
Clarissa street, and discontinued to the present time ; tracks were laid 
gradually in the other principal streets till the old company sold out 
to the present corporation, which changed the motive power from equine 
to electrical 

Rapidity in travel called for still greater celerity in verbal transfer- 
ence, and in this field Rochester is entitled to lasting remembrance. 
Soon after the evolution of the Morse system of telegraphy in 1844 
Henry O'Reilly, of this city, projected, organised and constructed the 
longest range of connected lines in the world, extending from the 
eastern seaboard to the far South, and called the "Atlantic, Lake and 
Mississippi range," though commonly known as the " O'Reilly lines." 
These were at first individual but were afterward consolidated and be- 
came the nucleus of the Western Union telegraph company, whose 
arms embrace the continent. None of those lines, however, ran through 
this city, for the first office here was that of the New York, Albany & 



144 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY 

Buftalo (merged in the Western Union in i860), which was opened for 
the transmission of messages in the winter of 1844-45. 'I he first press 
dispatch received here came on June i, 1846, and appeared in the 
Democrat of the next day, being a report of the constitutional conven- 
tion then in session at Albany; the office was originally in the base- 
ment of Congress Hall, but was soon removed to the Reynolds arcade, 
where it still remains ; George E. Allen was at first in charge of the 
office, then S. S. Pellett, then A. Cole Cheney (from 1852 to 1881), 
then George D. Butler, the present manager. Several other companies 
opened their offices here at intervals, but they all closed eventually, 
as the lines became absorbed in the all-controlling Western Union — 
except that of the district telegraph, a local concern, for the purpose of 
summoning messengers, police and other persons, and also that of the 
Postal telegraph cable company, a new-comer, which has not yet suc- 
cumbed. In connection with the progress of this monopoly is the in- 
teresting episode of the speculation in its stock ; the headquarters of 
the company being then in this city the shares had a local attraction 
and their price began to advance in 1863, keeping on till April, 1864, 
when the stock, having been doubled and then watered again in the 
meantime, sold for $230, the highest point reached ; that broke the 
market, some fortunes being made, but more lost ; the same was still 
more widely true concerning the investment in Pennsylvania petroleum 
interests at about the same time. 

After the little war scare of 18 14 peace reigned supreme in this 
community till 1837, ^vhen ^'^^ Navy island raid took place ; the so- 
called "patriot war ' (though those engaged in it were discontented 
rioters, rather than lovers of their country) had broken out in Canada 
West, and some men from this city, as well as large numbers of people 
from the vicinity, rushed to Navy island, in the Niagara river, and took 
possession of it, with a view to assisting the insurgents on the other 
side ; great excitement prevailed here and it seemed that the two coun- 
tries might become involved in a senseless war. but our government 
interfered before it was too late and sent General Scott to the frontier, 
who took control of the island and dispersed the crazy interlopers ; 
after that the turmoil subsided, William Lyon Mackenzie, the dema- 
gogue who had originated it, escaping to New York, coming to Roch 



CITY LIFE. 145 

ester in 1839 and starting a weekly paper called the Gazette, in order 
to revive the disturbance; he was tried at Canaiidaigua and sentenced 
to our jail for eighteen months but was pardoned within a year and 
disappeared. The Mexican war having broken out in 1846 a small 
company was raised here, but the quota was full by that time and the 
men stayed at home; in the next year a full company was enlisted and 
went to Mexico under Caleb Wilder as captain and Edward McGarry 
as first lieutenant; they saw little fighting but remained in the country 
for eighteen months as part of the army of occupation. Then came the 
war of the rebellion in 1861, and for four years our feelings were en- 
grossed by that; during 1862 and 1863 the streets were dotted with 
tents for enlistment, the court-house plaza and the "four corners" 
being specially devoted to their location ; fairs were held at different 
times for the benefit of the soldiers, the principal one being the grand 
bazaar at Corinthian hall for a week in December, 1864, when $15,000 
was realised ; a full statement of our troops will be found in the sketch 
of the county. 

In few communities did the feeling of hostility to African slavery 
have a stronger foothold than in Rochester, and here was laid the 
foundation of the Liberty party when Myron Holley, in June, 1839, 
started the Rochester Freeman, in which he urged the policy of inde- 
pendent political action on the subject. On the 28th of September of 
that year the Monroe county " convention for nominations" was held, 
by which was meant a meeting for the selection of delegates to a con- 
vention that should make distinct nominations of candidates to be sup- 
ported on that issue at the ensuing presidential election ; as an outcome 
of that convention at Rochester — the first of the kind held in the coun- 
try — a state convention was held a short time later at Arcade, Wyom- 
ing county, and a national convention at Albany in the following April, 
which nominated James G. Birney for the presidency. Anti- slavery 
conventions of all kinds were frequently held here, both of the more 
moderate wing and of the Garrisonian abolitionists, so that, if the dif- 
ference between the two factions was not clearly understood by out- 
siders, it was not owing to any lack of information imparted at Corin- 
thian hall and elsewhere; in that popular auditorium fairs in behalf of 
the cause were common during the times of the agitation, at which 
1!) 



146 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COTTNTY. 

Frederick Douglass was often a conspicuous figure, and it was there 
that William H. Seward, on the 25th of October, 1858, uttered his pro- 
phetic words about the " irrepressible conflict between opposing and 
enduring forces." 

But not alone in this public way was Rochester distinguished for its 
part in the struggle between slavery and freedom, for this was always 
one of the principal stations of the " underground railroad," that occult 
method of transportation from intolerable bondage to liberty beyond 
the border. Guided by the polar star and by means of information 
known only to themselves, thousands of fugitives ^ passed through this 
city on their way to Canada, and a large proportion of iheiu were har- 
bored here, sometimes over night but in other cases for days at a time, 
while they lay concealed from the watchful eyes of government officers 
who had been notified of their flight and ordered to intercept and arrest 
them. Generally the runaways would be in groups of two or three, but 
sometimes one lonely wanderer would appear and once a party of fifteen 
came on Saturday night to the residence of Mrs. Post, on Sophia street, 
where they were sheltered over Sunday and driven down on Monday 
morning, in the usual way, to the steamboat landing at the foot of Buell 
avenue, whence the regular vessel, under the British flag, carried them 
safely to Canada. How the knowledge of that house, and of three or 
four others in this city, as secure and friendly hiding-places, came to 
the intelligence of the flying bondmen was never known, nor was the 
fact of their concealment divulged in a single instance, though it was 
within the cognition of great numbers of people of both colors and 
there were often warrants in the hands ot the officers, leady to be served 
on those who were more than suspected to be lying here. 

Though there were many narrow escapes here, there was only one 
actual rendition to slavery, and that was as far back as 1823, when a 
woman who had got away from her owner at Niagara Falls had come 
to this city and lived for some time with her husband, who was a barber 
here ; she was finally arrested, carried to Buffalo and put on a vessel 
bound for Cleveland, whence she was to be carried to her home in 
Wheeling, Virginia; on board the boat, with hope behind, despair in 

'The late Mrs. Amy Post, in a thoughtful article prepared eleven years ago, estimated the 
number as about one hundred and fifty each year on the average; she is a good authority. 



CITY LIFE. 147 

front, she cut her throat, and so was free at last. From that time, public 
opinion, though somewhat divided, preponderated so strongly against 
the surrender of human beings that it was never attempted here again, 
and even after the passage of the infamous fugitive slave bill in 185 i, 
which increased the bitterness of feeling and never helped the South, 
the authorities wisely abstained from precipitating the conflict that 
would have been sure to result from any effort at the forcible return of 
a runaway slave. 

Rochester is associated with a peculiar manifestation that appeared 
here about the middle of the century and spread the name of the city 
to the uttermost parts of the earth. In 1847 John D. Fox, who had 
lived he''e previously, moved with his wife and daughters — Margaretta, 
aged twelve, and Kate, aged nine — to Hydeville, in Wayne county, 
where they occupied a house in which mysterious noises had already 
been heard. These now increased in frequency, in loudness and in va- 
riety, the little girls seeming to be the mediums through which the dis- 
turbances occurred. The noises finally resolved themselves into rap- 
pings or knockings, which resounded all over the house, on floors, ceil- 
ings and walls, but neither the parents nor any of the neighbors were 
able to solve the mystery as to how the sounds were produced. The 
children were then separated, one of them, and afterward the other, 
coming to Rochester to live with their older sister, Mrs. Leah Fish, 
who, originally incredulous, soon came to be as successful a medium as 
either of the little ones. In the presence of any one of the three the 
knockings were repeated and seances were held at different houses in 
the city, where communications were carried on by the laborious pro- 
cess of repeating the alphabet and spelling out whole sentences as the 
affirmative raps indicated that the proper letter had been reached. 
Curiosity was aroused and of course much antagonism was evoked 
by the spread of this new cult, and it is only fair to say that it seems to 
have been these mysterious agencies themselves that originally and 
persistently demanded a public investigation of the matter. As sug- 
gested by the responsive rappings, a meeting was held at Corinthian 
hall on November 14, 1849, ^t which a committee was appointed, which 
made a report on the following evening at the same place to the effect 
that it had, after full investigation, failed to discover the means by which 
the sounds were made. 



148 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Instead of allaying the exitement tliis report only increased it; a 
second committee, composed of Dr. H. H. Langvvorthy, Frederick 
Whittlesey, D. C. McCallum, William Fisher and Judge A. P. Haskell, 
of LeRoy, was equally unsuccessful, and finally a third committee was 
appointed, consisting of men equally eminent, every one of whom had 
the full confidence of the community and not one of whom was a be- 
liever in the new philosophy. These men, after some trustworthy 
women, selected by them, had carefully examined all the clothing worn 
by Mrs. Fish and Margaretta Fox, to prevent the concealment of arti- 
ficial appliances, subjected the mediums to the most rigid and severe 
tests that they could devise, and yet, in spite of all, this committee, like 
its predecessors, had to confess that it was unable to discover the fraud. 
Considering that all these fifteen men were appointed, not as impartial 
investigators but with the avowed object of exposing what was alleged, 
even by them, to be a mischievous imposture, thtir discomfiture is cer- 
tainly very remarkable. At the gathering before which that final report 
was made, Corinthian hall was packed with a crowd that contained a 
large element of the baser sort, and these ruffians, enraged at the out- 
come of the inquiry, tried to seize the women who were the 
objects of their disapproval and who were there on the stage, so 
that it required the intervention of a strong body of police to 
quell the disturbance, which was the nearest approach to a riot that was 
ever witnessed in that building. No further inquisition was made, the 
Fox sisters continued for many years to practise their mediumistic voca- 
tion, and so the " Rochester knockings " became the beginning of 
modern spiritualism in all its various forms. 

I'Vom flood as well as fire Rochester has had its losses, but by the 
former element no mortality is known to have been caused. The prin- 
cipal freshets within our historic times were those ol 1803, which carried 
away Indian Allan's saw mill, the first structure on the One-hundred- 
acre tract; of 1835, which overflowed Buffalo street and carried away 
the bridge at the lower falls ; of 1857, which swept off the old buildings 
on the north side of Main street bridge and most of the bridge itself, 
and, finally, that of March, 1865, the most disastrous of all, which was 
owing to the insufificiency of the openings in the Erie railroad embank- 
ment near Avon, so that the accumulated water from the sudden thaw 




JOHN H. ROCHESTER. 



CITY LIBE. 149 

of a great body of snow and ice was held back and then, breaking its 
barriers, came down with a volume that could not be discharged under 
the arches of tlie aqueduct, so there was no dry land in the middle of 
the city for more than two days. No effective measures have yet been 
taken to guard against a repetition of this disaster, although many have 
been proposed, and the encroachments on the river bed continue as in- 
dustriously as ever, regardless of the danger that in our own time, not 
after us, may come the deluge. 

To provide the means for preventing wholesale conflagrations was 
always in the minds of our citizens, and, long before the problem of how 
to obtain them was solved, the necessity made itself felt of supplying the 
fast -growing city with drinking water to take the place of that procured 
from wells and from the roofs of buildings. After many costly ex- 
periments in the way of issuing bonds the proceeds of which were frit- 
tered away by dishonesty and folly, a law was passed in 1S72 "to 
supply the city of Rochester with pure water." Under this act a com- 
mission was appointed, which, with J. Nelson Tubbs as chief engineer, 
began work by laying out a double system — first, the Holly system, by 
which water for fire purposes could be obtained from the river by pump- 
ing machinery, and, second, one by which drinking water of the best 
quality could be brought from Hemlock lake, twenty-eight miles away; 
the former was in operation by the beginning of 1874, the first stream 
from a hydrant being thrown at a fire on the i8th of January; the 
Hemlock lake system went into effect on January 23, 1876 ; the distrib- 
uting pipes of the latter were extended annually and the total cost of 
the combined systems up to the 1st of April, 1884, was $3,656,049. 

Rochester's fiftieth birthday was celebrated on the 9th and 10th of 
June, 1884, with processions, parades, addresses, fireworks and all the 
other paraphernalia so dear to the hearts of the American people ; the 
mayors of New York, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Toronto and other cities 
were present, and a congratulatory dispatch was sent from the corpora- 
tion of the English Rochester. With this the record of our antiquity 
may close, the record of our new life begin. 



150 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE LAST DECADE. 

Cannibalism in the Greely Relief Expedition — Foundry Strike in 1885 — The Bell 
Telephone Struggle — Sketch of Henry O'Reilly — The Naphtha Explosion Disaster — 
Awful Loss of Life at the Lantern Works Fire - Death of Gen. A. W. Riley, Hiram 
Sibley and Seth Green— Street Car Troubles and Changes— Sketch of Henry E. 
Rochester — And of President Anderson— Church-Building in 1891 — Sketch of Josiah 
W. Bissell — Dedication of the Soldiers' Monument — Charitable Relief Work in 1894 — 
Introduction of Individual Communion Cups — Dedication of a Jewish Temple — Sketch 
of Darius Perrin — Diphtheria and Anti-Toxine — Sketch of Frederick Douglass, and of 
William S. Kimball. 

In the semi-centennial year the local press teeined with historical and 
reminiscent accounts of Rochester's past life, and more than one com- 
prehensive narrative of the city was published in book form. Among 
those works was a history of Rochester compiled by the writer of this 
sketch, and therein was a chronological list of the most important events 
in the city's career up to that time. BeHeving that a continuation of 
that classification will be appropriate in this place, it is here given. On 
August lo of that year the remains of Lieut. F. F. Kislingbury, the 
second in command of the Greely relief expedition, were buried at Mt. 
Hope after lying in state at the city hall ; four days later the body 
was exhumed in order to settle the question of cannibalism on the part 
of the surviving members; the flesh was found to have been cut from 
the bones, affording proof of the previous rumors. From August 19 to 
22 the American Microscopical society held a convention here; the na- 
tional reunion of the army ot the Cumberland took place, General 
Sheridan being present. Two boards of municipal civil service exam- 
iners were appointed in October, the first examinations being held De- 
cember 7. 

In 1885 the Park avenue Baptist church was dedicated January 25 ; 
John Kelly, after conviction and death sentence for the murder of Jacob 



THE LAST DECADE. . 151 

Lutes, was tried again and acquitted. March 8, mistaken identity being 
proved ; a long strike began at the foundries April 30, keeping about 
six hundred men out of work ; it was ended by arbitration August 9 ; 
Asbury Methodist church, on East avenue, was finished in June, cost- 
ing, with the lot, $64,694; memorial services in honor of General Grant 
were held in the city hall August 8 ; on September 9 the corner stone 
of the new government building, on Church street, corner of Fitzhugh, 
was laid, the original appropriation being $300,000, increased by $200,- 
000 afterward. A sham battle was fought at the driving park on Sep- 
tember 14, for the benefit of the soldiers' monument fund; all the sur- 
viving war veterans in the city participated, and over $5,000 was 
realised. 

The right of the Salvation Army to march, sing and play musical 
instruments in the street was settled in the early part of 1886 by judicial 
decision. The South Congregational church v/as organised September 
2. The Bell telephone company, which had opened its offices here in 
January, 1879, and increased its business till it reached nearly one 
thousand, grew more and more extortionate in its demands until, in 
October, it announced that the plan of charging a fixed rent was to be 
abandoned and a toll system substituted, by which a certain sum should 
be paid for each message ; this exhausted the patience of the subscribers, 
most of whom joined together and at noon of November 20 over seven 
hundred of them hung up their telephones, with the pledge to leave 
them unused till reasonable terms should be obtained ; this was not ac- 
complished till May 12, 1888, when the company yielded, the people 
gaining most of the points in dispute. Henry O'Reilly, born in Ireland 
in 1805, died August 17, at St. Mary's hospital; he was, in his early 
life, one of the most remarkable men in Rochester, identified prominently 
with every public movement ; he was connected with New York journals 
when a mere youth and came here in 1826 to take editorial charge of 
the Advertiser, the first daily paper west of New York ; he was one of 
the most conspicuous Anti-Masons in this vicinity, but more embittered 
against the other one of the two factions into which they were divided 
than against the members of the secret order; he was one of the most 
active promoters of the Erie canal and the author of the first memorial 
in favor of enlarging and improving the waterway ; he was the author 



\:/2 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

of the first history of Rochester, published in 1838, was appointed post- 
master of the city in that year and was afterward the builder of the 
lines of telegraph as told in the preceding chapter, which brought him 
into collision with the inventor Morse, with whom he had a protracted 
litigati'^n for many years ; during the civil war he was the secretary of 
the national society for promoting the enlistment of colored troops; he 
was a man of the most restless activity of mind until the infirmities of 
age subdued his energy, and was one of the most prolific writers of 
political and polemic pamphlets in this countr}-, besides leaving at his 
death an enormous mass of unpublished manuscript on a great variety 
of subjects. Mrs. Abelard Reynolds, who came here with her husband 
in 1 812 and lived in the second house built in Rochester, died August 
22, being within one month of the age of one hundred and two years. 

On the 14th of May, 1887, the Erie railway station, costing $48,000. 
was opened; the elevated foot-bridge, the first in the city, on Exchange 
street, over the Erie canal, was accepted by the authorities May 27, 
cost $3,900; many old buildings were torn down and new ones begun, 
near the "four corners" — the Wilder building, the EUwanger & Barry 
block, the German Insurance building and those in place of the old 
Clinton Hotel. There were many workingmen's troubles in June, 
culminating in riots among the street laborers on the 27th, particularly 
one on Gorham street, where the strikers assaulted those who had taken 
their places; the police who came to the rescue were stoned by the 
rioters and fired into the mob, wounding several. On December 21 
a frightful catastrophe occurred, by the escape of fifteen thousand gallons 
of naphtha from a broken pipe into the Piatt street trunk sewer ; the 
volatile gas took fire before the liquid could flow into the river, and ex- 
plosions took place all along the line for more tlian a mile, with a noise 
that was heard throughout the city, the flames leaping high into the air 
from the man-holes and other openings; the Jefferson mill was blown 
down, the Clinton and the Washington were burned, three men were 
killed, two fatally injured and many others badly hurt. 

Few institutions in this city have been so beneficial to the working- 
men, and none have done so much to give them the ownership of the 
houses that they occupy, as loan associations. These had been multi- 
plying so rapidly during the ten years prior to 1888 that there were then 




'Qj-m 



c^ yT<^/^ >- 



THE LAST DECADE. 153 

about one hundred of them, more, proportionately, than in any other 
place in the country except Philadelphia ; the first state convention of 
these organisations in New York was held here on May ly of that year. 
On the 26th of that month the first deaconess of this city was ordained 
at St. Luke's by Bishop Coxe. St. Matthew's church (Evangelical 
Lutheran) was dedicated October i. The Lyceum theater, on South 
Clinton street, the finest house for dramatic entertainment thus far 
erected in this city, with a seating capacity of nearly two thousand, was 
opened with the play of " The Wife " on the night of October 8. In the 
early evening of November 9 the most appalling calamity that ever 
visited Rochester cast into the background of horror the disaster of the 
year before ; the steam gauge and lantern works, at the brink of the 
upper falls, on the west side, where Sam Patch made his fatal leap in 
1829, caught fire and of the sixty persons who were doing night work 
there thirty four came to their death, five being killed by jumping to the 
ground, the rest being suffocated or burned alive; the remainder were 
saved with difficulty by ladders or by life blankets held beneath the 
windows from which they sprang. 

Of the prominent citizens who passed away during the year, Gen. 
Ashbel W. Riley died April 3, aged ninety- three ; he came here in 
i8i6 and was one of the first board of trustees of the village and one of 
the first board of aldermen of the city ; in early life he was colonel of 
the first regiment of riflemen — offering their services to President Jack- 
son in 1832 to put down nullification in South Carolina — and afterward 
major-general of militia ; his local fame rests upon his noble self-sacri- 
fice in the cholera times, as described elsewhere, but his reputation away 
from here is based upon his long career as a temperance advocate and 
orator, he having delivered some four hundred lectures on the subject 
in Europe and innumerable addresses in America. Hiram Sibley died 
July 12 ; having resided previously in Mendon he moved into the city 
in 1844, when he was elected sheriff of the county ; becoming interested 
in telegraph enterprises he was largely instrumental in the consolidation 
of the various companies into the Western Union, of which he was the 
president for sixteen years, the number of offices increasing during his 
administration from one hundred and thirty two to over four thousand, 

and the line being by his persistent efforts extended across the con- 
20 



154 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

tinent ; he was a munificent benefactor to several institutions, par- 
ticularly to Cornell university, where he built the Sibley college of the 
mechanic arts, and to the University of Rochester, to which he gave the 
library building. Seth Green, distinguished for his services to the 
world in the propagation and transportation of fish, for which he re- 
ceived medals from foreign countries, died August 20. Jolin S. Mor- 
gan, special county judge for four \ears and county judge for four 
years more, died in office December 8. 

In the early part of 1889 the largest three brewing companies in this 
city sold out to an English syndicate for about $4,000,000. On March 
14 the first dog show ever held in Rochester opened. An extensive 
strike of the employees of the street railroad company began on April 
3, continuing for more than a month, interfering with the running of 
cars and including a riot on North Clinton street, for which fifty men 
were arrested. Cars began to run to Charlotte by electricity on July 
30. On November 9 the old horse car company sold out for $2,175,000 
to a new concern, which began the next year the work of introducing 
the most improved electric system, which was completed in 1893. 
Among the dead of the year were Julius T. Andrews, January 7, an 
early resident of the east side of the river and one of the founders of 
St. Paul's church; D. M. Dewey, January 17, who had been in the 
bookselling business for nearly fifty years ; Mrs. Amy Post, January 
29, aged eighty-seven, a prominent abolitionist in slavery times and 
afterward conspicuous in her advocacy of spiritualism, woman suffrage 
and other manifestations of advanced thought ; H. H. Langworthy, 
February 5, an eminent surgeon ; Schuyler Moses, March 13, aged 
ninety-one, the oldest pioneer (in years) of the city and the oldest 
Mason in the state at the time of his death, who came here in 181 8 and 
was a member of the common council in 1837, ^^^ Henry E. Roches- 
ter, the youngest son of the founder, who was born in Hagerstown, 
Md., January 7, 1806; he came here with his father in 1810, riding, 
though only four years old, all the way on his pony, except when 
taken into the carriage for necessary rest ; having been educated at 
llobart college he became the law partner of an attorney named Ford, 
but soon afterward was associated with the late Judge E. Darwin 
Smith ; he retired from the practice of the law in 1845 ^"<J engaged in 



THE LAST decade:. 155 

business for a few years, when he removed to Caledonia and lived there 
till 1864, returning to Rochester and residing here till his death on 
June 3 ; he was one of the founders of the Rochester Historical society 
and contributed valuable papers on the early settlement of this region ; 
of retiring habits, he never held any office other than that of member 
of the governing bodies of the city and the county, and he died with 
a reputation for the staunchest integrity and the most unswerving ad- 
herence to his convictions. 

Through the early part of 1890 the malady commonly known as the 
grip (an Anglicisation of the F"rench form, la grippe), which had made its 
first appearance at the close of the previous year, was very prevalent, 
being directly fatal in many instances but in far more cases bringing 
with it the susceptibility to other diseases and to lifelong infirmity ; the 
city has not been free from it since then and almost every spring it be- 
comes so widespread as to be epidemic. On Sunday, April 13, by 
order of Mayor Carroll, all the saloons of the city were kept closed, for 
the first time in many years, and the law was actually enforced for 
several succeeding Sundays. The first meeting of the Rochester clear- 
ing house was held May i. The corner-stone of the Central Presby- 
terian church was laid August 12; All Saints' Mission (Episcopal) 
erected the parish house and chapel during the summer, holding the 
first services in December; the Young Men's Christian association 
building was dedicated November 7. On the 26th of February Dr. 
M. B. Anderson, one of the foremost educators of the country, died at 
Lake Helen, Florida, where he was sojourning for his health; born at 
Brunswick. Maine, February 12, 1815, he was graduated, in 1840, at 
Watervilie college, where he was afterward a professor; removing to 
New York city in 1850, he became the editor of the Recorder, a weekly 
Baptist paper, resigning that position in 1853 to accept the presidency 
of the University of Rochester, which he retained till the autumn of 
1889, when he retired on account of failing health; his wife's death 
occurred, at the same southern resort, four days before his own, and the 
two were buried together in this city on the 4th of March. Henry S. 
Hebard died on March 11, just a month after he had been appointed 
postmaster and before he had entered upon the office. Two of the 
oldest members of the bar — Joseph A. Eastman, admitted to practice 



15-1 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

in 1838, and Delos Wentworth, admitted in 1841 — died March 8 and 
April 8, respectively. Of well- known clergymen the Rev. Dr. Carter, 
rector of Trinity church, died March 26; the Rev. Dr. James B. Shaw, 
the father of the ministry of Rochester, who became pastor of the 
Brick church on F"ebruary 16, 184 1, and held the charge till 1887 with 
the veneration of his congregation and the respect of the whole city, 
died May 8. Of other deaths, tiic most noteworthy were those of 
Patrick Barry, on June 28, an authority on horticulture and member 
of the well-known nursery firm of Ellvvanger & Barry ; William Ailing, 
on July 13, one of the pioneers, who was in the employ of Marshall & 
Dean, the Quaker booksellers, in 1831, and was the publisher of 
O'Reilly's history in 1838, though Harper & Bros, printed it; George 
G. Cooper, on September 8, a veteran journalist, who has been men- 
tioned elsewhere, and Isaiah S. Emery, who committed suicide on 
October 19, while the Labor party's candidate for Congress. 

The year of 1891 opened with two dedications of churches on the 1st 
of January, those of the North Baptist church and of the church of the 
Holy Rosary, on Rowe street ; the Lake avenue Baptist Memorial 
church was dedicated on February 10, and St. John's Lutheran church 
on August 9; the corner-stone of St. Bernard's seminary, for the edu- 
cation of Catholic priests, was consecrated on August 20 ; the Central 
Presbyterian church, with an auditorium capable of seating nineteen 
hundred, costing, with the land, over $100,000, was dedicated on Sep- 
tember 13, and the Glenwood Methodist church on October 21. In 
March an unsuccessful effort was made to stock the county with quail, 
four thousand being brought from Tennessee for the purpose ; the new 
government building was occupied, the first business of the post-office 
being transacted on March 30 and the first session of the United States 
Circuit court being held there on May 5. The street car company, in 
accordance with its agreement with the common council when the fran- 
chise was given to it, began the issuance of transfer tickets on October 
5, adding greatly to the convenience of local travel. Toward the end 
of the year the grip returned with such force that twenty-six deaths 
resulted directly from that cause in the closing week. 

The necrological list includes the names of the following : George W. 
Elliot died March 18, a literary man, editorially connected with the 




AUSTIN P. ROSS. 



THE LAST DECADE. 157 

daily press for several years and afterward managing editor of the 
American Rural Home; he was defeated in the candidacy for the may- 
oralty in 1888, but was successful in his advocacy of the public park 
system in tlie common council. Rev. Thomas James, colored, died 
April 18; he was born in servitude at Canajoharie in 1 804 and was 
considered to have been the last person who came into the world in 
this state a slave; he was sold twice and ran away from his last pur- 
chaser when he was seventeen ; coming to the village of Rochester he 
learned to read and after teaching school here for some time he began 
preaching in 1829 and- was for many years the pastor of Zion church. 
James L Angle died May 4, a learned and upright judge, who was on 
the bench of the Supreme court, first in 1877, by appointment, and 
afterward, by election, from 1883 to 1889, when he retired on reaching 
the constitutional limit of seventy years. Dr. E. H. Hurd, the oldest 
homoeopathic physician in the city, died May 15 ; Deacon David Dickey, 
a quiet man but an effective worker in the charities of the Brick church, 
died May 19, and Gen. I. F. Quinby, one of the faculty of the univer- 
sit}' from its second year (where he occupied the chair of mathematics), 
a general in the army during the civil war and city surveyor for the last 
few years of his life, died September 18. 

Josiah W. Bissell, a resident of Rochester from his infancy till he was 
forty years old. a most remarkable man, a versatile genius, always do- 
ing something unusual, died at Pittsburg, Penn., November 30. Brought 
up in the banking business, he was for a time the cashier of the old City 
bank, and then established the banking firm of Bissell & Amsden, which 
issued on its own account the fractional currency — or " shinplasters," 
as they were called — which was in common use long before the civil 
war caused the government to follow that example. While he was do- 
ing that he built at Carthage the propeller Genesee Chief, the first 
steam vessel constructed at this port, and afterward he ran it himself 
down the St. Lawrence river and through the gulf to New York. Mov- 
ing to what was then far out on Main street, he changed the title of the 
thoroughfare to East avenue by attaching sign- boards at every corner 
along its length, in defiance of the common council, which had refused 
to alter the name, and then, buying the old tavern on the corner of 
Alexander street, he let the Home for the Friendless have it on terms 



158 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

of easy payment. Dissolving his banking firm he devoted liimself en- 
tirely to building, constructing the present Main street bridge (<ine of 
the best) and the last suspension bridge at Carthage (one of the worst) 
and many of the largest hotels in this country and Canada. Being in 
St. Louis when the war broke out, he was in his element and at once 
raised a full regiment called the " Engineer regiment of the West/' 
every man of which was a mechanic ; as colonel in command of this he 
performed one of the most notable achievements of the war by the con- 
struction of a canal at island Number Ten, enabling the Union fleet to 
pass down the river. At the close of the rebellion he returned to 
peaceful restlessness and devised the system of title insurance which is 
now in common use and for the promotion of which he established 
offices all over the country. 

The system of university extension was introduced here by a public 
meeting held in January, 1892. On the ist of May the Unitarians 
celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the permanent establishment of 
the church in this city ; many clergymen were present from a distance 
and at the banquet on the second evening most of the orthodox de- 
nominations of Rochester were represented by prominent pastors who 
spoke congratulations of fraternity and good will. On May 30 occurred 
the dedication of the soldiers' monument in Washington square, pre- 
ceded by an imposing parade of ten thousand people, headed by war 
veterans and comprising most of the older boys of the public schools; 
President Harrison, Governor Flower and Frederick Douglass were 
present as the guests of the city and made addresses at the unveiling 
of the statue, the other speakers being Col. John A. Reynolds, President 
Hill. Senator Parsons and Mayor Curran. The monument consists of 
a shaft of granite surmounted by a bronze figure of Abraham Lincoln, 
rising from a pedestal twenty-one feet square, which is set in a base 
approached by five steps and having at its corners four bronze military 
statues, typifying the infantry, the cavalry, the marines and the artil- 
lery ; on the northern side is this inscription: "To those who, faithful 
unto death, gave their lives for their country. 1861 — 1865 ; " on the 
southern face are these words : " We were in peril ; they breasted the 
danger. The republic called ; they answered with their blood ; " the 
great seals of the United States and the state are displayed on the east 



THE LAST DECADE. 159 

and west side; the total height of the monument is forty-two feet, the 
weight of stone is nearly half a million pounds, and the cost of the 
whole was $26,000, met by popular subscription and the proceeds of 
entertainments. The American Association for the Advancement of 
Science met here in August. Our local state militia, consisting of the 
First and Eighth Separate companies, spent the last two weeks in Au- 
gust and much of September in the neighborhood of Buffalo, to guard 
property during the prolonged railroad strike there. On the 5th of 
October Governor Flower and his staff passed through the city on the 
canal, making an inspection of the channel through all its course — the 
first time that such a trip had been made by the executive of the state 
since De Witt Clinton came through from the opposite direction at the 
opening of the canal in 1825. The Rochester Bar association was in- 
corporated November 30. 

Among the deaths of the year were those of Don Alonzo Watson, 
January 1, the wealthiest man in the city; Nehemiah Osburn, January 
10, who came here in 1821 and was one of the very earliest contractors 
and builders in the village, so that a large proportion of the original 
buildings on Main street between the river and Clinton street were put 
up by him ; George E. Mumford, February 2. president of the Mer- 
chants' bank from the beginning and one of our prominent financiers ; 
Charles J. Burke, May 17, who might be taken as the representative 
merchant of Rochester ; Alfred Ely, May 18, member of Congress from 
1859 to 1863, taken prisoner at Bull Run while viewing the battle from 
a distance as a non-combatant and confined in Libby prison for five 
months; D. D. T. Moore, June 3, the founder and editor of the Rural 
New Yorker, a popular agricultural weekly, and elected mayor in 1865 J 
Mortimer F. Reynolds, June 13, the first white child born (December 2, 
1 8 14) in what was at that time Rochester, and founder of the Reynolds 
library a few years before his death ; George Arnold, October 17, one 
of the pioneers and a house painter from the earliest days, and Joseph 
Harris, November 18, for a long time the editor of the Genesee Farmer 
and an authority on tillage. 

During the evenings of January 23,24and 25, 1893, the Rochester His- 
torical society gave a series of entertainments at the Lyceum theater, rep- 
resenting the growth of Rochester from the purchase of Phelps and Gor- 



160 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY 

liam to the close of the war; nearly $2,000 was realised for the main- 
tenance of tlie society. The early part of the year was marked by the 
completion and extension of many ecclesiastical structures, the altera- 
tions of the Brick church to the extent of $75,000 being finished, the 
new building of the Second Baptist being dedicated and the old edifice 
turned into a Sunday school room, the Memorial Presbyterian church 
being dedicated on March 19 and Christ church first occupied on March 
'25 A branch of the post- office for the east side of the river was opened 
on April i. Full sized models of Columbus's caravels — the Santa 
Maria, the Pinta and the Nina — came up through the lake on June 25 
and lay by the pier at Charlotte for two days, during which many thou- 
sands went down to see them ; the model of a Viking ship came through 
by the Erie canal a week later ; all four vessels were on their way to the 
Columbian exposition at Chicago. On July 5 a man whose identity 
was never revealed repaid to the German insurance company $4,000 
which he said had been obtained wrongfull}' from it. Through August 
29 the most severe storm within the memory of anyone then living 
prevailed ofif the harbor of Charlotte, many lives and vessels being lost. 
The first female student at the University of Rochester was admitted on 
September 20. On November 18 was made the first public trial of the 
propulsion of canal boats by electricity, the power being conveyed, to a 
lever extending from the vessel, from the Rochester railway company's 
lines by overhead trolley wires ; the boat was thus drawn back and 
forth between here and Brighton for two miles 

On April 3 died Mrs Mary B. Allen King, one of the early school 
teachers of past generations; on July 14 Michael Filon, mayor of the 
of the city in 1862; on July 30 Donald McNaughton, first president of 
the Rochester & State Line railway ; for eight years a member, and 
much of that time chairman, of the board of supervisors ; elected to the 
state Senate in 1887, and again two years later ; defeated for Congress 
in 1892 by only 507 votes; appointed in that year by Governor Flower 
as chief executive officer of the Columbian exposition at Chicago, where 
he dietl suddenly in the discharge of his duties. On October 5 George 
II. Harris died, an eminent authority on Indian matters in this region, 
of whose labors in that field mention has been made in the sketch of the 
county; on October 13 died Francis A. Macomber, a successful lawyer 




J&(yTtl/i^ Q/C^^ 




THE LAST DECADE. 161 

and an able judge, who was elected to the bench of the Supreme court 
in 1878 and re-elected in 1892. 

The financial troubles of the last half of 1893 made their effects felt 
in this city, as well as elsewhere, not only by those who had been pre- 
viously the really poor but even more keenly by those who had been 
before that self-supporting but in very moderate circumstances. To 
relieve the distress the Chamber of Commerce, in the beginning of 
1894, raised by appeal to the citizens a fund of $1 1,872.49, the common 
council appropriated $10,000 for the use of the board of park commis- 
sioners in giving winter work on buildings in the parks, and the mayor 
sent around wagons through all the streets to collect discarded cloth- 
ing ; by these means and the private efforts of the charitable the suf- 
fering was confined to a comparatively small limit. Tuberculosis hav- 
ing made its appearance among cattle in this vicinity, the state board 
of health, after examination on February 9, ordered several cows killed, 
to check the spread of the disease. A movement was begun in the 
spring by the Genesee Forestry association for the extirpation of cater- 
pillars ; prizes being offered to public school children, for doing the 
work, several millions of cocoons were gathered and burned by them. 
An important step was taken in the early summer toward the preserva- 
tion of health, by the adoption of individual communion cups in the 
churches ; on May 6 the North Presbyterian church used them, for the 
first time in this city (and, so far as is known, first in the whole coun- 
try), the Central Presbyterian followed a week later and in a short time 
most of the large churches of other denominations here did the same. 
Another forward movement of a sanitary character was made when the 
the municipal authorities, on June 12, entered into a contract with a 
private company for the burning of the city's garbage at an expense of 
$28,970.50 annually for the next ten years. 

On June i the new Jewish temple of Berith Kodesh was dedicated 

with imposing ceremonies, in which prominent parts were taken not 

only by rabbis from a distance but by Dr. Saxe (Universalist), Rev. 

Myron Adams (Congregationalist), Dr. Hill (Baptist), president of the 

university, and Rev. William C. Gannett (Unitarian), all of this city ; 

the chimes of St. Peter's church (Presbyterian) rang out a glad salute 

and all the Protestant clergy of this city attended the dedication. The 
21 



162 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

laying of the corner-stone of tlie new court-house, on July 4, has been 
detailed elsewhere. On July 20 the mercury stood at ninety- nine de- 
grees in the shade, the highest point reached here since the weather 
bureau was established, perhaps the highest ever known here. Of new 
buildings erected during the year there were thirty- four of brick — most 
of them for business blocks, including the new Chamber of Commerce 
building — with three hundred and ninety-one frame structures, most of 
them dwellings. The most noticeable public improvement of many 
years was the laying of a new Medina block pavement on Main street, 
from Fitzhugh street to East avenue at a cost of over ninety-two 
thousand dollars, and the same on State street, from Main to Center, at 
an expense nearly one-third as great ; at the same time all overhead 
wires were removed except those of the street car lines, to the iron 
pillars of which swinging electric lamps were attached from the West 
avenue bridge to Union street, supplanting the globes tha^ formerly 
hung from the unsightly arms of wooden poles and making the long 
thoroughfare the most brilliantly lighted street in the United States. 

The obituary list of the year opens with the name of Oscar Craig, a 
man of the most active philanthropy, president of the state board of 
charities, who died January 2. Jason W. Seward, born in 1806, died 
January 6; he came here in 1833 and, in conjunction with his sister, 
conducted for many years the Seward female seminary on Alexander 
street. Henry Michaels, the most prominent of our Jewish merchants, 
whose benevolence was not bounded by the limits of race or creed, died 
March 2. Darius Perrin, the oldest surviving pioneer, died March 15 ; 
he had resided here for eighty two years, having come from Perinton 
(which was his birthplace and which was named after his uncle) in 1812, 
when he was eight years old, so that he always remembered having 
walked across the stringers of the first bridge, which was finished in that 
year, and he always carried the recollection of the sound of the cannon 
when the British fleet fired on Charlotte in 1814; he was a leader in 
politics when the city was formed in 1834, was elected sheriff on the 
Whig ticket in 1839 and was appointed postmaster by President Taylor 
in 1849; for the last thirty years of his life he lived quietly, retired 
from business. Dr. Herbert M. Dayfoot, a distinguished homoeopathic 
physician, at one time president of the state society of that school, died 



TEIE LAST DECADE. 163 

in a hospital in Philadelphia, April 22, after an operation on his foot. 
Other deaths were those of Vital Reche, April 25, within six months of 
a century old ; of Dr. M. L. Mallory, April 28, by his own hand ; of 
Mrs. Harriet Prindle Peck, June 8, one of the founders of the Industrial 
school ; of Isaac Loomis, June 30, who came here in 1820, was the first 
architect in the village and practised that profession till the end, was al- 
ways a prominent Odd Fellow and one of the highest in the order in the 
state at the time of his death; of Louis Chapin, August i, a leading 
Presbyterian ; of Rev. Carl Siebenpfeiffer, August 19, pastor emeritus of 
Salem church (German Evangelical), of which he was the first pastor in 

1873- 

This present year of 1895 is too young to have furnished much of a 
record of important detached events. Diphtheria having been always 
one of the most destructive diseases in Rochester, the attention of the 
community, and particularly of the medical fraternity, was attracted to 
the recent discovery by a French physician of the curative properties 
inherent in the blood of horses that had been immunised by proper 
treatment. Some of that anti-toxine was brought to the city and ap- 
plied in the case of a child who was very ill during the first week of the 
year, the result being perfectly satisfactory ; three horses of our fire 
department were then detailed for this peculiar service and after they 
had undergone for several weeks the graduated injections of diphtheritic 
poison that rendered them germ-proof they were bled and the serum 
was drawn off from the blood, so that in May the wonderful remedy was 
ready for distribution among the doctors. Several clergymen severed 
their connection with their congregations in the early part of the year, 
Rev. Dr. A. J. Hutton, of St. Peter's Presbyterian, preaching his fare- 
well sermon on January 28 ; Rev. Louis C. Washburn, of St. Paul's 
Episcopal, doing so on February 25, and Rev. Dr. Asa Saxe, of the 
First Universalist, on March 2, though the last-named continues to oc- 
cupy the pulpit, his successor not having been chosen ; he had been the 
pastor of the church for just forty-three years and was the oldest minister 
in the city at the time of his retirement. In the middle of March the 
congregation of the Good Shepherd (Episcopal), on Grape street, ceased 
to exist, owing to a difference with the bishop of the diocese. In the 
same month the Jewish Tidings, which had been published here for the 



164 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

previous eight years, was purchased by the pro[)rietor of tiie A?nerican 
Hcbreiv, a weekly paper of New York, and absorbed in the latter jour- 
nal. During the first three weeks of April a pure food exhibition was 
given under the auspices of the Mechanics' Institute, which was satis- 
factory and successful. On the 29th of that month an extraordinary 
display of confectionery was made at the first ball and reception of the 
association of cooks and pastry-cooks of Rochester. 

Brief as is the term, the first five months of the year saw many pass 
from the stage of action who had been identified in some way with the 
early life of Rochester or liad left their impress upon the city. On 
January 14 died Samuel C. Worden, the best-known restaurateur of the 
place, who had been in the business through the lifetime of more than 
one generation, having been one of the early landlords of the old Na- 
tional Hotel and after that the keeper of " Oyster bay " and other eat- 
ing saloons of unblemished character. John H Gordon died February 
13 ; he was, in connection with his brother James, the inventor of the 
Gordon harvester, the forerunner of the McCormick machine, which 
was an infringement upon it, so that each brother recovered nearly a 
quarter of a million dollars in damages and amassed a large fortune 
from the invention. On February 20 there died suddenly, at Washing- 
ton, the most distinguished man that ever lived in Rochester, Frederick 
Douglass. Born a slave on the eastern shore of Maryland, in February, 
1815, he escaped from bondage when twenty-one years old and went to 
New Bedford, Mass., where he lived for several years and came to this 
city in 1847, establishing a weekly journal called at first the North Stcxr 
and afterward Frederick Douglass s Paper, of which he was the sole 
editor ; while engaged in this work he was delivering lectures and at- 
tending anti-slavery conventions all over the country, besides being ab- 
sent for several months in 1859 in England, whither he had fled to 
avoid his rendition on the requisition of Governor Wise, of Virginia, on 
the charge, probably unfounded, of his complicity with the raid of John 
Brown. In the latter part of the war, after the emancipation proclama- 
tion, he was specially active in promoting the enlistment of colored 
troops ; in 1870 he removed to Washington and became the editor of 
the New National Era; in 1872 he was chosen presidential elector-at- 
large for the state of New York; in 1876 President Hayes appointed 









^ Wv^ 






^ 


kr- 


■j^ 







7 




THE LAST DECADE. 165 

him United States marshal for tlie District of Columbia, which office he 
held till President Garfield five years later made him recorder of deeds 
for the district; in 1889 President Harrison appointed him minister to 
Hayti, and after he had resigned that position the black republic de- 
signated him one of its commissioners to the Columbian exposition. 
He was by far the greatest man of his race that this continent ever pro- 
duced, of superior intellect, with fine command of language and with 
the gift of eloquence of the very highest order, so that no other orator, 
with the possible exception of Henry Ward Beecher, was his equal in 
the ability to capture a hostile audience; here, where he lived so long, 
he was always listened to with delight, even by those politically opposed 
to him, and he was brought back to be buried ; after the body had lain 
in state at the city hall through the morning of February 25, the funeral 
exercises, of an impressive character, were held, in the afternoon, at the 
Central church, which was filled long before the services began ; Rev. 
Dr. Taylor made the prayer. Rev. William C. Gannett delivered the ad- 
dress over the casket. Miss Susan B. Anthony pronounced a eulogy and 
Rev. Dr. Stebbins gave the benediction. 

George W. Fisher, the veteran bookseller, died February 24 ; he 
came here in 1821 and entered the book-store of Everard Peck, whose 
interest he afterward purchased ; his store was on Exchange street, near 
Main, and there he remained in the business till 1871 ; when he retired 
he was understood to be the oldest bookseller, in length of storekeep- 
ing, in the state west of New York city ; he was one of the early mem- 
bers of the Rochester Union Grays, a crack military organisation 
formed in 1838, in which he took great interest to the last. Peter 
Palmer died March 12, aged ninety- five; he was one of the first pyro- 
technists in the country and carried on the manufacture of fireworks in 
this city for nearly half a century ; for their occasional display and for 
a promenade and concert hall he built, about fifty years ago, Palmer's 
Garden on Main street, nearly opposite North avenue. Miss Elizabeth P. 
Hall died March 16; she was one of the founders of the Humane 
society, was long identified with other works of benevolence and her 
name was a synonym for active kindness toward man and beast. On 
the same day James O'Donoghue died, one of the old residents, who 
was in the furniture business on East Main street fifty years ago. Rev. 



166 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Dr. F. W. Holland, who at two different periods was the pastor of the 
Unitarian church in this city, died at Concord, Mass , March 26. 

On the same clay, at Virginia Beach, whither he had gone for health 
and recreation, died William S. Kimball ; he was one of the most 
prominent and public-spirited men in the community during the last 
twenty-five years and identified with a wider range of interests asso- 
ciated with the modern life of the city than any other man, and his 
wealth was expended freely in the promotion of all kinds of projects 
conducive to the general welare. To give a list of the organisations 
with which he was connected would be laborious ; it is enough to say 
that of each of the following he was at one time the president: The 
City hospital, the Union bank, the Chamber of Commerce, the Indus- 
trial school, the Genesee Valley club and the Post Express printing 
company. Henry L. Fish, a member of the common council and of 
the board of supervisors for many years, elected mayor in 1867, re- 
elected the next j-ear and chosen member of Assembly in 1872, died 
April I ; Jeremiah Sullivan, aged ninety-five, one of the organisers of 
the congregation of the Immaculate Conception church, died April 6; 
Henry W. Gregg, elected judge of the Municipal court a few months 
before, the youngest man ever chosen to judicial office in this city, died 
April 20, aged twenty-seven ; Owen Redmond, a mechanical genius, 
inventor of numerous machines, died May 2'] ; George T. Farker, one 
of the older lawyers of the city, died May 30, and Mrs Eliza M. Reid, 
the widow of Dr. W. W. Reid, one of the most eminent of our physi- 
cians, died May 31, being within three months of ninety-six years old ; 
at the time of her death she was the oldest resident of Rochester — 
possibly in the years of her age, certainly in the time of her living here ; 
she came in 1822, was married in 1830 and was for many years a 
leader in all social gatherings, as well as prominent in charitable work, 
for she was the last survivor of the original board of managers of the 
Rochester orphan asylum. This brings the record down to the 1st of 
June ; there it ends. 



THE PRESENT DAY. 167 



CHAPTER V. 

THE PRESENT DAY. 

The Female Charitable Society — The Society for the Organisation of Charity — 
Orphan Asylums — The Industrial School — Infants' Summer Hospital — Home for the 
Friendless — The Church Home — Home of Industry — The Humane Society — Children's 
Aid Society — Young Men's Christian Association — University of Rochester — The 
Theological Seminary — Wagner Memorial College — Mechanics' Institute — Public 
Schools — The Reynolds Library — Academy of Science — The Historical Society — The 

Churches — Clubs of all Kinds — The Chamber of Commerce — The Bank« — The Parks 

The Bridges — The Railroads — Municipal Government — The Fire and Police Depart- 
ments — The City Expenses — Sewers and Water Works — Miscellaneous Statistics. 

And what shall be said about Rochester at the present day? What 
has gone before might be considered as leading up to this, but so .much 
has been told of its progression, of the events that have made the city 
what it is, that a rapid survey of the most prominent institutions now 
existing here seems to be all that is required. The oldest organisation 
now extant is the Female Charitable society, which was formed on 
February 26, 1822, with a board of twelve directors — of which Mrs. 
Levi Ward was president and Mrs. Everard Peck treasurer — and fifteen 
visitors. The object of the association was the relief of the sick poor, 
and this purpose has been maintained to the present day; in addition to 
this, however, the society was instrumental in the promotion of enter- 
prises not directly within its scope, for it started almost immediately a 
charity school and conducted it until the common school system was 
established ; in 1844 it sent to the common council the first petition for 
a work- house to take the place of the jail as a location of confinement 
for convicted criminals, and in May, 1847, the City hospital was incor- 
porated as the outcome of the society, though the building was not be- 
gun till ten years after that and was not completed till 1863 ; its entire 
management, with the exception of the medical department, was turned 
over to the Charitable society, in whose hands it still remains. The 



168 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

present officers of the society are as follows: President, Mrs. Oscar 
Craig; vice-presidents, Mrs. Adolplius Morse, Mrs. W. C. Rowley and 
Mrs. Charles H. Webb ; recording secretary. Mrs. Jane H. Robinson ; 
corresponding secretary, Mrs. Thomas Chester ; treasurer, Miss Sarah 
Frost. 

Of a nature cognate to that of the Female Charitable, but working 
on different lines, is the Society for the Organisation of Charity, which 
came into existence in the autumn of 1890 and began active work in 
the following February, with J)r. E. V. Stoddard as president and Mrs. 
Helen D. Arnold as secretary. Its object is not to give aid direct but 
to help the poor to help themselves, to maintain correspondence among 
the various charities of the city and to protect those societies, the city 
authorities and individual givers from imposition by the solicitation of 
persons unworthy of rehef or those who, though destitute originally, 
were receiving aid from a number of sources. With this end in view 
the organisation had got nicely at work in its investigation of all claims 
made upon it and in classifying the city poor, when the severe weather 
of January, 1893, compelled it to depart from its original purpose and 
to issue a special call for money to be used as an " immediate relief 
fund." The manner in which it disbursed this fund met with so much 
public approval that in the following winter the society obtained nearly 
$1,500 for that purpose, and in the last winter as much more — both of 
these sums being in addition to the similar amount which is necessary 
for the current expenses of the association — and when the Chamber of 
Commerce raised the fund of more than ten thousand dollars in the 
early part of 1894, as told in the previous chapter, there was universal 
acquiescence in the proposition to turn it over to the society for distri- 
bution. The present officers are John W. Oothout, president ; William 
F. Peck, George Darling and Miss C. L. Rochester, vice- presidents ; 
Mrs. Helen D. Arnold, general secretary and treasurer ; William R. 
Seward, treasurer of the immediate relief fund 

As death has been always in the world, so there have been orphans 
always, but these must have been cared for by relatives in our village 
days, or more of them kept in the alms-house, for it was from that in- 
stitution that nine little ones were taken to be the first inmates of the 
Rochester orphan asylum, when it was established in 1837, with a large 







^-^^u/ 



^^ 



THE PRESENT DAY. 169 

board of lady managers, of which Mrs. Samuel D. Porter was the secre 
tary and Mrs. Everard Peck the treasurer. In the next year the society 
was incorporated, with seven trustees — Mayor Elwood, ex of;lcio, 
Thomas H. Rochester, Everard Peck, Silas O. Smith, Silas Cornell, 
David Scoville and Moses Chapin. In 1839 John Greig, of Canandai- 
gua, gave an acre and a half of land on Hubbell park, and there the 
asylum building was erected which is still standing, many enlargements 
and improvements having been made to it since then. Up to 1869 no 
provision had existed for the reception and care of infants, the minimum 
of age before that having been two years, but since then the nursery 
has constituted one of the most important parts of the institution. What 
care is taken of the health of these wards of the city may be judged 
from this, that the report of the secretary for the year ending last 
February shows that with an average of one hundred and fifty two 
children, forty of whom were less than five years old, there had not 
been a single death during the previous sixteen months. Dr. Seelye 
W. Little is the physician of the asylum ; the matron is Miss Dinehart ; 
for the past year the expenses were $15,605 80, the receipts were $20,- 
639.83. The present officers of the board of managers are : Presi- 
dent, Mrs. George C, Buell ; vice-presidents, Mrs. S. B. Roby, Mrs. 
H. A. Smith, Mrs. H. Y. Smith ; recording secretary, Mrs. E. B. Fen- 
ner; corresponding, Mrs. O. H. Robinson; treasurer, Mrs. E. W. 
Mulligan. 

Of the three Roman Catholic orphan asylums in the city the oldest 
is St. Patrick's, for girls only, which was founded in 1841, with a board 
of managers of which the president was Rev. Bernard O'Reilly, the 
pastor of St. Patrick's church ; the vice-president Rev. Charles D. 
French, the treasurer George A. Wilkin and the secretary Patrick 
Barry ; four years later the association was incorporated under the title 
of *' the Roman Catholic orphan asylum society of the city of Roches- 
ter." The location of the building has always been on Frank street, 
at the corner of Vought, the most extensive additions having been made 
to it in 1865. In 1864 the entire management of the asylum was put 
into the hands of the Sisters of Charity, who conducted it till 1870, 
when it was turned over to the Sisters of St. Joseph. Before 1864 the 

Catholic orphan boys of Rochester were sent to Lime Stone Hill or to 
22 



170 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Lancaster, both in Erie county ; in that year Bishop Tinion of Buffalo, 
then in charge of the diocese, established an orphan asylum for boys on 
South street, near St. Mary's church, but four years later the old 
Halstead Hall, on West avenue at the corner of Genesee street, was 
purchased and the institution occupied it till 1871, when the quarters 
became too narrow and a new building was erected on the site. Like 
St. Patrick's, St. Mary's is conducted by the Sisters of St. Joseph. The 
German Catholics of Rochester have an asylum of their own, on An- 
drews street, near Franklin, the main part of which was built in 1874 
and enlarged four years later; before that it was located near the pres- 
ent site, in a frame house, used, apparently, for the first time in 1866, 
though the society was incorporated in 1863. The asylum is under the 
management of the Sisters of Notre Dame. 

In November, 1877, the Jewish orphan asylum association of Western 
New York was started, \he union of the three societies of that character 
in Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse. Seven years later its first object 
was obtained, the accumulation of a fund sufficient for the purchase of 
a building, so the house was bought in that year, on North St. Paul 
street, near Evergreen, and put in proper condition. It has been occu- 
pied ever since then, the inmates being not only the orphans of Roch- 
ester but those sent hither from Buffalo and Syracuse. The trustees 
are distributed among the three places, the Rev. Dr. Max Landsberg 
of this city being the secretary. 

To provide for the crying needs of those who were not orphans — in 
the words of its constitution " to gather into the school vagrant and 
destitute children, who, from the poverty or vice of their parents, are 
unable to attend the public schools, and who gather a precarious liveli- 
hood by begging or pilfering; to give them ideas of moral and religious 
duty, to instruct them in the elements of learning and in different 
branches of industry and thus enable them to become useful numbers 
of society" — the Industrial school was established at the close of 1856, 
by a board of ladies of which Mrs. D. C. Ailing and Mrs. Alfred P21y 
were the directors, Mrs George H. P31y the treasurer, Mrs. Seth H 
Terry the corresponding secretary and Mrs. Gilman H. Perkins the 
recording secretary. The last-named still retains her original office, 
with Miss Julia Little as assistant, the other principal officers being 



triE PRESENT t)AY. l7l 

Mrs. William Ailing, president; Mrs. George Moss, treasurer, and 
Mrs. H. F. Huntington, corresponding secretary. At the beginning, 
rooms were used by the school, rent free, in the old Rochester House, 
on Exchange street, but two years later a site was purchased on the 
same street, opposite Court, and a building erected, which, with addi- 
tions made at different times, particularly the Sibley- Watson wing in 
1 88 1, constitutes the present home of the institution. Until recently 
children were lodged in the building, but of late years they have been 
brought there only for daily instruction — for which the board of educa- 
tion appropriates $600 a year — and for dinner, the younger ones being 
taken care of in the kindergarten and the infants in the day nursery. 
During 1894 two hundred and sixty-four children were registered 
there. 

The four regular hospitals of Rochester — the City, St. Mary's, the 
Homoeopathic and the Hahnemann — are mentioned in another part of 
this work, but allusion should be made in this place to a most admirable 
charity that has been carried on for a few seasons past, the Infants' 
Summer hospital, which is open for three months of the year, situated 
in a salubrious locality on the bluff overlooking the lake just west of 
the village of Charlotte ; there the babies of the poor that are suffering 
from infantile diseases are received and kept for a time until the 
malady, if temporary, has passed away, the lives of great numbers 
being saved in this way ; the medical attendance is wholly free, and so 
is the care of the babies and the board of the mothers who may have 
to be with them, except when it is possible for a reasonable sum to be 
paid by the parents. 

The Home for the Friendless is the third, in date of beginning, of the 
existing benevolent institutions of Rochester, having been founded in 
1849, with Mrs. Samuel L. Selden as president of its first board of 
managers, Mrs. Charles Church treasurer and Mrs. S. D. Porter secre- 
tary. Its beginning was very humble, as it occupied only half of a 
rented house on P^dinburgh street, then it moved to Monroe, th^n to 
Adams, and in 1853 became possessed of its present location on East 
avenue, at the corner of Alexander street, the commodious structure 
which it occupies being erected several years later, in place of the old 
tavern building that was used at first. A departure has been made 



172 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTr. 

from the original purpose of the institution, the educational feature and 
the provision of employment for tiiose out of work bein^ wholly aban- 
doned, and, although friendless and homeless women are sometimes 
sheltered there temporarily, the real province of the establishment is to 
furnish a home for aged persons of that sex, who, on entering, make 
over what property they may have, or whatever sum may be con- 
tributed by relatives, and are then maintained in comfort for the rest of 
their lives. The present officers are : President, Mrs. Mary S. Porter; 
vice-presidents, Mrs. J. R. Chaiiiberlin and Mrs. J. H. Hopkins ; record- 
ing secretary, Mrs. C. D. Van Zandt ; corresponding secretary, Mrs. 
Henry C. Munn ; treasurer, Miss M. A. Bellows. 

Similar in character to this is the Church Home, a denominational 
establishment under Episcopalian control, which was founded in 1868 
and has been during all of its existence located on Mt. Hope avenue, 
where, on the spacious lot given by George R. Clark and George E. 
Mumford, a house costing $15,000 was erected, in which destitute chil- 
dren have been taught and aged communicants have found an abiding- 
place. Of the first board of managers the president was Mrs. George 
H. Mumford, the vice-president Mrs. D. M. Dewey, the secretary 
Mrs. Edward M. Smith, the treasurer Miss Mary J. Clark; the present 
officers are Mrs. William L. Halscy, president; Mrs. Hiram Sibley and 
Mrs. T, G. Moulson, vice-presidents; MissM. A. Doolittle, correspond 
ing secretary ; Mrs. VV. C. Rowley, recording ; Mrs. W. S. Dewey, 
treasurer. Of the board cf trustees the first officers were George R. 
Clark, president ; Rev. Dr. Israel Foote, vice president ; George H. 
Humphrey, secretary, and John H. Rochester, treasurer; H, F. Atkin- 
son is now the president. Rev. Dr. Henry Anstice the vice-president, 
George H. Humphrey the secretary and W. W. Mumford the treasurer. 

A very beneficent institution and of far-reaching usefulness is the 
Home of Industry, which came into being in 1873 and was located at 
first on North St. Paul street, though a few years ago it moved to its 
present comfortable and attractive house on East Main street, just 
beyond Prince. Its object, which is well carried out, is the protection 
of young girls, their education in household work and the procurement 
of employment for them ; it is under the care of the Sisters of St. Joseph, 
the superior being Sister Hieronymo, the real founder of St. Mary's 
hospital. 



THE PRESENT DAY. 173 

For the prevention or mitigation of cruelty toward animals the "Bergh 
association of Rochester " was formed in 1873, with William H. Cheney 
as president; in 1880 a similar organisation was created to extend pro- 
tection to children, and the two were soon united under the presidency 
of the Rev. N M Mann and under the name of the Humane society, 
its declared objects being " to provide effective means for the prevention 
of cruelty to animals and children; to enforce all laws enacted for the 
protection of dumb animals and children, and to secure by lawful means 
the arrest, conviction and punishment of all persons violating such laws; 
also, the prevention of all cruelty by humane education." The present 
ofificers are: President, Rev. J. H. Dennis; vice-presidents, J. B. Y. 
Warner, Rev. Thomas A. Hendrick and others; corresponding secre- 
tary, Miss Ida Adams ; recording. Miss Edith Hopkins; treasurer, Mrs. 
George Moss The home, or shelter, of the society is on Sophia street, 
and there three hundred and sixty- six children were brought during the 
past year, investigation being made into the cases of as many more. 

While the Humane society has been able to accomplish much in the 
way of preventing the ill treatment of children and removing them, by 
direction of the court, from improper surroundings, it had in most cases 
no suitable place to send them and no means of providing for their 
future. To remedy this deficiency the Children's Aid society was 
organised and incorporated in the early part of this year, which fur- 
nishes these unfortunate little ones with desirable homes, the county 
paying $1 60 for their support and families being found, generally in the 
country, to take them in and oftentimes to adopt them permanently. The 
officers of the society are Mrs. E V. Stoddard, president ; Mrs. 
Alexander Prentice and Mrs. William N. Cogswell, vice-presidents; 
Miss Mary A. Farley, secretary; Miss Bertha Hooker, treasurer; Miss 
Alice Bacon, chairman of children's committee. 

Of a character benevolent rather than charitable is the Young Men's 
Christian association, which was organised in 1875 ^"'^ fifteen years 
later was able to complete a handsome edifice on the corner of South 
St. Paul and Court streets, costing, with the land and the furnishing of 
the house, $i8o,ooo, the money being obtained by continued applica- 
tions to the citizens; this building contains a gymnasium, swimming- 
bath and bowling alley, with a well-stocked reading-room and an 



174 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

assembly room called Music hall, for public entertainments. For this 
year the officers are Joseph T. Ailing, president; John F Dinkey and 
Edward Prizer. vice presidents ; Edward Wheeler, recording secretary ; 
Robert S Paviour, treasurer; Alfred H. Whitford. general secretary. 
As an outcome of this is the Young Women's Christian association, 
which has the occupancy of a house on P'ranklin street, where meals 
are served to working girls at cost price, sewing is taught and lodging 
is given to those who cannot afford lo pay for it. P^ollowing somewhat 
in this line is the Women's Educational and Industrial union, with its 
" working-girls' rest" on North Clinton street, but it extends its labors 
to the continual inspection of the public schools, which are much ben- 
efited by its thoughtful and kindly criticisms. 

The Art Exchange is an association that has existed here for several 
years, for the purpose of disposing, particularly at the holiday time, of 
fancy work that has been left with it by the makers. All these methods 
of helpfulness are supplemented by Christian reform, Jewish charity, 
and temperance associations, rescue missions and man)' other organi- 
sations which accomplish great good, the amount of which will never be 
known. 

Although the University of Rochester is far from being one of the 
oldest institutions here, it is certainly one of the most important and is 
perhaps the one with which the name of the city is most closely asso- 
ciated in the minds of those at a distance. The title is peculiarly incor- 
rect, unfortunate and misleading, for the institution is a college and 
nothing else ; it is not, never has been and in all likelihood never will 
be a university, there being no thought in the minds of the trustees, as 
far as is known, of expanding its scope so as to include any department 
or any school beyond the academic. Why the term " university " was 
given to it has never been explained .satisfactorily, the only thing look- 
ing to a solution being the expression of a delusive hope that it might 
some day comprehend a number of colleges or seminaries. That no at- 
tempt has been made to carry out that idea is to the credit of those in 
control, for its strength, its reputation and its usefulness are far greater 
than they would have been had its energy been frittered away in at- 
tempts at undue expansion. In 1847 ^" effort was made to transplant 
to Rochester a small college at Hamilton, in this state, which went by 



THE PRESENT DAY. 175 

the name of Madison university, but the project was resisted so stren- 
uously by the villagers of that Httle place that the idea was abandoned 
after some animosity liad been engendered, and the board of regents of 
the university of the state granted in 1850 a provisional charter, which 
was afterward made permanent, to the University of Rochester. The 
trustees organised in September of that year, with the following officers 
of the board : President, John N. Wilder ; vice-president, Frederick 
Whittlesey; secretary, William N. Sage; treasurer, Edwin Pancost — 
who resigned in a few months and was succeeded by Mr. Sage, who held 
the treasurership till his death. The faculty consisted of Ira Harris, of 
Albany, as chancellor (without a professorial chair) ; Asahel C. Kendrick, 
professor of Greek ; John F. Richardson, of Latin ; John H. Raymond, 
of history and belles lettres (those three being taken directly from 
Madison university, where they had taught for many years) ; Chester 
Dewey, of the natural sciences, and E. Peshine Smith, of mathematics^ 
temporarily till Prof. Quinby came in the following year. 

F^or the first eleven years all the classes were taught in the old 
United States Hotel building, on West Main street — the Commence- 
ment exercises being held in Corinthian hall — but in 186 1 the removal 
was effected to the new quarters on the east side of the river. There 
the university has its home, with a campus of more than twenty-three 
acres in extent, back of which stand three buildings of pleasing appear- 
ance — Anderson hall, for general instruction; Sibley hall, which con- 
tains the library of nearly thirty thousand volumes, and the Reynolds 
memorial laboratory — the material value of this and other property 
belonging to the college being about $1,200,000. The faculty, as now 
constituted, consists of David Jayne Hill, president; A. C. Kendrick, 
professor of Greek ; S A. Lattimore, of chemistry ; A. H. Mixer, of 
modern languages; J. H. Gilmore, of logic, rhetoric and English litera- 
ture ; Otis H. Robinson, of mathematics and natural philosophy ; W. C. 
Morey, of history and political science; H. F. Burton, of Latin ; H. L. 
Fairchild, of geology and natural history ; George W. Forbes, of Greek ; 
A. L. Baker, of mathematics ; C. W. Dodge, of biology ; K. P. Shedd, 
instructor in modern languages; Ryland Kendrick, in Latin and Greek; 
H. E. Lawrence, in physics; Adelbert Hamilton, in classics; H. K. 
Phinney, assistant librarian. While the university has always been 



176 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY 

free from sectarianism, its original character as a Baptist institution 
has largely departed from it and is now true only in the sense that a 
majority of the board of trustees belong to that denomination ; it is 
governed entirely by the principles of common morality and the re- 
quirements necessary to the highest education, of which it is a noble 
exponent. 

Wholly distinct from the university is the Rochester theological sem- 
inary, which, like the former, was foimded in 1850, the New York Bap- 
tist Union for Ministerial Education being its originator and its spon- 
sor. Its original faculty consisted of Dr. T. J. Conant, professor of 
Hebrew, and Dr. J. S. Maginnis, professor of theology, both from Madi- 
son university. Three years later Dr. E. G. Robinson came and from 
1868 to 1872 was the president of the seminary, being succeeded in 
that office by Dr. A. H. Strong, the present incumbent, besides whom 
there are seven professors in the English department and four in the 
German. The property of the seminary, which is valued at $773,000, 
includes the three buildings which it occupies — Rockefeller hall, on the 
corner of East avenue and Alexander street, containing a library of 
nearly twenty- eight thousand volumes; Trevor hall, which is the dor- 
mitory, and the German Students' Home, used exclusively by the stu- 
dents of that nationality. 

The Wagner Memorial Lutheran college is an institution of late 
growth, having been chartered only ten years ago, mainly for the edu- 
cation of students for the ministry, between fifty and sixty of whom 
are in attendance; the president of the board of trustees is Rev. Dr. 
John Nicum, and the faculty consists of Rev. August Redderoth, pro- 
fessor of Greek ; Rev. G. A. Genzmer, of Latin ; G. Doolittle, of mathe- 
matics, Carl Betz, of the natural sciences, and C. Wenzel, as tutor; 
the college is located on Oregon street, in the old Satterlee school- 
house. 

In one of the pleasantest parts of the city stand the buildings of the 
Rochester Atheniuum and Mechanics' Institute, commonly called by its 
original title of the Mechanics' Institute, which is now in the tenth year 
of its existence and which during that i)eriod has been of the greatest 
benefit in. giving free instruction in drawing to thousands of pupils, 
while of late years it has increased the scope of its u.sefulness so as to 




-<:- , ^C^Yc ^ 



ca^ 



THE PRESENT DAY. 177 

give tuition in the arts directly connected with domestic science and 
housekeeping. It is the owner of all the land and houses on the west 
side of Washington street from the Erie canal to Spring street, and 
extending to the alley in the rear, with the exception of the apartment 
house on the corner. Of its four houses, one is occupied by the classes 
in cooking, dressmaking and home nursing, the other three being 
rented for private residences ; back of these houses is a fireproof brick 
building, three stories high, which was lately erected for the use of the 
classes in drawing, painting and modeling in clay, as well as for the 
offices of the principal, his assistants and the secretaries. It was on the 
1st of October, 1885, that the Institute was organised, with Henry 
Lomb, the founder of the enterprise, as its president; the classes were 
taught at first in the Free Academy building, then they were removed 
to a business block on Exchange street and last December they were 
transferred to their present abode,- where they will remain until the 
dream of the trustees is realised and a spacious edifice, with its various 
sections connected by galleries, shall cover the whole front of the 
square, when the present building will be turned into shops for manual 
training. 

In 1891 the Institute absorbed the shadow of the old Athenaeum and 
took its name, for the purpose of obtaining its charter, which was so 
liberal as to be highly advantageous. The first instructor of the school 
was Prof E. C. Colby, who still remains as the principal of the institu- 
tion, with Prof. Eben Rose, who came here in the second year, as the 
vice-principal, and a large corps of additional instructors, Miss Sarah 
A. Nichols being at the head of the domestic science department, with 
four other teachers. Of the present board of trustees the president is 

E. R. Andrews, the vice-presidents are Mrs. H. S. Greenleaf and L. P. 
Ross, the secretaries are Charles B. Rebasz, recording ; William F. Peck, 
corresponding, and John A. Stewart, financial ; the treasurer is John 

F. Brayer. While the night classes are practically free, a moderate fee 

is charged for instruction in the daytime, when the attendance is about 

four-sevenths as great as in the evening. During the year just closed 

1296 were instructed in all departments, of which 715 were in the 

industrial (or drawing and painting), 581 in that of domestic science. 

In the public schools of the city 23,069 different pupils were regis- 
23 



178 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

tered during the past year, an increase over the enrollment of the 
previous year of nearly two thousand, but the attendance decreased, as 
is usual, during the spring months, so that on the ist of June there were 
only 17,928 in actual attendance. The reduction is accounted for, 
partly by the closing of the night schools at that time and partly by the 
fact that the law provides that all children between the ages of eight and 
twelve shall attend during eight months of the school period, those be- 
tween twelve and fourteen for at least eighty days, and those between 
fourteen and sixteen when not engaged in useful employment or service. 
For all these pupils there were employed during the year six hundred 
and fifty-four teachers, twenty-seven of whom were in the Free Acad- 
emy. There are thirty six school-houses and thirteen annexes, some of 
the principal buildings being creditable specimens of the architecture of 
Rochester and one of them, number twenty- six, so large as to accom- 
modate 1362 scholars. The board of education, which has entire con- 
trol of the public school system of this city, consists of twenty commis- 
sioners, one being elected from each ward ; the first president of the 
board was Levi A. Ward ; the present is John E. Durand. The first 
superintendent of schools was Isaac F. Mack, since whom the office has 
been filled by Samuel L. Selden, B. R. McAlpine, Washington Gibbons, 
Daniel Holbrook, R. D. Jones, John Atwater, I, S. Hobbie, P. H. 
Curtis, S. W. Starkweather, C. N. Simmons, S. A. Ellis, A. L. Mabbett 
and Milton Noyes, the present incumbent. A large part of the ground 
floor of the Free Academy is taken up by the Central library, nominally 
intended for the use of those in the public schools, but really used by a 
great many other people, for it is free, and last year over eight thousand 
persons drew books, principally novels, from its shelves ; it contains 
over twenty-two thousand volumes ; Mrs. Katherine J. Dowling has 
been the librarian for several years. 

The great library of Rochester is the Reynolds library, the nucleus of 
which is the books of the old Athenai-um that were sold, after the ex- 
tinction of that institution in 1877, to M. F. Reynolds and George S. 
Riley, the latter of whom soon transferred his interest to the former, 
who, a little later, turned over the property to an association, in- 
corporated, by an act passed in 1884, under the title of the Reynolds 
Library. The persons named in the act as incorporators, and therefore 



THE PRESENT t)AY. 179 

trustees, were M. B. Anderson, M. F. Reynolds, G. E. Mumford, W. 

C. Rowley, Hiram Sibley, Don Alonzo Watson, Donald McNaughton, 

D. T. Hunt, Arthur Cleveland Coxe, Theodore Bacon, E. M. Moore, 
Josiah Anstice, George EUwanger, Max Landsberg, S. A. Lattimore, 
W. C. Morey, Howard Osgood, F. A. Whittlesey, G. H. Perkins and 
Samuel Sloan ; of these the first seven have been taken away, the eighth 
has removed from the city and the others constitute the present board, 
with the addition of Cyrus F. Paine, David J. Hill and William F. Peclc, 
who have been elected by the other members of the board, as the body 
is self-perpetuating. Dr. E. M. Moore is the president of the board, 
George EUwanger and Theodore Bacon are the vice-presidents, and 
Josiah Anstice is the secretary and treasurer ; A. S. Collins is the 
librarian. By the will of Mr. Rej'nolds his valuable real estate, consist- 
ing of the Arcade and his residence on Spring street, of the combined 
worth of more than half a million dollars, was bequeathed to the 
Library. At this present writing, extensive alterations are making in 
the house, with a view to the removal of the books to that place by the 
close of the summer, from the Arcade, where the library has been al- 
ways situated. When that is done, the Reynolds library will be in an 
ideal location, conducive to th'e increase of its usefulness. What that is, 
may be judged from the number of its books, which has grown from 
about twelve thousand, which were left over from the old Athenaeum, 
to 31,115 catalogued volumes on the first of June, of which 16,857 were 
in the reference department, 14,258 in the circulating ; the number of 
its readers during the past year was nearly forty thousand. Particular 
attention is paid to the reference department, and in this it is the in- 
tention of the library committee, consisting ofProf. Morey, Mr. Whittlesey 
and Dr. Landsberg, to purchase all books that are necessary for the use 
of students in the university extension course and for those engaged in 
pursuing any other line of study. The library, which is supported en- 
tirely by the revenues derived from the rental of its real estate, is, and 
will be as long as it exists, absolutely free for all. 

As the outgrowth of the Rochester Microscopical society, which had 
existed for two years before that under the presidency of S. A. Latti- 
more, the Rochester Academy of Science was organised in 1881, the 
Rev. Myron Adams being the first president. At present the officers 



180 Landmarks of monkoe county. 

are Prof. H. L. Fairchild, president ; J. M. Davison and J. Eugene 
Whitney, vice presidents ; A. L. Ikiker, recording secretary; C. W. 
Dodge, corresponding; F. VV. Warner, treasurer. Although the asso- 
ciation has no permanent quarters of its own, it is in a flourishing con- 
dition and has distributed its pubhshed proceedings over the world. 

At a social gathering held on December 17, 1887, it was decided to 
form the Rochester Historical society, which was fully developed dur- 
ing the winter and incorporated in the following November. Dr. \i. M. 
Moore was, at its first regular meeting, chosen president ; Dr. A. H. 
Strong vice-president, Mrs. Jane Marsh Parker corresponding secre- 
tary. William F. Peck recording secretary. Oilman H. Perkins treasurer 
and H. K. Phinney librarian. The two secretaries still retain their 
offices; John H. Rochester is now the president, Frank W. Elwood the 
vice-president, Charles H. Wiltsie the treasurer and Miss Jane E. Roch- 
ester the librarian. The object of the society is to rescue from ob- 
livion all facts relating to the early history of this region and to pre- 
serve the record of events that are in any way connected with this 
locality, for which purpose it has accumulated already a well equipped 
library. Monthly meetings have been held during the years of its ex- 
istence, from November to June, at which valuable papers have been 
read by members of the society. Its quarters have been for several 
years in the Rochester savings bank building, but in the course of the 
summer it will move into its new abode on the third floor of the Rey- 
nolds library on Spring street. 

The following is a list of the churches of Rochester, with their pres- 
ent pastors : 

Presbyterian. — First church, Nelson Millard, D. D.; Brick, W. R. 
Taylor, D. D.; Third, Richard D. Harlan ; Central, H. H. Stebbins, D. 

D.; St. Peter's, ; Calvary, Charles A. Evans ; Memorial, Charles 

P. Coit, D. D.; United, J. P. Sankey, D. D.; North, Peter Lindsay; 

Reformed (Covenanter), ; Second Reformed, Cornelius M. 

Stefifens; Westminster, C. B. Gardner, D. D.; Emmanuel, J. S. Root; 
Mt. Hor, J. M. McElhinney ; Grace, T. E. Sherman. 

'Episcopal. — St. Luke's, Henry Anstice, D. D.; St. Paul's, ; 

Trinity, W. C. Hubbard ; Christ, W. D'Orville Doty, D. D.; Epiphany, 
Amos Skeele ; St. James's, J. H. Dennis; St. Andrew's, A. S. Crap- 







c 



\cuL^ ^y^ 




u 



THE PRESENT DAY. 181 

sey ; St. Mark's, E. P. Hart; St. John's, ; Ascension, G. T. Le 

Boutillier ; All Saints', Henry Rollings; Christ church mission, J. H. 
Perkins. Rev. Louis C. Washburn is the archdeacon of the eastern 
portion of the diocese of Western New York. 

Methodist— ¥nsU M. R. Webster, D. D.; Zion (African), W. A. Ely, 
D. D.; Asbury, A. W. Hayes; German, John Lange ; North avenue, 
G. W. Peck, LL. D.; Frank street, F. S. Parkhurst ; Cornhill, M E. 
Hedding ; Monroe avenue. Ward Piatt ; Hedding, Ray Allen ; Epvvorth, 
James Gosnell ; Spencer- Ripley, T. J. Bissell, D. D.; Glenwood, F. S. 
Rowland ; Free, B. Winget. 

Roman Catholic. — Bernard J. McQuaid, D. D., is the bishop of the 
diocese. St. Patrick's cathedral, J. P. Kiernan, rector; Hippolyte De 
Regge, chancellor; J. G. Van Ness, C. O'Loughlin, Thomas Hickey ; 
St. Mary's, John P. Stewart, Andrew Smeltz, Owen Farron ; St. 
Joseph's, Mathias Kuborn ; Sts. Peter and Paul's, F. H. Sinclair, J. B. 
Boppel ; Our Lady of Victory, Alphonse Notabaert ; Immaculate Con- 
ception, James F. O'Hare, William Gleeson ; St. Bridget's, T, A. Hend- 
rick ; St. Boniface's, Frederic Rauber ; Holy Family, Dietrich Lau- 
renzis; Holy Redeemer, F. C. Oberholzer, Joseph Miller; St. Michael's, 
Fridolin Pascalar, Hubert Regenbogen ; Holy Apostles', Timothy 
Murphy; St. Francis Xavier's, M. J. Hargather ; Corpus Christi, J. J. 
Leary ; St. Stanislaus's, Theophilus Szadzinski ; Holy Rosary, J. P. 
Kiernan. 

Baptist. — First, J. W. A. Stewart, D. D.; Second, F. L. Anderson, 
D. D.; First German, O. Koenig ; Park avenue, H. C. Peepels ; Lake 
avenue, C. A. Barbour; Plymouth avenue, Frederick Redfern ; Bron- 

son avenue, J. R. Lynch ; Second German, ; North, ; 

Alexander street, J. W. Millard ; Meigs street, John Bentzien ; Lyell 

avenue, ; Wilder street, Claude Kelly; Colored mission, G. W. 

Thrasher. 

Unitarian. — William C. Gannett. 

Evangelical. — Trinity, Emil Henckell ; St. Paul's, W. Baur ; Salem, 
J. F. W. Helmkamp; Christus, Frederick Wiedner; Association, P. E. 
Bahn. 

Lutheran. — Zion, Ernst Hartmann ; Reformation, W. J. Miller; St. 
John's, John Nicum, D. D.; Concordia, C. N. Conrad ; St. Matthew's, 



182 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

John Miihlhauser ; Grace, W. E. Murray; Trinity, G. A. Genzmer; 
Peace, Otto Posselt. 

Jewish — Berith Kodesli, Max Landsberg, D. I).; Beth Israel, Abra- 
ham Rosin. 

Univcrsalist. — P^irst, Asa Saxe, D D.; Second, 1). M. Kirkpatrick. 

Congregational. — Plymouth, Myron Adams, D. D. ; South, H. C. 
Riggs, D. D. 

Second Advent — G. W. Wright. 

Christian. — F. P. Arthur. 

In addition to the foregoing there are the church of the Strangers, of 
which N. H. Barbour is the pastor ; one or two Christadelphian syna- 
gogues, two citadels of the Salvation Army and a large number of mis- 
sions of all kinds ; there are two societies of Friends, but neither has a 
meeting-house. 

Club life has become of late years so prominent a feature of Ameri- 
can society that a sketch of any city would be incomplete without some 
mention of those social organisations. Several have existed here that 
have passed out of being, but others have sprung up that are far larger 
than their predecessors, on a much more expensive scale and with every 
prospect of permanence The Genesee Valley club was organised 
January 2, 1885, was incorporated two weeks later and on the 25th of 
March opened its club house. This was situated on South Washington 
street, and it answered its purposes fairly well for nearly four years, but 
the building, which had been a private residence, was not adapted to 
modern club life and the organisation built on the corner of East avenue 
and Gibbs street, opening its new house on February 22. 1889. This 
was the first structure erected in Rochester for the distinct and exclu- 
sive purposes of a club-house (though the Phccnix club had put up a 
building fifteen years before, of which it occupied all but the ground 
floor), and it fulfills admirably all of its requirements, having the mod- 
ern equipments, with ladies' rooms and a large assembly room for club 
balls and private entertainments, many of which, literary and artistic, 
have been given there. Its present membership is three hundred and 
forty-one, one hundred of those being non resident. The first presi- 
dent was H. F. Atkinson, the present is Gilman H. Perkins, the other 
officers being James S. Watson, vice-president ; Haywood Hawks, sec- 
retary, and Erickson Perkins, treasurer. 



THE PRESENT DAY. 183 

After the manner of these institutions in most of the large cities at 
the present time, the Country club was started on New Year's day of 
this year as an adjunct to the Genesee Valley, its membership being 
limited to one hundred and confined to that of the latter club. The 
Parsons farm, comprising eighty acres, on the Pittsford road, two miles 
east of Brighton, has been leased for five years, the grounds have been 
laid out for golf, lawn tennis, bicycle riding and other sports, stables 
have been built for thirty horses, the old homestead has been turned 
into a club-house with all conveniences, and everything tends to make 
the place an agreeable summer resort for its new lessees, who opened 
the house on May 30 Hiram W. Sibley is the president, James S. 
Watson and Erickson Perkins are the vice presidents ; George Wilder 
is the secretary and Gilman N. Perkins the treasurer. 

The Rochester club is the oldest now extant here, having been 
formed in i860, long before it had become the custom for clubs, except 
those in the metropolis, to possess separate houses of their own. Its 
members came in time to perceive the desirability of this, after rooms 
in the Ellwanger & Barry block, and afterward in the Rochester savings 
bank building, had been occupied by them for many years, and in 1888 
they purchased a fine residence on East avenue, between Gibbs and 
Scio street, which they fitted up with suitable appointments and moved 
in during that year. The membership is about two hundred and sixty, 
including thirty seven non residents. The first president was James 
Terry, the present is William Pitkin, the vice-president H. F. Atwood, 
the secretary Frederick L. Churchill and the treasurer Charles A. 
Bruff. 

Both in numbers and in wealth the Jews of this city have long been 
strong enough to maintain a club of their own, and as such the Phoenix 
was formed in 1872, giving place ten years later to the Eureka, which 
has a splendid building on North Clinton street, near Andrews, costing - 
$100,000, the finest club-house in the state outside of New York city, 
with a frontage of eighty- two feet, a depth of one hundred and seventy- 
six. The first president was J. W. Rosenthal ; the officers now are 
Marcus Straus, president ; Joseph Michaels, vice-president ; Maurice 
D. Strauss, secretary, and Herman C. Cohn, treasurer. 

By far the largest club in the city is the Rochester Whist club, or- 



184 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

ganised in September, 1882, whose name, originally appropriate, is not 
indicative of its character, which is social and general, like that of the 
foregoing three. Its limit of membership is five hundred and it has 
now come within five or six of that number. It is, distinctively, the 
down town club of the city, and, though it does not own its house, it has 
a long lease, with an option that will probably end in the purchase, of the 
old Dr. Dean residence, on North Fitzhugh street, near Church. John 
E. Morey was the first president; Horace C Brewster fills that office 
at present, with J. M. Ingersoll as vice-president, William H. Samson 
as secretary, Frank N. Beach as treasurer. In addition to these four 
there are many others of a similar nature but not influential in affecting 
public life, and there are, also, of course, still more associations of a 
specific character, for athletic exercise, for hunting, fishing, aquatic 
sport and the like. 

One word should be said regarding the literary clubs of Rochester. 
Of these the oldest is the Pundit, as it is frequently called, though the 
organisation has never adopted any title other than that of "the club;" 
it was formed in 1854, and since then it has held meetings at the houses 
of the various members every alternate week during the winter and 
spring, at which original papers have been read, followed by discussion. 
Inspired by the success of this informal association, the Fortnightly 
club sprang into being in February, 1881, infused with the same prin- 
ciples of management and animated by the same motives of literary 
improvement and cultivation ; many of the papers thus produced in 
both bodies have been of a high order and several of them have been 
preserved in permanent form by publication. In each club the num- 
ber of members has ranged from twelve to sixteen, but, as both are 
essentially private in their character, their constituency is not given 
here. The same reservation exists with regard to other men's clubs 
and to those composed exclusively of women, notably the Wednesday 
Morning club, the Ignorance club, the Roundabout club, the Women's 
Ethical society and many others, whose number is past finding out. 

An attempt was made in 1865 to establish a Board of Trade in this 
city, but the merchants of Rochester were apathetic ; the concern was 
started, languished for a few months and then expired. Nothing further 
of that nature was done till 1887, when the Chamber of Commerce 




^^^Z^;^^-^^^^:^ 



THE PRESENT DAY. 185 

was organised, being incorporated July 2, 1888. Its first president 
was H. H. Warner, who has been followed by William S. Kimball, 
Lewis P. Ross, Eugene T. Curtis, Max Brickner, Henry C. Brewster, 
Ira L. Otis and Charles P. Ford, the present incumbent ; the vice- 
presidents are James G. Cutler, A. J. Katz and F. W. Warner ; the 
treasurer is Benjamin E. Chase and the secretary is George Moss, who 
has filled that position for several years, having succeeded J. Y. 
McClintock, the original officer. The corporation has a membership 
of about two hundred, with annual dues of twenty dollars ; its location 
has been hitherto in the Rochester savings bank building, but it has 
recently moved to its new quarters on the corner of Main and St. Paul 
streets. During its short life thus far the Chamber of Commerce has 
been of the greatest benefit to Rochester in stimulating business activity, 
in promoting all enterprises that tended to the public good and dissem- 
inating knowledge with regard to the advantages which this city offers 
for the location of manufactories. 

Few places in the country, perhaps none, weathered the financial 
gale of 1893 as well as Rochester, and our comparative immunity from 
disaster was owing largely to the conservative action of our monetary 
institutions. Before the storm broke, the discount banks began to 
hoard their resources and during the last half of the year refused to 
lend except to regular customers, to whom they advanced only the 
smallest possible amount and for the shortest possible time. This policy 
was supplemented by the action of our savings banks, which refused to 
follow the lead of those in New York city in requiring thirty days' 
notice before the withdrawal of deposits, but, on the contrary, every 
dollar was paid immediately on demand, which, by the way, was not 
done in any other large city in the state. This combination of pru- 
dence and liberality prevented anything like a local panic in Rochester. 
This is a list of the banks now in the city, with the officers of each 
and the capital and surplus as shown by the latest official reports : 

Traders' — Simon L. Brewster, president ; Henry C. Brewster, vice- 
president and manager ; cashier, Charles H. Palmer ; $980,623.05. 

Flour City — C C. Woodworth, president; William Augustus Waters, 
cashier ; $666,639.52. 
24 



186 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Union — Oilman H. Perkins, vice-president; Oilman N. Perkins, 
cashier; $402,822.76. 

Monroe — Hiram W. Sibley, president; W. O. Mitchell, cashier; 
$323,207.90. 

Commercial — Charles H. Babcock, president ; Thomas J. Suanton, 
assistant cashier ; $300,000. 

Merchants' — R. K. Dryer, president ; VV. J. Ashley vice-president 
and manager; Percy R McPhail. cashier ; $298,171.84. 

Oerman- American — Frederick Cook, president ; Frederic P. Allen, 
cashier; $424,38626. 

Central — Benjamin E Chase, president ; Oeorge Wilder, cashier ; 
$228,778.52. 

Alliance — Oeorge W. Thayer, president; Albert O. Fenn, cashier; 
$171,912.60. 

Powers — D. W. Powers, president; J. Craig Powers, cashier; $161,- 

135 24- 

Rochester Trust & Safe Deposit com[)any — J. Moreau Smith, presi- 
dent ; Haywood Hawks, cashier; $470,828.18. 

Security Trust company — P^dward Harris, president ; William L. 
Mercer, cashier ; $350,039.81. 

Rochester savings bank — James Brackett, president ; Thomas H. 
Husband, cashier, surplus $1,507,024.62. 

Monroe County savings — James E. Booth, president ; David Hoyt, 
secretary; surplus $1,413,601.1 5- 

Mechanics' savings — Samuel Sloan, president ; John H. Rochester, 
secretary; surplus $204,384.32. 

East Side savings — J. B. Moseley, president ; P. B. Viele, secretary ; 
surplus $201,534.02. 

The private bank of Amsden Bros, seems to have made no report. 

Before the incorporation of this city there were several parks — or 
"squares," as they were all called, even those that were round, like 
that on the present Plymouth avenue — but as they were presented to 
the municipality, they shared the fate of most gifts and were not 
thought to be worth the expenditure of much money or care, whereby 
they were never anything of a credit to Rochester. It was only a few 
years ago that the citizens became conscious of the extreme need — 



THE PRESENT t)Ar. 187 

almost the necessity, in a large sanitary view — of a park system, and 
even then it required all the persistence of Dr K. M. Moore to rouse 
them to anything like a full sense of the situation. He was emphatic- 
ally the father of the present system, but his efforts would, in all likeli- 
hood, have been in vain, if the late George W. Elliott had not sup- 
[)lemented them by his unceasing arguments in the public press and in the 
common council, of which he was then a member and which was very 
solicitous for economy in that direction. In 1888 a law was passed 
creating a board of park commissioners, which was organised in May 
of that year. Dr. Moore being elected president and holding that office 
to the present time; H. F. Huntington has always been the treasurer, 
John H. Rochester is now the vice president, C. C. Laney is the super- 
intendent and M. O. Stone is the secretary of the board. Omitting the 
fractions, Genesee Valley park, on the south of the city, contains three 
hundred and seventy- five acres; Highland park, a little northeast of 
that, has seventy six acres, and Seneca park, on the north of the city, 
has two hundred and twelve, making a total acreage of six hundred 
and sixty-three, not counting in the eighteen acres of small parks in 
the interior of the city. For all this the purchase price paid was 
$256,884.91. besides an amount expended for maintenance and other 
purposes sufficient to make the total cost of the park system $456,- 
161. 2 1 up to March i of this year. Half a million dollars is a good 
deal of money, but it is a small price to pay for this inestimable 
benefit to the lungs, the hearts and the minds of a great city. 

Of the bridges now traversing the river within the city limits, the 
finest is that near the northern extremity, built of iron, on the site of 
the old Carthage bridge ; its arch, spanning at a single leap the stream 
two hundred and twelve feet below, has a chord of four hundred and 
twenty-eight feet, the third largest in the world, and its three approach 
spans, two on the west and one on the east, make the total length of 
the bridge seven hundred and seventeen feet; it cost $125,000 and was 
opened to the public on December i, 1890. The other viaducts are 
those at Vincent place, built in 1872-73, of iron, costing $150,000, the 
longest in the city, being nine hundred and twenty-five feet; at Piatt 
street, steel truss, on stone piers, cost $156,000, built in 1892; at 
Central avenue, of wrought iron, built in 1883, cost $48,000; at Main 



188 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

street, of cut stone, finished in 1857, cost $60,000: at Court street, 
stone arch, tinished in 1893, cost $150,000; at Clarissa street, of riveted 
deck iron, built on stone piers, in 1892, cost $50,000, and at Elmwood 
avenue, the southern boundary hue of the city, of iron, built in 1888, 
cost $37,000. Besides those there is the Erie canal aqueduct, built 
in 1839, at a cost of $600,000, on the north side of which there is a foot 
path, and there are also the railroad bridges of the New York Central, 
tlie Erie and the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg, none of which has 
any path or roadway. Twenty- five bridges, eight of them of the lift 
variety, cross the canal. 

No city of its size has better railroad facilities than Rochester. The 
principal road now running into the city is the New York Central, with 
its five lines — to Syracuse direct, the old road by way of Geneva, the 
Buffalo road, the Falls road and the Charlotte road — besides which the 
West Shore railroad is operated from the same station and the Northern 
Ceiiti al sends trains into the city over the line from Canandaigua. Other 
railroads are the l'>ie, the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburg, the Rome, 
Watertown & Ogdensburg — this branch of which, built as the Rochester 
& Lake Ontario Belt railway, was opened in 1883 — the Western New 
York & Pennsylvania, over which the Delaware, Lackawana & Western 
also runs its trains in, and the Lehigh Valley, which got into the city three 
years ago by means of a branch built under the name of the Rochester 
& Honeoye Valley railroad. Besides these there are several lines that 
are run only in the summer, for pleasure travel — the Bay railroad, 
whicii terminates at the Sea Breeze ; the Glen Haven road, which ends 
at the upper part of the bay, and the Rochester & Irondequoit railway, 
the last named being electric and operated by the street car company, 
which sends its coaches down to the ferryboat at Summerville, which 
crosses the river to Charlotte, connecting at Ontario beach with the 
lines, both electric, that run from there to the city or to Manitou beach, 
further west on the lake shore. 

As to the principal officers of the city government at this time (June, 
1895), ^^^^ chief executive is Merton E. Lewis, who, as president of the 
common council, became acting mayor when George W. Aldridge was 
appointed state superintendent of public works. The city treasurer is 
Samuel B. Williams. The executive board — which consists of Richard 



THE PRESENT DAY. 189 

Curran, president, William W. Barnard and John U. Schroth, with 
Thomas J. Neville as clerk — has charge of the street department, John 
J. Heveron superintendent; the water works, Emil Kuichling, chief en- 
gineer, and the fire department, together with control over contracts 
for public improvements. The chief engineer of the fire department is 
James Malcolm, wiih William Boon, John A. Topham, Frank A. Jayne 
and Charles Little as assistants ; the present equipment consists of 
fourteen fire houses, eight steamers, two chemical engines, eleven two- 
horse hose wagons, with two extra hose carts, four hook and ladder 
trucks (two of which are the Hayes aerial), one protective fire patrol 
wagon, two supply wagons, twenty thousand feet of hose lines, with 
fifteen thousand feet held in reserve ; eighty horses, with ten more for 
special service, and one hundred and seventy five men. 

The police department consists of the police justice, Charles B. 
Ernst, with B. Frank Enos as police clerk ; three commissioners — Jacob 
A. Hoekstra, James D. Casey and the mayor ex officio — the chief of 
police, Joseph P. Cleary, and assistant chief, John C. Hayden, with two 
captains, six lieutenants, eight detectives, four sergeants, six patrol- 
wagon drivers and one hundred and twenty-eight patrolmen. J. Y. 
McClintock is the city surveyor, Adolph J. Rodenbeck the city attorney, 
Abram S. JVfann the city auditor, Richard Gardner the overseer of the 
poor, George Bohrer the city sealer; George E. Warner and John M. 
Murphy are the judges of the Municipal court ; Pomeroy P. Dickinson, 
Edward McSweeney and Adolph Spiehler are the excise commission- 
ers; Henry C. Munn, E. B. Burgess and E. A. Kalbfleisch are the 
assessors. The board of health consists of Max Brickner, Dr. Charles 
R. Sumner, Frank Fritzsche, Dr. Richard M. Moore, Thomas W. Fin- 
ucane and Dr. John W. Whitbeck, with the mayor ex officio; the clerk 
of the board is George 13elknap, the health officer is Dr. Wallace Sibley, 
the registrar of vital statistics is George Messmer. The members of the 
two boards of civil service examiners are S. P. Moulthrop, Winslow M. 
Meade, Elbridge L. Adams, E. J. Burke, George B. Draper and F. S. 
Macomber, with William T. Plumb as secretary. 

What does it cost to run a city like this ? About two million dollars 
a year. From the 1st of April, 1894, to the corresponding day of 1895, 
expenditures were as follows: For interest $105,706.83, erroneous as- 



190 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

sessments $9,241.01, police fund $161, 800, contingent fund $219,- 
547.90, poor fund $17,000, lamp fund $165,850, health fund $6o,000, 
city property fund $12,200, fire department fund $250,000, highway 
fund $325,000, board of education fund $446,849.40, G. A. R. relief 
fund $9,000, for all park purposes $37,300, local assessments on city 
property $19,200.26, police pension fund $1,000, water used for city 
purposes and additional water pipe $105,070; total $1 944,76940. 
The tax levy for the rest of 1895 is $1,690,000, and, as the present fiscal 
year is shorter than its predecessor by three months, it will be seen that 
there is, proportionately, an increase of taxation. The assessed valua- 
tion of property in the city is $105,470,250. 

When the city was incorporated the length of sewerage therein was 
about a mile and a quarter ; four years later it had nearly trebled ; at 
this time it is two hundred and forty- two miles, and the total cost of 
all the sewers is estimated at four million dollars. Of these the longest 
is the east side trunk sewer, begun May i, 1892, and completed June 
I I, 1894; it extends for eight and a half miles and drains into the river 
near the foot of Norton street; there is trouble in store for the future 
over the question of its contamination of the river below, and the same 
is true, though in a less degree, with regard to the west side sewer, a 
much needed work which is now constructing under a commission 
comprised of Horace G. Pierce, George B. Swikehard and Frank S. 
Upton. As to our water facilities," in addition to those described in a 
previous chapter, a second conduit from Hemlock lake was completed 
last October, at a cost of $1,750,000; it can pour into the city fifteen 
million gallons daily, making a total capacity by that system of thirty- 
seven million gallons for the consumption of the inhabitants in different 
ways; independent of the two conduits there are about two hundred 
and fifty miles of water pipes in the city. A bulletin recently issued 
by the census bureau, based on the statistics obtained in 1890, shows 
that at that time Rochester was held twenty- first among the cities in 
point of population, twelfth in the number of its manufacturing estab- 
lishments, fifteenth in the amount of capital invested directly in manu- 
facturing, and fourteenth in the amount of wages paid in that pursuit; 
its relative rank in those details is certainly no lower now than it was 
then. Local statistics prepared by the executive board show that there 



THE PRESENT DAY. 191 

were on the ist of April of this year 33,250 buildings in tiie city, of 
which 24,812 were dwelling-houses, with 1979 blocks, most of them 
for both commercial and habitation purposes, three hundred and forty- 
nine of them for manufacturing exclusively, one hundred and eleven 
churches and sixty-four school-houses, public, private and parochial. 
The report of the board of health for the past year shows that there were 
1224 marriages, 2794 births and 2315 deaths. This last item is most 
important, as showing a death rate of less than fifteen in the thousand, 
which is probably lower than that of any other city in the state. 

What Rochester has done for the nation has been outlined briefly in 
the foregoing pages ; the record of its past is not discreditable, the 
prospect of its future is full of bright anticipation. If there are some 
cities on the continent that can surpass it in the grandeur of public 
buildings there are none that can excel it in the sylvan beauty of its 
residential streets, none that can rival it in the advantages of its location 
and the charm of the scenery on the banks of the river which winds 
through its midst. Travelers who are attracted to it linger beyond 
their purpose, and we whose home has been always here know that 
there is no better place in all the world in which we live. 



THH GEOLOGY OF MONROE COUNTY. 



BY HERMAN LE ROY FAIRCHILD, 

I'ROKKSSOR OF OKOl.OGV IN TIIK INUKKSITV OI-" KOCHKSI KK. 



The hard-rock geology or stratigraphy was thoroughly described by 
Dr. James Hall over half a century ago in "The Natural History of 
New York, Part IV., Geology of the I'ourth District." The section of 
the strata beneath the city of Rochester is published in the proceedings 
of the Rochester Academy of Science, volumes I and H.' 

Except in the southern part of the county the rocks belong to the 
Niagara period of the Upper Silurian age. The lowest rock is the 
Medina sandstone, which in the northwestern part of the county is at or 
near the surface, and is extensively quarried at Brockport This red 
Medina forms the rock bottom of the southern part, at least, of Lake 
Ontario and the rock blufifs at all points along the south shore. Be- 
neath Rochester the red Medina is over one thousand feet thick, but 
here and all over the county, except the northwestern portion and tiie 
lake border, it is buried under the shales and limestone of the Clinton 
group. The perfect section of the Clinton is finely shown in the walls 
of the Genesee canyon at the lower falls in Rochester. Here it rests 
on the gray top of the Medina, and in ascending order consists of about 
twenty-four feet of the Lower Green shale, fourteen feet of Lower lime- 
stone, containing a bed of hematite iron ore one foot thick, twenty-four 
feet of Upper Green and Purple shales, and eighteen feet of Upper 
limestone. 

The Niagara group rests upon the Clinton and consists of eighty feet 

' "A Section of the Strata at Rochester, N. Y., as shown by a deep boring'." Hy 11. L. I'^air- 
child, Froc. Roch. Acad. Science, Vol. I, pp. 18a-lH(). 

"TheOcoloKical History of Rochester, N. Y." F-iy H. L. Fairchild, Proc. Roch. Acad. Science, 
Vol. II, pp. 215-S>!i;3, 



GEOLOGY. 193 

of dark, gritty shales, exposed at the upper falls in Rochester, and the 
limestone upon which the city of Rochester is built, more than sixty 
feet in thickness. 

The strata all have a slight inclination southward, which causes the 
Niagara rocks to disappear a few miles south of Rochester beneath the 
shales of the Salina formation, which in turn are buried, further south, 
under the Corniferous limestones of the Devonian age. The latter is 
found in Monroe county only in the south border of Rush and Mendon, 
producing the falls of the Honeoye. 

The surface geology of the county has not been described in detail, 
and will only be touched upon here. During the millions of years fol- 
lowing the deposition of the Devonian rocks the region was probably 
exposed to destructive atmospheric agencies, and a great thickness of 
rocks has doubtless been removed from this area.^ 

The long era of subaerial denudation was finally changed to sub- 
glacial during the Glacial period. The superficial decomposed rocks 
were crushed and removed by the ice sheet, the old drainage channels 
were largely filled with debris, and the final removal of the ice left a 
sheet of glacial drift over the whole territory. During at least the 
closing part of the Glacial period Western New York was depressed 
far below its present level, and following and laving the retreating ice 
front was a huge glacial lake which buried the most of Monroe county 
to a depth of 300 to 400 feet.^ As the ice retreated northward so as to 
uncover the Mohawk valley this became a new outlet of the glacial 
waters and the water surface fell to the level of the Ridge road, which 
is simply the beach of the glacial Lake Iroquois. ^ The superficial 
geology of the county is thus a complex result of the action of glacial 
ice, stream drainage of the glacier and lake action at the ice front and 
subsequently. 

The noith part of the county is a comparatively smooth plain drained 
directly into Lake Ontario by many small streams which have cut deep 
into the Iroquois lake deposits and the subjacent ice drift. The southern 

' Proc. Roch. Acad. Science, Vol. II, paije -^^l. 

* "Glacial Lakes in Western New York," by H. L. Fairchild, Bull. Geol. Sec. America. Vol" 
VI, WM. 

'See numerous articles in g-eological journals by C. K. Gilbert, J. W. Spencer and Warren 
Upham. 

25 



194 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

half of the county has a hilly topography produced by the glacier 
rubbing the deep subglacial drift into elongated hills, parallel with the 
ice movement, and known as " drumlins " or " drumlinoids." In the 
east side of the county, in Perinton and Penfield, these drumlinoid 
ridges are very pronounced. They have a north and south trend and 
culminate south in the Turk's Hill drumlinoid mass, the highest land in 
the county. Through Henrietta and Rush, in the southern part of the 
county, the drumlinoids have a direction some ten to fifteen degrees 
west of south, while along the Genesee river and in the southwest part 
of the county these ridges have a trend more nearly southwest. In the 
northwest part of the county the drumlinoid character is discernible in 
the broad, smooth swells with a northeast by southwest trend. 

A frontal moraine, marking a pause in the recession of the ice sheet, 
traverses the county from Brockport to Brighton. This is not strong, 
but is well-defined near Rochester as an irregular ridge cut by the main 
line of the New York Central railroad one mile northeast of Coldwater 
station. Along the Rapids road, in the southwest part of the city, the 
moraine becomes more broken, but between the river and Brighton it 
forms the most conspicuous hills of the region, the famous Pinnacle 
hills. These are mainly sand and gravel, with some masses of till, or 
unassorted glacial drift, and many large boulders, and with remarkable 
flow structure. To glacialists they have been well known and very 
puzzling. They have been described as an "esker" or a deposit made 
by an overburdened glacial river.^ But they are undoubtedly a part of 
the frontal moraine, of the nature known as " kame." They consist 
chiefly of the materials washed out of the glacier by the drainage, and 
accumulated at the front of the ice wall in the deep water of the glacial 
Lake Warren. Two other similar kame deposits are found in the 
county, but not directly connected with any morainic ridge. One is 
the group of remarkable sand and gravel hills inclosing the Mendon 
ponds, the other the sand hills and plains extending from the head of 
Irondequoit bay past Pittsford into the northwest corner of Ontario 
county. 

Glacial gravels are found in hundreds of localities over the county, 
and the lake silts are abundant, chiefly in depressions. 

' " Rskcns near Rochester, N. V." By Warren Upham. Proc. Roch. Acad. Science, Vol. II, pp. 
lW-i<X). 



GEOLOGY. 195 

Irondequoit bay represents probably a preglacial river valley modi- 
fied by ice erosion and then filled more or less by serving as a catch- 
basin during the Lake Iroquois episode. The sand hills at the head of 
the bay are remnants of the lake deposits, and the present conspicuous 
terraces, at an elevation of about 400 feet, on each side of the bay, 
represent a flood plain. 

The lower part of the Genesee river channel, from the rapids above 
Rochester to the lake, is certainly post-glacial. It has here no valley 
proper, and near its mouth streams flow by its side directly into the 
lake. Above the city, or in the south part of the county, and as far as 
Mt. Morris, the river occupies more of a depression, of possibly pre- 
glacial origin. 

The length of time since the ice retreat has been estimated by several 
writers at about ten thousand years. The Ridge road represents a 
pause in the lowering glacial waters some centuries subsequent to the 
melting away of the ice. 



THE BENCH AND BAR. 

BY L. C. ALDRICH. 

EDITED AND REVISED BY HON. THOMAS RAINES. 



In the early history of the colony the governor was in eftect the 
maker, interpreter and enforcer of the laws. He was the chief judge 
of the court of final resort, while his councillors were generally his 
obedient followers. The execution of the English and colonial statutes 
rested with him, as did also the exercise of royal authority in the 
province; and it was not until the adoption of the first constitution, in 
1777, that he ceased to contend for these prerogatives and to act as 
though the only functions of the court were to do his bidding as servants 
and helpers, while the legislature should adopt only such laws as the 
executive should suggest and approve. By the first constitution the 
governor was entirely stripped of the judicial power which he possessed 
under the colonial rule, and that power was vested in the lieutenant- 
governor and senate, also in the chancellor and justices of the Supreme 
court; the former to be elected by the people, and the latter to be ap- 
pointed by the council. This was the first radical separation of the 
judicial and legislative powers, and the advancement of the judiciary to 
the position of a co-ordinate department of government, subject only 
to the limitations consequent upon the appointment of its members by 
the council. The restriction, however, was soon felt to be improper, 
though it was not until the adoption of the constitution of 1846 that 
the last connection between the purely political and judicial parts of the 
state government was abolished, and with it disappeared the last re- 
maining relic of the colonial period. E'rom this time the judiciary be- 
came more directly representative of the people. The development of 



I^SE bench and bar 197 

the idea of responsibility of the courts to the people, from the time 
when all its members were at the beck and nod of an irresponsible 
master, to the time when all judges (even of the court of last resort) 
are voted for directly by the people, has been indeed remarkable. 

Let us look briefly at the present arrangement and powers of the 
courts of the state, and then at the elements from which they have 
grown. The whole scheme embraces the idea of first a determination 
of the facts and the law by a trial court, then a review by a higher 
tribunal of the facts and law, and ultimately of the law by a court 
of last resort. To accomplish the purposes of this scheme there 
has been devised and established, first, the present court of Appeals, 
the ultimate tribunal of the state, perfected in its present form by 
the convention of 1867 and 1868, and taking the place of the old 
court for the trial of impeachments and correction of errors. The 
court of Appeals as first organised under the constitution of 1846 was 
composed of eight judges, four of whom were elected by the people, 
and the remainder chosen from the justices of the Supreme court 
having the shortest time to serve. As reorganised in 1869, and now 
existing, the court consists of a chief judge and six associate judges, 
who hold ofiice for the term of fourteen years. 

This court is continually in session at the capitol in Albany, except 
as it takes a recess on its own motion. It has full power to review 
the decisions of inferior courts when properly before it. Five judges 
constitute a quorum, and four must concur to render judgment. If 
four do not agree, the case must be reargued; but not more than 
two rehearings can be had, and if then four judges do not agree the 
judgment of the court below stands affirmed. The legislature has 
provided how and when decisions of inferior tribunals may be reviewed, 
and may in its discretion alter or amend the same. Under the revised 
constitution of 1894, the legislature is authorised to further restrict 
the jurisdiction of this court, and the right .of appeal thereto. By the 
same revision it has been specially provided that from and after the 
31st day of December, 1895, the jurisdiction of the court of Appeals, 
except when the judgment is of death, shall be limited to questions of 
law, and no. unanimous decision of the appellate division of the 
Supreme court, unless in certain specified cases, shall be reviewable in 
the court of Appeals, 



198 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Upon the reorganisation of this court in 1869, its work was far in 
arrears, and the law commonly known as the "judiciary act" provided 
for a commission of Appeals to aid the court of Appeals; and still 
later there was organised a second division of the court of Appeals to 
assist in the disposition of business of the general court. The limita- 
tions and restrictions placed upon appeals to this court by the con- 
stitution of 1894 are in part designed to relieve it from future similar 
embarrassments. 

Second in rank and jurisdiction to the court of Appeals stands the 
Supreme court, which is made up of many and widely different ele- 
ments. It was created by act of representative assembly in 1691, 
was to be established in the city of New York, and was composed of a 
chief justice and four assistant justices to be appointed by the gov- 
ernor, and was empowered to try all issues, civil and criminal, or mixed, 
to the same extent as the English courts of King's Bench, Common 
Pleas, and Exchequer (except in the exercise of equity powers), and 
should have power to establish rules and ordinances and to regulate 
practice of the court. It had jurisdiction in actions involving one 
hundred dollars and over, and to revise and correct the decisions of 
inferior courts. An appeal lay from it to the governor and council. 
The judges made an annual circuit of the state, under a commission 
issued by the governor, and giving them nisi prius, oyer and terminer 
and jail delivery powers. By act of 1691 the court of Oyer and Ter- 
miner was abolished, but in conformity to the courts of Westminster its 
name was retained to designate the criminal term of the Supreme court. 
At first the judges of the Supreme court were appointed by the governor 
and held office during his pleasure. Under the first constitution the 
court was reorganised, the judges being then named by the council of 
appointment, and all proceedings were directed to be entitled in the 
the name of the people. 

By the constitution of 182 1 many and important changes were made 
in the character and methods of the court. The judges were reduced 
to three and appointed by the governor with the consent of the senate, 
to hold office during good behavior, or until sixty j-ears of age. They 
were removable by the legislature on the vote of two-thirds of the 
assembly and a majority of the senate. Eour times a year the full 



THE BENCH AND BAR. 199 

court sat in review of their decisions on questions of law. By the 
constitution of 1846 the Supreme court was abolished, and a new 
court, of the same name and having general jurisdiction in law and 
equity, was established in its place. Its members were composed 
of thirty- three justices, to be elected by the people. By the judiciary 
act of 1847 general terms were to be held at least once in each year 
in counties having more than 40,000 inhabitants, and in other counties 
once in two years; and at least two special terms and two circuits 
were to be held yearly in each county except Hamilton. By this 
act the court was authorised to name the times and places of hold- 
ing its terms, and those of the Oyer and Terminer, the latter being 
a part of the Circuit court and held by the justice, county judge and 
two justices of sessions. Since 1882 the Oyer and Terminer has con- 
sisted of a single justice of the Supreme court. However, under the 
sweeping changes made by the constitution of 1894, Circuit courts 
and courts of Oyer and Terminer are abolished from and after the last 
day of December, 1895, ^nd all their jurisdiction shall thereafter be 
vested in the Supreme court. Provision is also therein made for an 
appellate division of this court, to consist of seven justices in the first, 
and five in each of the other, three judicial departments into which the 
state is divided. The appellate division is invested with the jurisdiction 
previously exercised by the Supreme court at general term, and the 
general terms of the New York county Common Pleas, the Superior 
courts of the cities of New York, Brooklyn and Buffalo, and such other 
jurisdiction as the legislature may confer. From the justices of the 
Supreme court the governor shall designate those who shall constitute 
the appellate division, and also the presiding justice thereof, the latter 
to act during his term of office, the others for the term of five years. 
In this court four members shall constitute a quorum, and three must 
concur to render judgment. Legislative enactment in 1895 designated 
the city of Rochester as the place in which the appellate division shall 
sit in the fourth department of the state, the other department capitals 
being New York, Brooklyn and Albany. 

The judiciary article of the constitution of 1846 was amended in 
1869, the legislature being authorised to provide (not more often than 
once in five years) for the organisation of general terms consisting, of 



200 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

a presiding justice and not more than three associates, but by the laws 
of 1870 the then organisation of the general terms was abrogated, and 
the state was divided into four departments, and provision made for 
holding general terms in each. By the same act the governor was 
directed to designate from the justices of the Supreme court a presiding 
justice and two associates to constitute a general term in each depart- 
ment. Under the authority of the constitutional amendment adopted 
in 1882, the legislature, in 1883, divided the state into five judicial 
departments, and provided for the election of twelve additional justices 
to hold office from the first Monday in June, 1884. The constitution 
of 1894 provided for the election of twelve more justices of the 
Supreme court, three to reside in the first, three in the second, and 
one in each of the other six judicial districts of the state. 

The court of Chancery of the state of New York was an heirloom of 
the colonial period, and had its origin in the court of Assizes, the 
latter being vested with equity powers under the duke's laws. The 
court was established on February 16, 1683, and went out of exist- 
ence by limitation in 1698 ; was revised by ordinance in 1701, sus- 
pended in 1703, and re-established in 1704. Previous to that time 
matters in equity were heard in any of the courts organised in con- 
formity to the duke's laws. At first this court was unpopular in the 
province, the assembly and colonists opposing it with the argument 
that the crown had no authority to establish an equity court in the 
colony. 

Their reasons were that quit- rents upon the sale of lands belonged 
to the crown as a prerogative; that through the neglect of the gov- 
ernors these rents had been allowed to fall in arrears, and the court of 
Chancery was resorted to for their collection, r'urthermorc, the gov- 
ernors, almost without exception, were adventurers, or men of impaired 
fortunes, who accepted these appointments with the hope of enriching 
themselves. The methods they pursued in making their office profita- 
ble consisted of granting patents of lands and receiving from the grantee 
a gratuity (or bribe) in proportion to the value of the land granted — a 
palpable fraud upon the rights of the crown. As a result the grantees 
were fearful that proceedings might be instituted in the court of Chan- 
cery by the attorney-general to revoke the grants. And thus the court 



THE BENCH AND BAR. 201 

ot Chancery was 'a menace to the security of the land owners, and 
incurred their bitter opposition. 

Under the constitution of 1777, the Chancery court was reorganised, 
and by the reorganisation of 1778 masters and examiners were desig- 
nated by the council of appointment, while registrars and clerks were 
appointed by the chancellor; and the latter licensed all solicitors and 
counsellors of the court. Appeals lay from the Chancery court to the 
court for the Correction of Errors, 

Under the constitution of 1821 the chancellor was appointed by the 
governor, and held office during good behavior, or until sixty years of 
age. Under the second constitution equity powers were vested in the 
circuit judges, and their decisions were reviewable on appeal to the 
chancellor. The equity character, however, was soon taken from the 
circuit judges and vested in the chancellor alone, and the judges after- 
ward acted as vice-chancellors in their respective circuits. The consti- 
tution of 1846 abolished the court of Chancery, and its powers and 
duties were vested in the Supreme court. 

By an act of the legislature passed in 1848, and entitled the "Code 
of Procedure," all distinction between actions at law and suits in equity 
was abolished, so far as the manner of beginning and conducting the 
same were concerned, and one uniform method of practice in all actions 
was adopted. In June, 1877, the legislature enacted the "Code of 
Civil Procedure," to take the place of the code of 1848, and by this 
many minor changes in the practice of the court were made. 

These are, in brief, the changes through which the Supreme court 
has passed in its growth from the prerogative of an irresponsible gov- 
ernor to one of the most independent and enlightened instrumentalities 
for the protection and attainment of rights of citizens of which any 
state or nation, ancient or modern, can rightfully boast. So well is 
this fact understood by the people that by far the greater amount of 
business which might be done in inferior courts at less expense is 
actually taken to this court for settlement. 

Next in rank to the Supreme court is the County court, held in and 

for each county in the state, at such times and places as its judges may 

direct. This court had its origin in the English court of Sessions, and, 

like it, had, at one time, only criminal jurisdiction. In 1675 Andros 

2G 



202 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

granted a charter. The mayor with four aldermen was authorised to sit 
as a court of Sessions. He did not, however, organise a separate criminal 
tribunal, but continued as before to discharge criminal and municipal 
business at the regular sittings of the court. By an act called an act to 
"settle courts of justice," passed in 1683, a court of Sessions, having 
power to try both civil and criminal causes by jury, the former without 
limitation as to amount, was directed to be held by three justices of the 
peace in each of the counties of the province twice a year, with an addi- 
tional term in Albany and two in New York Tn the city of New York it 
was held by a mayor and four aldermen. By the act of 1691 and the 
decree of 1699, all civil jurisdiction was taken from this court and con- 
ferred on the Common Pleas. By the radical changes made by the 
constitution of 1846, provision was made for a County court in each 
county of the state, except New York, to be held by an officer desig- 
nated the ' county judge," and to have such jurisdiction as the legisla- 
tuie should prescribe. Under the authority of this constitution 
County courts have been given jurisdiction in various classes of 
actions, and have also been invested with certain equity powers in the 
foreclosure of mortgages, the sale of infants' real estate, and also to par- 
tition lands, admeasure dower and care for the persons and estates of 
lunatics and habitual drunkards The judiciary act of 1869 continued 
the existing jurisdiction in all actions in which the defendant lived 
within the county and the damages claimed did not exceed $1,000. 
The constitution of 1894 likewise continues the court and increases 
its power in extending the amount of damages claimable to $2,000. 

Like the Supreme court, the County court has its civil and criminal 
sides. In criminal matters the county judge is assisted by two justices 
of sessions, elected by the people from among the justices of the peace 
of the county. It is in the criminal branch of this court, known as the 
" Sessions," that minor criminal offenses are disposed of, and all indict- 
ments, except for murder or some very serious felony, are sent to it for 
trial from the Oyer and Terminer. The constitution of 1894 abolishes 
courts of Sessions, except in New York county, after the 31st of De- 
cember, 1895, and its powers and jurisdiction are thereafter to be vested 
in the County court. By the codes of 1848 and 1877 the procedure 
and practice in this court are made to conform as nearly as possible to 



THE BENCH AND BAR. 203 

the practice of the Supreme court. This was done with the evident 
design to attract Htigation into these minor courts and thus relieve the 
Supreme court. In this purpose, however, there has been a failure, as 
Htigants much prefer the shield and broader powers of the higher court. 
Under the code county judges perform some of the duties of a justice 
of the Supreme court at chambers. The County court has appellate 
jurisdiction over actions arising in justices' courts and courts of Special 
Sessions. Appeals lie from the County court direct to the general 
term. 

The constitution authorises the legislature, on application of the 
board of supervisors, to provide for the election of a special county 
judge, to assist the regular judge in the disposition of business of the 
County court. Under this authority, on April 25, 1864, the legisla- 
ture passed an act authorising such a judicial officer in Monroe county, 
to hold office for the term of three years, and receive such compensa- 
tion as the supervisors shall determine. 

The old court of Common Pleas of the state of New York, the 
oldest tribunal of the state, which survived the changes of two con- 
stitutional revisions, was another heirloom of the colonial period, and 
was established originally under the charters of 1686, for the counties 
of New York and Albany, and was made general to the state by the 
act of 1 69 1. Under the first constitution the number of judges was 
various, there being as many as twelve in some counties, but the act of 
1818 limited the judges to five in each county, including the first judge. 
The constitution of 1821 continued the court, and its judges were 
appointed by the governor and senate and held office for the term of 
five years. This court, except in the county of New York, was 
abolished by the constitution of 1846. 

Surrogates' courts, one of which exists in each county of the state, 
are now courts of record, having a seal, and their especial jurisdiction is 
the settlement and care of estates of infants and of deceased persons. 
The derivation of the powers and the practice of these courts is from 
the Ecclesiastical court of England, also in part through the colonial 
council which existed during the rule of the Dutch, and exercised its 
authority in accordance with the Dutch Roman law, the custom of 
Amsterdam, and the law of Aasdom, the Court of Burgomasters and 



204 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Scheppens, the Orphan Masters, the Mayor's, the Prerogative, and the 
court of Probate. The settlement of estates and the guardiansliip of 
orphans was tranferred to the Burgomasters in 1653, and soon after to 
the Orphan Masters. Under the colony the Prerogative court controlled 
all matters relating to the probate of wills and settlement of estates, but 
in 1692, by act of the legislature, all probates and granting of letters of 
administration were to be under the hand of the governor or his dele- 
gate, and two freeholders were to be appointed in each town to care for 
the estates of persons dying intestate. Under the duke's laws this 
duty had been performed by the constables, overseers and justices of 
each town. In 1778 the governor was divested of all of this power, 
except the appointmont of surrogate, and it was conferred upon the 
judges of the court of Probate. 

Under the first constitution, surrogates were appointed by the coun- 
cil of appointment, and under the second by the governor with the ap- 
proval of the senate. The constitution of 1846 abolished the office of 
surrogate in all counties having less than 40,000 population, and con- 
ferred its powers and duties on the county judge. By the code of civil 
procedure, surrogates were invested with all the necessary powers to 
carry out the equitable and incidental requirements of their office. In 
its present form, and sitting weekly, this court affords a cheap and expe- 
ditious medium for the care and settlement of estates and the guardian- 
ship of infants. 

The only remaining courts which are common to the whole state are 
the Special Sessions, held by justices of the peace for the trial of minor 
criminal offenses, and justices' courts with a limited civil jurisdiction. 
Previous to the constitution of 1 821 (modified in 1828), justices of the 
peace were appointed, but since that time they have been elected. The 
office and its duties are descended from the English office of the same 
name, but are much less important, and under the laws of this state it is 
purely the creature of the statute. In the city of Rochester the office 
of justice of the peace was abolished by a special act of the legislature, 
passed May 2, 1876. In its stead was created at the same time and by 
the same authority the " Municipal court," having only civil jurisdic- 
tion and in actions when the amount of damages claimed did not ex- 
ceed four hundred dollars. The practice and methods of this court are 



THE BENCH AND BAR. 205 

much the same as in Justices' court. Under the act two judges are 
authorised to be elected. 

This brief survey of the courts of New York, which omits only those 
that are local in character, gives the reader some idea of the machinery 
provided for the use of the members of the bench and bar. 

The organisation of the courts in Monroe county was accomplished 
with little ceremony and still less difficulty. The county itself was 
erected by act of the legislature, passed February 23, 1821, and on the 
8th of May of the same year the first state court of record was held. 
The court house was not ready for occupancy until 1822, and in the in- 
terim court sessions were held in designated buildings, the first one in 
landlord Ensworth's public house, which stood on the site of the pres- 
ent Powers building. The officers of the county at that time were 
Elisha B. Strong, first judge; Timothy Barnard, sen., Levi H. Clark, 
and John Bowman, associate judges; Nathaniel Rochester, clerk; 
James Seymour, sherifif; Timothy Childs, district attorney; Elisha 
Ely, surrogate. 

However, it is not properly within the province of this chapter to 
refer at any length to the several county buildings in which the courts 
have been held, as that subject is more fully treated in another part of 
the work ; but it is our present purpose to mention the names of those 
persons who have been connected with the courts and the administra- 
tion of law in the county from its earliest history to the present time. 

The bar of Monroe county has ever been noted for its strength. On 
the bench and at the bar of the courts have been men of the highest 
professional character and of great moral worth. Of the leading 
legal minds of this state Monroe has furnished a liberal proportion, 
many of whom have attained distinction and some have acquired emi- 
nence. • They have been characterised by strict integrity as well as rare 
ability — qualities which have made for them a high place, not only 
in the courts, but also in the legislative halls both of the state and the 
nation. 

Glancing over the pages of time worn records and old publications 
we learn that some of the outlying towns of the county were the abiding 
places of old legal practitioners, though the entire absence of reliable 
data precludes the possibility of a complete list in any locality. In 



206 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY 

the town of Pittsford Simon Stone is said to have been the first 
lawyer, while soon afterward came William G. Taylor, Ira Bellows, and 
Ephraim Goss ; and if local traditions be reliable these men were in 
practice while the town was yet a part of Ontario county. Still later 
were Elias B. Holme=, M. F. Delano, William C. Rowley, Watson S. 
Hinckley, M. H. Champlin, William F. Cogswell, James A. Guernsey, 
Ashley Sampson, John B. Vosburg, John M. Steele and others, perhaps, 
whose names are now forgotten. In Henrietta, Sanford E. Church 
in 1 82 1, and for several years afterward. Judge James L. Angle was 
born in this town. At Scottsville, Whitman Ashby was an old-time 
lawyer. At Charlotte John Mastick began his professional career. 
Leonard Adams was an early legal light in Penfield. Jerome Fuller 
afterward well known in political life, was in Sweden in 1835. Mr. 
Bender, probably Hastings R. Bender, later of Rochester, was in Brock- 
port in 1823. The first lawyer in actual practice in that village was 
Francis Storm ; the second was Daniel Burroughs. Henry R. Selden 
and Simeon B. Jewett were both early practitioners and partners in 
Clarkson 

The pioneer lawyer of Rochester was John Mastick, who located first 
at the little hamlet called Charlottesburg, at the mouth of the Genesee 
river. Mr. Mastick came to this region about 18 15, and died here in 
1826. The second lawyer was Hastings R. Bender, who came to the 
place, as near as can be ascertained, about 1817, and he was followed 
during the next few years by Roswell Babbitt, Joseph Spencer, Jesse 
Dane, and Enos Pomeroy, about in the order named. These were the 
pioneers of the profession in Monroe county, and each is believed to 
have been located and in practice previous to the creation of the 
county, and while its territory formed a part of the older divisions, On- 
tario and Genesee. Succeeding pages will show who have been the 
subsequent practitioners in the courts, and we may now briefly call to 
notice the names of lawyers who have been chosen to the more exalted 
offices of the profession. 

The old Chancery court, which passed out of existence on the adop- 
tion of the constitution of 1846, had on its bench but a single represent- 
ative from this county. F'rederick Whittlesey was appointed vice- 
chancellor April 16, 1839. He is remembered as one of the older bar. 




ADDISON GARDliNbR. 



THE BENCH AND BAR. 207 

a man of excellent legal attainments, a safe counsellor and a trusted 
attorney. Mr. Whittlesey came to this coimty in 1823, and, previous 
to his appointment to the vice chancellorship, had held the office of 
city attorney, and for two terms, from 1831 to 1835, represented this 
district in congress. After the constitution abolished the court of 
Chancery, Mr. Whittlesey was the Whig nominee for the office of judge 
of the court of Appeals, but was defeated at the polls. However, he 
was soon afterward appointed justice of the old Supreme court, to suc- 
ceed Judge Jewett. This court was abolished July i, 1848, and on 
that date Judge Whittlesey retired from public life. He died in Roch- 
ester, September 19, 185 i. 

The chief judgeship of the court of Appeals has had three represent- 
atives from this county. The first was Addison Gardiner, whose term 
of service in that position began January i, 1854. The second was 
Samuel L. Selden. who succeeded to the position January i, 1862, while 
the third was the late chief judge Sanford E. Church, appointed May 
17, 1870, after the adoption of the constitutional amendments of 1869. 

In the office of judge of the court of Appeals the county has been 
still more numerously represented. The first person to be chosen was 
Addison Gardiner, appointed June 7, 1847 > the second, Samuel L. Sel- 
den, elected November 6, 1855 ; third, Henry R, Selden, appointed July 
1, 1862, and elected by the people November 3, 1863. The fourth was 
George F. Danforth, elected November 5, 1878. In the same connec- 
tion may be mentioned the Supreme Court justices who have been 
called to seats on the court of Appeals bench, viz.: Samuel L. Selden, 
whose term began January i, 1854; Theron R. Strong, whose term be- 
gan January i, 1858, and E. Darwin Smith, whose two terms began, 
respectively, January i, 1862, and January i, 1870 

Addison Gardiner, born in Rindge, N. H , March 19, 1797, was a 
grandson of Isaac Gardner, of Brookline, Mass., one of his majesty's 
magistrates in colonial times who was killed at the beginning of the 
Revolutionary war and of whom Bancroft, the historian, says : " Isaac 
Gardner, one on whom the colony rested many hopes, fell about a mile 
west of Harvard college. . . . The patriot marched with the 
Brookline minute-men for Lexington on the 19th of April, 1775, and, 
meeting the retreating column near Watson's Corners, was instantly 



208 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

killed in the skirmish which ensued, receiving no less than a dozen 
wounds." William Gardner, liis son, born at Krookline in 1761, mar- 
ried Rebtcca, daughter of Dr. Raymond, and settled at Rindge, N. H,, 
where he held the principal civil and military offices, being colonel of a 
local regiment, three years member of the state legislature, etc. Soon 
after 1809 he moved to Manlius, Onondaga county, N. Y., where he was 
a successful merchant and manufacturer until his death in 1833. llis 
sons, of whom Addison was the third, restored, the original spelling of 
the name, Gardiner. Addison Gardiner began the practice of law at 
Rochester in 1822 and was very soon made a justice of the peace. He 
became a partner of Samuel Lee Selden, under the firm name of Gardi- 
ner & Selden, and Henry Rogers Selden, )'ounger brother of Samuel 
L., read law in their office. The three men successively occupied the 
most exalted positions in the judiciary of the state and for many years 
were recognised leaders of the bar. In 1825 Mr. Gardiner was ap- 
pointed district attorney for Monroe county, and on September 25, 
1829, Governor Throop appointed him circuit judge for the eighth cir- 
cuit of the state, embracing Allegany, Erie, Chautauqua, Monroe, Gen- 
esee and Niagara counties. He was also ex officio vice-chancellor for 
the same territory. Resigning in February, 1838, he resumed his prac- 
tice, and in November, 1844, was elected lieutenant-governor of the 
state with Silas Wright, governor, and served with distinction for three 
years, when he resigned. 

Upon the organisation in 1847 ^^ ^^^^ '^^^^ court of Appeals, which, 
under the constitution of 1846, was made the court of last resort, Mr. 
Gardiner was elected one of the justices and served until the close of 
his term December 31, 1855, when he voluntarily retired, declining a 
renomination. " In the distinguished circle of his cotemporaries Judge 
Gardiner occupied a conspicuous position. No opinions were quoted 
with more respect than his." They are found in Comstock's, .Seidell's 
and the first three volumes of Kernan's reports. As a judge his moral 
and intellectual qualities were characterised by directness, vigor, com- 
prehensiveness, and intense devotion to right. He was unswerving 
upon judicial, questions and causes at law, yet he possessed a strong, 
sympathetic nature. After his retirement from the court of Appeals 
bench he continued as referee to administer justice for about twenty 




/ 







THE BENCH AND BAR. 209 

years and during that period probably heard more cases than any 
judge of the Supreme court. He was one of the most popular men of 
his time, and on one occasion was prominently mentioned as candidate 
for president of the United States. In 1831 he married Mary Selkrigg, 
of Scotch descent, and had two children, Charles A. and Celeste M. 
He died at Rochester on June 5, 1883. 

Samuel Lee Selden, one of three eminent members of the Rochester 
bar who successively adorned the bench of the court of Appeals of the 
state of New York, was born in Lyme, Conn., in October, 1800, and 
came to this city in the year of his majority. He entered the law office 
of that distinguished jurist, Addison Gardiner, with whom, after his 
admission to the bar, he formed a partnership. Afterward his brother, 
Henry Rogers Selden, was their student. The three men thus associ- 
ated were destined to rank as leaders in the jurisprudence of the Em- 
pire state and figure in conspicuous positions in the history of legal 
science. In 1831 Mr. Selden was appointed first judge of the Monroe 
Common Pleas and held that office eight years. He was also master 
and clerk of the court of Chancery. In 1847 l^^ was nominated by the 
Democrats for justice of the Supreme court and was elected by a hand- 
some majority, receiving the votes of both political parties, his own 
being in the minority. Serving his full term, he gave evidence of the 
possession of such consummate judicial aptitude and uncommon legal 
talent that in 1855 he was elected judge of the court of Appeals in place 
of Judge Addison Gardiner, who retired, declining a re-election. Here 
he served with conspicuous ability until, to the great regret of his breth- 
ren of the bench and the bar of the state, his health compelled him to 
resign his seat July I, 1862, after which he passed his life in retirement 
in Rochester, where he died widely respected and esteemed, Septem- 
ber 20, 1876. 

Judge Selden's written opinions are beautiful works of literature, as 
well as able and authoritative documents on legal procedure. His pro- 
found knowledge of law, his keen sense of justice, his unswerving ad- 
herence to right, and his wonderful command of language, permeate 
every line. His judgment seldom erred. His writings may be found 
in Vol. 5 of Selden's (his brother's) reports, court of Appeals, to Vol. 24 

of New York reports, and also in tlie Supreme court reports during his 

27 



210 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

occupancy of that bench. Judge Selden was distinctively a professional 
man. He nevertlieless took a keen but quiet interest in public afifairs, 
yet he never mingled with them in the sense of an active worker. Tall 
and slender, of a retiring disposition, he was endowed with a distin- 
guished physique, and throughout life devoted himself almost wholly to 
his chosen calling. He was charitable, enterprising, and public spirited, 
and was intimately associated with various local institutions. At a time 
when Prof. S. F. B. Morse was knocking at the doors of capital to place 
his system of telegraphy in operation the two Seldens, Henry O'Reilly, 
Jonathan Child and a few others organised a company to construct a 
line forty miles in length between Harrisburg and Lancaster, Pa. The 
Seldens later acquired an interest in a similar corporation formed under 
the House patents, and were thus among the very pioneers in teleg- 
raphy in the world, virtually laying the foundation of the present West- 
ern Union system, which eventually developed from the last named 
company. 

Judge Selden's wife, Susan, was a daughter of Dr. Levi Ward, who 
came to Rochester from Haddam, Conn., almost at the earliest settle- 
ment of the Genesee country. They had one child, a son, who died in 
boyhood. 

Henry Rogers Selden was born of Puritan stock at Lyme, Conn., 
October 14, 1805, and followed his brother, Samuel Lee Selden, to 
what is now the city of Rochester, then Rochesterville, in 1825. He 
studied law in the office of S. L. Selden and Addison Gardiner, and thus 
laid the foundation of a legal learning which was destined to adorn the 
bench of the court of Appeals and figure in the highest jurisprudence of 
the Empire state. Admitttd to the bar in his twenty- fifth year, he im- 
mediately began the practice of his profession at Clarkson ; about 1857 
he removed to Rochester, where he subsequently resided. His career 
was marked with brilliant achievements and distinguished honors, and 
exemplifies all that can be accomplished by a self-made man. He 
early became identified with politics, and during the Fremont and Day- 
ton campaign of 1856, with John A. King as the leader, triumphantly 
carried the banner of the newly organised Republican party to victory 
in this state. Mr. King was elected governor and Mr. Selden lieuten- 
ant-governor, and they were the first two members of the new party to 




/tS /8 vS^c^^ 



THE BENCH AND BAR. 211 

triumph in the nation. It is a noteworthy fact that during the canvass 
Mr. Seiden was in Europe on professional business. 

He was presiding officer of the senate at a period when skilled parlia- 
mentarians belonging to a party hostile to the Republicans were power- 
ful and influential members, yet none of his rulings ever suffered the 
reproof of dissent. He was impartial, dignified, and just. His services 
here had so noticeable a judicial cast that in July, 1862, when Samuel 
L. Seiden retired from the bench of the court of Appeals, Gov. Edwin 
D. Morgan appointed him to the vacancy, which office he held until the 
close of 1864. His opinions may be found in Vols. 25 to 31 New York 
reports, while his work as official reporter of the court is included in 
Vols. 5 to 10 of the same, more commonly cited as i to 6 Seiden, with 
a small volume of addenda known as Selden's notes, all of which were 
the product of his labor and learning while court of Appeals reporter. 
He is believed to have first suggested the principle of the homestead 
exemption law, which, modified and fitted to the exigencies of the time, 
has long been in force in many states and territories of the union. 

Except while on the bench, and a year or more in search of health in 
Europe, Judge Seiden continued in the active practice of his profession 
from 1830 to 1879, when he retired. Outside of that, however, he was 
always interested in every reasonable plan for the advancement of man- 
kind. The greatest enterprise in which he engaged was the Morse tel- 
egraph. In 1845, with Henry O'Reilly, a Rochester journalist who had 
entered into contract with the patentees, he inaugurated a movement 
that resulted in the organisation of the Atlantic, Lake and Mississippi 
Valley telegraph company, with Mr. Seiden as president, to build a tel- 
egraph line forty miles in length between Harrisburg and Lancaster, Pa. 
The subscribers to the capital stock were Henry R. and Samuel L. 
Seiden, Jonathan Child (first mayor of Rochester), Elisha D. Ely, Hugh 
T. Brooks, Micah Brooks, Alvah Strong, George Dawson, John S. 
Skinner, and Hervey Brooks. Afterward the Seiden brothers acquired 
an interest in the New York and Mississippi Valley printing telt-graph 
company, one of the largest corporations on the globe. Thus the Sel 
dens were among the very pioneers of telegraphy in the world 

In 1865 Judge Seiden was elected member of assembly from the 
second district of Monroe county, and labored in that capacity as mod 



212 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

estly as if he had never occupied the presiding chair of the state senate 
or the bench of the court of Appeals. Upon the reorganisation of the 
last named tribunal in 1870 he was a candidate, in the face of certain 
defeat, for the chief judgeship, his opponent being Sanford E. Church, 
of Albion. He was one of the callers of the famous Cincinnati conven- 
tion of 1872, and being dissatisfied with its result never again engaged 
in politics. Retiring from a long and successful legal practice in 1879 
he lived quietly in his residence at the corner of Gibbs street and Grove 
place, in Rochester, until his death on September 18, 1885. In an 
obituary notice the Post- Express said : 

"Judge Selden, at the time of his retirement, was the universally ac 
knowledged leader of the bar of Western New York. Me was a man 
of broad charity, and won as much of affection by his kindness of heart 
as he did of respect and confidence by his depth of learning and probity 
of character." 

He was a liberal contributor to charitable institutions and ofiBciated as 
manager of several of them. '" The life work of the two jurist brothers 
stands out in bold relief as a noble part of the leading political history 
of the Empire state, and constitutes a source of just pride to every one 
of its citizens." 

September 25, 1854, Judge Selden was married at Clarkson to Miss 
Laura Ann, daughter of Dr. Abel and Laura (Smith) Baldwin, who 
survives him. Of their children six died young; the others are Julia 
(Mrs. Theodore Bacon), of Rochester; Louise (wife of Col. now Gen. 
E. S. Otis, U. S. A.), deceased ; Mary (first wife of Hon. Francis A. 
Macomber), deceased; George Baldwin, a prominent patent lawyer of 
Rochester; Arthur Rogers, of Rochester; Samuel Lee, a lawyer, de- 
ceased in early manhood; and Laura H. (Mrs. William D. Ellwanger), 
of Rochester. 

E. Darwin Smith, who, in 1862, was one of the Supreme court judges 
elevated to the court of Appeals, became a member of the Rochester 
bar in 1834, and for many years thereafter, as citizen, lawyer and mag- 
istrate, he occupied an exalted station in the estimation of his associates. 
Judge Smith began his professional career as clerk and student in the 
office of counsellor Ebenezer Griffin, and after his admission to practice 
became prominent in local history, though not in a political sense. He 




J. L. ANGLE. 



THE BENCH AND BAR 213 

was elected justice of the Supreme court in the fall of 1855, and re- 
elected in November, 1862. He succeeded Judge Samuel L. Selden, 
and, after twenty years of honorable and efficient service on the bench, 
was in turn succeeded by George W. Rawson. Judge Smith was ap- 
pointed to the general term and served in that capacity until his re- 
tirement from the bench in 1876. 

Sanford E. Church, who, in 1870, was elected chief judge of the court 
of Appeals, came to Rochester from Albion. He was born in 181 5, and, 
entering the legal profession soon after reaching his majority, became 
one of the early and leading lawyers of Orleans county, and at the same 
time a prominent figure in political life. In 1842 he was elected to the 
assembly, and in 1846 and '47 was chosen district attorney of his 
county. He was elected lieutenant governor in 1850, and began his 
term of office in January following. Seven years later he was elected 
comptroller of the state, and in 1867 was a member of the constitution 
rcvisionary convention. As is noted, he was elected chief judge of the 
highest court of the state in 1870. In 1868 Judge Church became a 
resident of Rochester, but later on returned to Albion, where he died 
May 14, 1880. 

George W, Rawson succeeded to the office of Supreme court justice 
by election on November 7, 1876, taking the place of Judge E. Darwin 
Smith, who retired by reason of the age limitation. Judge Rawson's 
term of service on the bench was very brief, as he died in December, 
1877, ^^^ w^s succeeded by James L. Angle. Mr. Rawson was elected 
special county judge of Monroe county in 1864, and was the first in- 
cumbent of that office, established by act of the legislature April 25, 
of the year mentioned. 

James Lansing Angle was born in the town of Henrietta, Monroe 
county, December 19, 1818. His father had recently moved trom 
Ballstown, N. Y., and settled upon an uncleared farm, building a log 
house upon the site now occupied by the West Shore station of Ridge- 
land. Educational facilities were slight in that locality, and it was not 
until he was quite a lad that a district school, secured mainly through 
the efforts of his father, was located in the vicinity of his home. Fol- 
lowing the custom of the time he attended school during the winter 
months and worked on the farm for the rest of the year, until the limit 



214 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

of the district school was reached. Later he attended school at Lima, 
and at the Monroe academy, and on his graduation obtained the posi- 
tion of teacher in the district school where he had begun his education. 
About the age of twenty- two he came to Rochester and began the 
study of law in the office of Gay & Stevens. Five years after he was 
admitted to practice. Soon after he was made clerk of the board of 
supervisors, and in 1854 represented the city in assembly. During his 
term of office the question of woman's suffrage was brought strongly 
before the legislature, and he was made the chairman of the select com- 
mittee, to which the matter was referred. The report of the committee 
which was drafted by Mr. Angle, while recommending the denial of the 
prayer of petitioners, presented the act known as the " Married 
Woman's Act," which secured a married woman's earnings to her own 
use and required her assent to apprenticing or the appointment of a 
guardian of her children. In 1858 he served as city attorney and in 
1863 was chairman of the board of supervisors. On December 20, 
1877, 1^^ ^^^s appointed by the governor a justice of the peace of the 
Supreme court, for the seventh district, to fill the vacancy caused by 
the death of Justice George W. Rawson. In 1883 he was elected to 
fill the same office, which he held until January, 1890, when he retired 
by reason of reaching the age limit. He died May 4, 1891. Judge 
Angle married Eleanor C. Eaton on February 3, 1846, by whom he 
had three children — a son who died in infancy, James M. Angle, and 
Anna M., who married Ludvvig Schenck. 

Hon. Francis A. Macomber, J. S. C, born in the town of Alabama, 
Genesee county, N. Y., April 5, 1837, was a son of William Macomber, 
an early settler and a prosperous farmer, upon the so-called " Oak 
openings" of that once famous wheat region. He spent his boyhood 
days upon his father's farm, and in attendance at the district schools of 
the neighborhood. He studied at what became the Oakfield seminary, 
and also a year under the tutelage of Prof A. G. Williams, at Fayette- 
ville, N. Y.,and prepared for college at Middlebury academy in W}om- 
ing, N. Y., where he had as classmates a number of \'Oung men who 
afterwards rose to positions of prominence. He entered the university 
of Rochester in 1855, and was graduated with honors and with the de- 
gree of Master of Arts, in the full classical course in 1859, winning 



■x 





^^-^^ ^kS^ 




THE BENCH AND BAR. 215 

several prizes during that period, one of them being first prize in the 
sophomore speaking contest. He was one of tne first members of the 
Alpha Delta Phi fraternity, and throughout life took an active interest 
in its welfare. When a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa was established in 
Rochester, he was honored with a key to that society. Immediately 
after his graduation Mr. Macomber began the study of law in the office 
of the late Judge Henry R. Selden, and commenced the practice of his 
profession in Rochester, in December, i86i, continuing successfully 
without a partner until 1878, when he was elected to the Supreme bench 
in the Seventh judicial district, the duties of which he assumed January 
I, 1879. In February, 1888, he was appointed by Governor Hill to the 
appellate branch of the Supreme court, known as the general term of 
the Fifth judicial department. In November, 1892, his term of office 
expiring, he was again elected a justice of the Supreme court, receiving 
the endorsement and support of the Democratic as well as the Repub- 
lican party. He held this position until his death, which occurred in 
Rochester after a prolonged illness, on October 13, 1893. 

Judge Macomber stood in the front rank of his profession ; as a law- 
yer he won success in general practice, but probably his greatest 
achievements were in the realm of patent law. His writings consist chiefly 
of legal opinions found in the law reports and in other works devoted to 
special subjects ; and essays and orations delivered on various occasions. 
He always took a lively interest in public affairs, and especially in the 
growth and well-being of his alma mater, the university of Rochester, 
of which he was long a trustee, and which conferred upon him the degree 
of LL.D. on June 14, 1887. 

Judge Macomber's first wife was a daughter of his legal preceptor, 
Judge Selden, who died leaving two children, Francis S., now a prac- 
ticing attorney, and Augusta. He afterwards married Mary, daughter 
of the late Isaac Butts, of Rochester, who with three children from this 
union, survives him. 

Upon the death of Judge Macomber, George F. Yeoman was ap- 
pointed to the vacancy and served until his successor was elected. Mr. 
Yeoman is still in active practice in Rochester. 

The personnel of the present Supreme court bench in the seventh 
judicial district is as follows; Charles C. Dvvight, of Auburn, now on 



216 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

the general term, appointed znce Judge Welles (deceased), March i6, 
1 868, elected for full term November 2. 1869, and November 6, 1883 ; 
William Rumsey, of Bath, elected November 2, 1880, re-elected No- 
vember 6, 1894; George B. Bradley, of Corning (also on general term 
bench), elected November 6, 1883 ; William H. Adams, of Canandaigua, 
elected November 8, 1 887 ; John M. Davy, of Rochester, elected Novem- 
ber 6, 1888 ; William E. Werner, of Rochester, elected November 6, 
1894. 

Having referred at some length to the judicial officers of the higher 
state courts, it is deemed proper in this chai)ter to also furnish the suc- 
cession of other county officials who have been connected with local 
courts, and with the administration of law therein. These officers are 
the county judges, special county judges, surrogates, district attorneys, 
sheriffs, and county clerks. The date following each name indicates 
the time of appointment or election to office. However, in connection 
with the office of county judge, the explanation maybe made tiiat, pre- 
vious to the constitution of 1846, that office was known as judge of the 
Common Pleas. Patrick G. Buchan was the last Common Pleas judge 
and also the first county judge. For the purposes of the succession 
these offices will be treated as identical. 

County Judges. — EHsha B. Strong, March 5, 1821 ; Ashley Samp- 
son, February 7, 1825; Moses Chapin, February 2, 1826; Samuel L. 
Selden, February 25, 183 I ; Ashley Sampson, March 25, 1837; Patrick 
G. l^uchan, January 31, 1844; Patrick G. Buchan, June, 1847; Har- 
vey Humphrey, November, 185 i ; George G. Munger, November, 1855 ; 
John C. Chumasero, appointed vice Munger, resigned, March i, 1859, 
and elected in November, 1859; re-elected November 3, 1863; Jerome 
P^uller, November, 1867; re-elected in November. 1871; William C. 
Rowley, November, 1877; John S. Morgan, November, 1883; John D. 
Lynn, appointed December 29, 1888, vice Morgan, deceased; William 
E. Werner, November, 1889; Arthur \l. Sutherland, appointed to suc- 
ceed Werner, resigned, January, 1895. 

Special County Judges. — George W. Rawson, November, 1864; Pier- 
son B. Hulett, November, 1873; John S. Morgan, November, 1879; 
Thomas Raines, appointed by Governor Cleveland, Januar)' 10, 1884, 
vice Morgan, resigned ; William E. Werner, November, 1884, re-elected 



THE BENCH AND BAR. 217 

1888; John F. Kinney, appointed January i, 1890, vice Werner, and 
elected November, 1890; Arthur E. Sutherland, November, 1893; 
George A. Carnahan, appointed January, 1895, ^^ succeed Sutherland, 
resigned. 

Surrogates. — Elisha Ely. March 10, 1821 ; Orrin E. Gibbs, March 28, 
1823; Mortimer F. Delano, April 30, 1835; Enos Pomeroy, Januar}'- 
29, 1840; M. E. Delano, January 29, 1844; Simeon B. Jewett, ap- 
pointed October 20, 1845, "^'^^^ Delano, deceased; Moses Sperry, 
June, 1847; Denton D. Shuart, November, 185 1; Henry P. Norton, 
November, 1855; Alfred G. Mudge, November, 1859; William P. 
Chase, November, 1863; W. Dean Shuart, November, 1867; Joseph 
Adlington, November, 1883 ; and re-elected at the end of each term of 
office. 

District Attorneys. — Originally, this office was known as assistant 
attorney-general, and the districts were seven in number, each em- 
bracing several counties. The office of district attorney was created 
April 4, 1 801, and by a law passed in April, 18 18, each county was 
constituted a separate district for the purposes of the ofifice. Under 
the second constitution district attorneys were appointed by the court 
of general sessions in each county, but since the adoption of the con- 
stitution of 1846 the ofifice has been elective. The succession is as 
follows: Timothy Childs, March 5, 1821 ; Vincent Mathews, 1831 ; 
Hestor L. Stevens, 1831 ; Horace Gay, 1836; Abner Pratt, 1836; Jas- 
per W. Gilbert, 1843; Nicholas E. Paine, 1846; William S Bishop, 
June, 1847; Martin S. Newton, November, 1850; Edward A. Ray- 
mond, November, 1853 ; Calvin Huson, November, 1856; Joseph A. 
Stull, November, 1859; William H. Bowman, November, 1862; Chris- 
topher C. Davison, November, 1865 ; John M. Davy, November, 1868 ; 
George Raines, November, 1871 ; Edward S. Fenner, November, 1877 ; 
Joseph W. Taylor, November, 1883 ; George A. Benton, 1886; George 
D. Forsyth, 1892. 

Sheriffs. — During the colonial period, sherifTs were appointed annually, 
in October ; and also annually under the first constitution by the coun- 
cil of appointment and could not hold ofifice for more than four suc- 
cessive years. Under the constitution of 1 821, and since continued, 
sheriffs are elected for a term of three years, and are ineligible to 

28 



218 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

election for the next successive term. The Monroe county sheriffs 
have been as follows: James Seymour, March 7. 1821 ; John T. Pat- 
terson, 1822; James Seymour, 1 825 ; James K. Livingston, 1828; Ezra 
M Parsons. 1831; Klias Pond, 1834; Darius Perrin, 1 8 3 7 ; Qiailes^ 
Pardee, 1840; Hiram Sibley, 1843; George Hart, 1846; Octavius P. 
Chamberlain. 1 849 ; Chauncey B. Woodworth, 1852; Alexander Bab- 
cock," 1855; Hiram Smith, 1858; James H. Warren, 1861 ; Alonzo 
Chapman, 1864; Caleb Moore, 1867; Isaac V. Sutherland, appointed 
7'ice Moore, deceased, 1869; Joseph B. Campbell, 1869; Charles S. 
Campbell, 1872; Henry E. Richmond. 1875; James K. Burlingame, 
1878; Francis A. Schoeffel. 1881; John W. Hannan, 1884; Thomas 
C. Hodgson, 1887; Burton H. Davy, 1890; John W. Hannan, 1893. 

County Clerks — Originally, the county clerk was commissioned as 
ckrk of the court of Common Pleas, cleik of the peace, and clerk of 
the Sessions of the Peace, in his county. Under the first constitution 
it was his duty to keep the county records and also act as clerk of the 
inferior court of Common Pleas, and of the Oyer and Terminer. The 
county clerk is now clerk of all the courts of record in his county, as 
well as keeper of the county records. Since the adoption of the con- 
stitution of 1 82 1 the teim of office has been three years. In Monroe 
count)' the clerks have been as follows: Nathaniel Rochester, March 5, 
1821 ; Elisha Ely, 1822; Simon Stone 2d, 1825; VVilliam Graves, 
1828, Leonard Adams, 1831; Samuel G.Andrews, 1834; Ephrami 
Goss. 1837; James W. Smith, 1840; Charles J. Hill, 1843; John C. 
Nash. 1846; John T. Lacy, 1849; W. Barron Williams, 1852; William 
N. Sage, 1855; Dyer D. S. Brown, 1858; Joseph Cochrane, 1861 ; 
George H. Barry, 1864; Charles J, Powers, 1867 ; Alonzo L. Mabbett, 
1870; John H. Wilson, 1873; Edward A. Frost, 1876-79; Henry D. 
McNaughton. 1882; Maurice Leyden, 1885; William Oliver, 1888; 
Kendrick P. Shedd, 1891, re-elected 1894 

The Rochester Bar Association. — During the last quarter of a century 
or more, several attempts have been made to organise a bar association 
for the city and county ; and, although success attended these efforts so 
far as organisation was concerned, the societies themselves have never 
been enduring, and for one cause and another thev were dissolved and 
passed out of e.xistence. The present bar association, more firmly 



THE BENCH AND BAR. 219 

founded and stronger in other essential respects than any of its prede- 
cessors, was incorporated November 28, 1892. The incorporators were 
William F. Cogswell, Theodore Bacon, Charles M Williams, George F. 
Yeoman, Thomas Raines, John B. M. Stephens, John D, Lynn, P. M. 
French, Henry G. Danforth, John Desmond, John F. Kinney, Elbridge 
L. Adams, Martin W. Cooke, Arthur E. Sutherland, William B. Hale, 
Albert H. Harris, Frederick W. Smith, George A. Carnahan, James S. 
Havens, Joseph S. Hunn, James M. E. O'Grady, Frederick J. Smythe, 
Nathaniel Foote, George A. Benton, Walter S. Hubbell and Eugene 
Van Voorhis. 

The first officers of the association were Nathaniel Foote, president ; 
John Desmond, first vice-president; George A. Carnahan, second vice- 
president ; Elbridge L. Adams, secretary; Joseph S. Hunn, treasurer; 
and a board of eleven trustees. The present officers, elected in Di.cem- 
ber, 1894, are as follows: Porter M. French, president; James S. 
Havens, first vice-president; George A. Benton, second vice-president ; 
Henry W. Gregg, ^ secretary ; Francis S. Macomber, treasurer ; and 
George F. Yeoman, Albert H. Harris, John P. Bowman, Abraham 
Benedict, William H. Shuart, Jonas P. Varnum, John D. Lynn and 
Adelbert Cronise, trustees. 

In this chapter the writer has carefully avoided personal allusion to or 
comment on the abilities and characteristics of the lawyers in the count}', 
pleading as an excuse the lack of space and the utter impossibility of do- 
ing full justice to a subject so unlimited. It is a fact well known that 
this county has produced some of the most able lawyers of the state, but 
to separate the few from their fellows equally worthy of notice, perhaps, 
and eulogise the few to the neglect of the many would lead to compli- 
cations and consequent dissatisfaction. In the foregoing pages no 
mention has been made, biographicaily, of any lawyers now practicing 
in the city or the county, as it was deemed best to draw the line be 
tween the dead and the living. In a chapter beginning upon page 442 
of the work will be found a few paragraphs relating to many of the more 
prominent attorneys of the present day, though it is not the intention 
to make thereby any distinction of comparative eminence. 

The reader will find appended thereto a list of the lawyers of 

1 Mr. Grei?g died .\pril -JU, IS'.I."); llirani K, Wood is now the secretary. 



220 LAND^rARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

the county seat from 1821 to 1895, inclusive. In compiling this list 
access was had to the roll of attorneys prepared by Frederick A. 
Whittlesey in 1884, to which has been added the succession to the 
present year, together with a complete register of the bar as it stands 
in 1895. 



THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. 



BY L. C. ALDRICH. 



The medical profession of Monroe county has preserved but little of 
its own history, and while there are a few meager records from which 
we may learn something of the proceedings and membership of the 
medical societies that have been formed, there are no data upon which 
can be based a reliable record of the development of the profession. 
The great advance in all branches of art and science during the last 
century has indeed been marvelous, but in none has there been greater 
progress than in the science of medicine and surgery. 

The dawning of medical science which now sheds its light through- 
out the world began with Hippocrates nearly twenty-three hundred 
years ago, and he first treated of medicine with the simplest of rem- 
edies, relying chiefly on the healing powers of nature. He wrote ex- 
tensively and some of his works have been translated, and have served 
as the foundation for succeeding literature in the profession. Previous 
to Hippocrates all medicines were in the hands of the priests and were 
associated with numerous superstitions, such as charms, amulets and 
incantations ; sympathetic ointments were applied to the weapon with 
which a wound had been made ; human or horse flesh was used for the 
cure of epilepsy, and convulsions were treated with human brains. It 
was a custom among the Babylonians to expose their sick to the view 
of passers-by, to learn whether they had been afflicted with a like dis- 
temper, and by what remedies they had been cured. It was also a 
custom of those days for all who had been sick, and were cured, to put 
up a tablet in the temple of Esculapius, whereon they gave an account 
of the remedies that had restored them to health. But all this 



222 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY 

credulous superstition of early ages, born of ignorance, has not been 
fully wiped out by the advanced education of the present day. The 
latest appeal to the credulity of the masses is the so-called " Christian 
Science," or " Faith Cure." The persons seeking to popularise this 
means of cure are either deceived themselves or are deceiving others, 
for so long as filth brings fever prayer will not avail. 

It is not our purpose, however, to treat of ancient or even modern 
medical history, and though a review of the progress of this science 
from the time of the Egyptian medical deities, or the Greek or Roman 
medical mythology, would be both interesting and instructive, it is 
hardily pertinent to the medical history of this county, and our intro- 
ductory observations are merely to suggest to the reader the difference 
between the ancient and modern means of healing. 

The settlement of the region now included in Monroe county began 
about the year 1790, but progressed slowly during the first fifteen or 
twenty years. The country was then almost a wilderness except as 
occasional improvements had been made. At that time the facilities 
for obtaining a medical education were very limited, for New York had 
done very little to encourage science, and there were no scho Is of 
medicine worthy the name nearer than Boston or Philadelphia. Few 
young men could then afford so great an expense to qualify themselves 
for a profession which offered little pecuniary inducement, hence the 
prevailing custom was for the medical aspirant to enter the office of 
some neighboring physician and read for two or three years, at the same 
time accompanying his tutor in his professional visits and learn his 
methods of practice. At the end of the term the young doctor would 
seek some promising field and begin practice. The early legislation 
which regulated the admission and practice of physicians was so defec- 
tive as to be really worthless. However, in 1806 an act was passed for 
the incorporation of medical societies in each county of the state ; also 
authorising a state medical society, and repealing all former laws in 
reference to the profession. In pursuance of this act and subsequent 
amendments, the several general and local medical societies of the 
county and city have been organised. The more recent laws regul.it- 
ing the practice are very strict, and have been enacted for the benefit of 
the medical profession as well as of the people of the state at large. In 



THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. 223 

fact the legislature has done for the profession all that could reasonably 
be asked. 

The Monroe County Medical Society. — On the 9th day of May, 1821, 
a preliminary and somewhat informal meeting of physicians was held 
at the inn kept by John G. Christopher in the then styled village of 
Rochesterville for the purpose of forming a county medical society in 
conformity with the laws of the state. Dr. Alexander Kelsey was 
chosen chairman and Dr. John B. Elvvood secretary. A committee of 
three — Joseph Loomas, Chauncey Beadle and John B. Elwood — was 
appointed to prepare a code of by-laws for the future government of 
the society. The physicians present produced their credentials and 
thereupon became qualified members. They were Joseph Loom?s, 
Nathaniel Rowell, James Scott, Allen Almy, Daniel Durfee, Daniel 
Weston, Isaac Chichester, Alexander Kelsey, John Cobb, jr., John G. 
Vought, Chauncey Beadle, Theophilus Randall, Frederick F. Backus, 
Anson Coleman, Ebenezer Burnham, Samuel B. Bradley and Ezekiel 
Harmon. 

The first officers of the society were elected at this meeting, as fol- 
lows : Alexander Kelsey, president ; Nathaniel Rowell, vice-president ; 
Anson Coleman, treasurer ; John B. Elwood, secretary, and Freeman 
Edson, John B Elvvood, Frederick F. Backus, Ezekiel Harmon and 
Derrick Knickerbocker, censors. 

The members of the society in 1822, with the place of residence of 
each, were as follows: Alexander Kelsey, Rush; Janna Holton and 
Ezra Strong, Brighton ; Isaac Chichester, David Durfee and Daniel 
Weston, Penfield ; David Gregory, Perinton ; William Gildersleeve, 
Pittsford ; Derrick Knickerbocker and Barzillai Bush, Mendon ; Free- 
man Edson, Wheatland ; Berkley Gillette and Ebenezer Burnham, 
Chili ; John Cobb, jr., and Allen Almy, Ogden ; Henry Patterson and 
Samuel B. Bradley, Parma; Nathaniel Rowell, Ezekiel Harmon and 
Theophilus Randall, Clarkson ; James Scott, Greece ; John Adams, jr., 
Henrietta ; Linus Stevens, Frederick F. Backus, Anson Coleman, 
George Marvin, John B. Elwood, O. E. Gibbs, Rochester. 

The officers in 1822 were Frederick F. Backus, president; Janna Hol- 
ton, vice-president ; William H. Morgan, secretary; Anson Coleman, 
treasurer; John B. Elwood, George Marvin, Linus Stevens, Anson 
Coleman and John Cobb, jr., censors. 



224 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

l-'roni the old records wc learn the names of other early physicians, 
who became members of the society about the same time, viz.: John 
G. Vouj^'ht, John D. Henry, George E. Harrar, Eli Day and Daniel 
Marble, whose residences are not mentioned ; and also Harvey Allen, 
Mendon ; Pliineas Royce, Henrietta ; Nathaniel Wilson, Mendon ; An- 
drew Hiintin<jton and Archelaiis G. Smith, Pittsford ; Davis Carpenter. 
Sweden; James VV. Smith, Philander Tobey, jr., Hosmer Graham, 
Jefferson Day, J. 1. Morrow and William H. Morgan, of Rochester. 

This old pioneer organisation of the county was vested with power 
which might at the present time appear extraordinary, yet both soci- 
ety and authority have been continuous and it is only the popularity 
of the medical universities, with the higher educational advantages 
afforded by them, that has impelled the student to obtain his education 
through them. The old society exercised a rigid discipline over its mem- 
bers and used every endeavor to elevate the professional standard in every 
direction ; and some of their strictures were of such a nature that quack- 
ery in practice, and the use of patent or proprietary medicines, were 
things to be condemned. In proof of the sentiment we may quote from 
the constitution of the society : " It shall be highly disreputable for 
any member to assume or hold the knowledge of any nostrum, or palm 
any medicine or composition on the people as a secret, and every such 
member shall be deemed unworthy to belong to the society, and the 
members thereof shall hold no medical correspondence with such char- 
acters, nor consult with them in any medical case whatever ; and all 
pretenders to nostrnms shall be deemed proper subjects for expulsion 
from this society." 

In the matter of admission and expulsion of members, or granting 
license to practice, the power of the society was supreme, and it also 
exercised authority over all practitioners of medicine in the county. 
Article i6 of the bylaws provided that "no student shall be exam- 
ined unless he produce satisfactory proof that he is of good moral char- 
acter ; that he has studied the time and in the manner required by law. 
If he be a candidate for the practice of Physic, he shall be examined 
on Materia Medica, Pharmacy, Anatomy, Physiology, and on the 
theory and practice of physic. Candidates for license to practice sur- 
gery shall be examined particularly on Anatomy and Surgery." If 



THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. 225 

the candidate passed an examination to the satisfaction of the censors, the 
president and secretary of the society issued to the applicant a diploma 
from the society. 

Succession of Presidents. — Alexander Kelsey, 1821; Frederick F. Backus, 1822; Al- 
exander Kelsey, 1823: Linus Stevens, 1824-25; John D. Henry, 1826-27; John B. 
Elwood, 1828-29; F. F. Backus, 1830-31; Freeman Edson, 1832 ; Berkley Gillette, 
1833; John D. Henry, 1834; L W. Smith, 1835; W. W. Reed, 1836; W. W. Brice, 
1837 ; F. F. Backus, 1838-39; Maltby Strong, 1840. (The minute book of records be- 
tween 1840 and 1875 appears to be lost.) E. V. Stoddard, 1875; Jacob I. Denman, 
1876; B. L. Hovey, 1877; B. L Preston, 1878; Samuel Holman, 1879; T. B. Collins, 
1880-; A. Mandeville, 1881; J. J. Kempe, 1882; E. M. Moore, 1883; A. Dann, 1834; 
Paul D. Carpenter, 1885; Louis A. Weigel, 1886; E. H. Howard, 1887; W. J. Herri- 
man, 1888; F. A. Jones, 1889; J. 0. Roe, 1890; W. R. Howard, 1891; E. W. Mulli- 
gan, 1892; J. Oliver Tait. 1893: H. S. Durand, 1894. 

Present Membership^ — F. D. Andrews, E. B. Angell, M. E. Altraan, Azel Backus, 
Ogden Backus, W. C. Bailey (Clifton), E. P. Ballantiue, C. C. Barber, G. L. Beach, H. 
L. Beahaii, James Beahan, W. D. Becker, W. N. Borrow, J. C. Bowen, A. N. Braham 
(Brockport), John D. Briggs, W. H. Briggs, C. M. Briggs (Fairport), Dore W. Brown, 
T. A. Brown (Brighton), W. M. Brown (Bright'^n), James C. Buckley, J.J. A. Burke, 
Emily A. Cady, Charles McD. Cameron, A. B. Carpenter (^Greece), A. M. Carpenter 
(Greece;, P. D. Carpenter (Pittsford), George A. Carroll, A. C. Cartwright, J. W. Casey, 
Morey S. Collier, Charles G. Combs, W. L. Conklin, J. A. Cormier, H. H. Covell. J. B. 
Cowles (Fairport), Anna Craig, James F. Crowley, J. R. Culkin, D. F. Curtis, A. Dann, 
C. E. Darrow, James C. Davis, S. W. Dawson, C. A. Dewey, Sarah R. A. Doiley, 
Frank F. Dow, J. D. Dunning (Webster), H. S. Durand, Edfjar H. Earl, Frederick East, 
R. M. Elliot, W. S. Ely, S L. Eisner, John J. Evans, Porter Farley, H. M. Fenno, J. 
B. Finnecone (Mendon), James H. Finnessy, John W. Flick (Honeoye Falls). Charles' 
Forbes, G. W. Foster, George P. French, Robert T. French, W. S. Fuller (Fairport), 
L. T. Gandy (Chili), C. M. Garlock, Frederick Geare, Horace Gee, F. H. Goddard, 
George Goler, H. C. W. Graham (Webster), Erlo P. Gray, 0. Groves. P. C. Guinan, 

A. R. Gumberts, A. W. Haenckell, G. S. Hall, Eugene F. Hamburg, F F. Hamilton, 
Robert T. Hayes, Sumner Hayward, W. J. Herriman, L. L. F. Hillman (Greece). S. A. 
Holman (North Parma), B. L. Hovey, Edward Howard (Churchville), E. H. Howard, 
W. R. Howard, W. T. Howe (Scottsville;, H. B. Howell, Loren W. Howk, J. M. In- 
gersoll, Thomas Jameson, Ira T. Johnson, Frank A. Jones, S. C. Jones, William B. 
Jones, J. J. Kempe, N. F. Keifer, W. G. Lacey (Scottsville), W. H. Lakeman, David 
Little, S. W. Little, M. L. Lord, C. H. Losey, J. M. Magil (Fairport), A. P. Maine 
(Webster), Frank W. Maloney, Fred A. Mandeville, H. J. Mann (Brockport), W. 

B. Mann (Brockport), D. G. Mason (East Henrietta), M. C. Mason, J. W. 
McCauley, J. H. McCort, P. McNamara, H. B. Miner (West Mendon), A. E. Mink 
(Hamlin), E. M. Moore, E. M. Moore, jr., R. M. Moore, John F. Mulherin, E. W. 
Mulligan, H. R. Nettleton, J. B. Nold, T. A. O'Hara, E. S. Olin, John E. Ottaway 

' Unless ollierwist' indicated members live in Rochester. 
29 



226 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

(Charlotte), Joseph Pease (Hamlin), S. Perry, H. C. Phillips, S. A. Pierce. C. H. Pope, 
E. B. Poller, M. C. Poller, Ezra B. Pratt (FairporO, B. I. Preston, Edward J. Price, 
J. Ready, Charles Reitz (Webster). Frederic Reminjitoii, A. L. Richman, C. E. Rider. 
Wheelock Rider, P. E. Rivard, A. S. Rockwell. Moses Rosenburp, John 0. Roe. 
Ohadifth Roffers (Brockport), L. VV. Rose, J. L. Rosel)oona, T. D. Rupert (Mendon), 
Martin Rutherford (Cumphell), F. H. Sawers, H. Schoontnaker, Justin Schopp, Q. C. 
Schubart. Anna H. Searii)?, H. T. 8ed<;wick, H.P. Sheldon, J. F. Sherman. W. Sibley, 
Mary J. Slaight. W. C. Slayton (Spencerport). N. G. Soble, L. J. Somers, O. T. Stacy, 
William Stanton, J. A. Stapleton, Mary E. Stark, D. Starkey (Chili), C. S. Starr. F. L. 
Stehbins, Peter Stockschlader, E. V. Stoddard, J. E. Sutton (Scottsville), T. 0. Tait. D. 
C. Throop. Harriet E. Turner, P. G. Udell (Spencerport). J. C Urquhart. D. A. Van- 
de beck, L. Allen Walker, George Waldron, Wiliiam T. Wallace, W.W.Ward, John 
E. Weaver. William H. Webb, J. W. Whitbeck. E. E. Whitconib, L. A. Weigel, C. W. 
Wilhor, H. T. Williams, W. W. Williams (North Parma), Benjamin Wilson. W. B. Wolf, 
C. D. Wooden. Lettie H. Woodruff, Charles D. Young. F. W. Zimiuer, John Zimmer. 
Number of members, 204. 

The present officers of the society are as follows : Wallace Sibley, 
president; Henry T. Williams, vice-president; James H. McCort, 
treasurer; Frederic Remington, secretary; Marion Craig Potter, 
Henry Strong Durand and Frederic Remington, delegates to tlie Medi- 
cal society of the State of New York. 

The Rochester Medical Society. — Away back iti 1853 a number of 
prominent physicians of Rochester took the preliminary measures to 
organise a local medical society for mutual professional benefit. An 
organisation was perfected and meetings were regularly held for several 
years, but for some cause interest in its affairs seemed to dcclitie, hence 
the society dissolved in 1859. 

Appreciating the advantages of a local society, the physicians of the 
city, in 1865, determined to reorganise the old institution and give to 
it a new and more vigorous life. On October 5, a duly appointed 
committee undertook to prepare a plan of reorganisation, with result so 
successful that on February 14, 1866, the society was formed, its first 
officers being J. F. Whitbeck, president ; C. K. Rider, secretary ; and 
IC. V. Stoddard, treasurer. 

The first members of the society were Drs. E. W. Armstrong, W. 
H. Hriggs. J. W. Casey, H. W. Dean, W. S. Ely, W. W. Ely. B. L. 
Hovey, H. H. Langworthy, David Little, L. McKay, C. H. H. Miller, 
H. F. Montgomery, E. M. Moore, A. Pratt, C. \l. Rider, E. V. Stod- 
dard, G. Swinburne, J. F. Whitbeck, T. B. Collins and Jonas Jones. 



THE iVIEDICAL PROFESSION. 227 

However, this society, like its predecessor, was unfortunately short- 
lived. Its meetings were maintained for several years, and, while of 
much interest and general good to the profession, for some cause there 
came a decline and ultimate dissolution, many of the original members 
in the meantime having joined with the new and possibly more progres- 
sive society then recently formed. 

Previous to 1 877 the presidents of the Rochester Medical Society 
were, in succession, J. F. Whitbeck, H. W. Dean, David Little, George 
Swinburne, H. H. Langworthy, W. W. Ely, W. H. Briggs, C. E. Rider, 
VV. S. Ely, E. V. Stoddard and E M. Moore. 

The Rochester Pathological Society . — Thisentirely successful and highly 
beneficial society of the city was incorporated under the laws of the 
state on the 25th of May, 1889, by Drs. John O. Roe, Wallace J. Her- 
rinian, Edward W. Mulligan, Eugene H. Howard and William R How- 
ard. Yet this society in its history dates back to about the year 1870, 
when a few of the enterprising young practitioners of Rochester met in 
clinical or dissecting session for their mutual benefit, perfecting them- 
selves in patholog}', physiology and surgery. These meetings proved 
both interesting and instructive, and as a consequence the class became 
quite large. It was finally suggested that a regular society should be 
organised. Dr. Charles Buckley and Dr. Charles S. Starr being the prime 
movers of the enterprise. Others who were interested and among the 
original members were Drs Parsons G. Udell, John O. Roe, Julius 
Schmidt, George P. Morey, M. B Speare and George J. Oakes. The 
original class had been formed for pathological work, hence the newly 
organised society fittingly took the name of the " Rochester Pathological 
society." 

However, no written records of this society, previous to 1 876, are to 
be found, though it is well known that the organisation had then been 
in existence at least five years. In January, 1876, the officers elected 
for the next six months were T. A. O'Hare, president; B. I. Preston, 
vice-president; L. A. Weigel, secretary; and Charles Buckley, treas- 
urer. In 1881 the constitution of the society was amended, and officers 
were thereafter elected for one year. 

The succession of presidents, from 187G to 1894, is as follows: T. A. O'Hare, Jan- 
uary, 1876; L. A. Weigel, June, 1876; B. I. Preston, Januarj', 1877; E. H. Howaril, 



228 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY 

June, 18 7; C K. McKelvey, December, 1877; B. I. Preston, May, 1878; G. T. Beau- 
fonl, De.-enil.er, 1878; no record for June, 18'9; C. S. Starr, December, 1879; W. F. 
Sbt-elian, Jimeand December, 1880; I' D. Carpenter, June, 1881; A. Dann, June, 1882; 
W. R. Howard, June, 1883; C. A. Dewey, June, 1884; W. J. Hernnian, June, 1885; 
E. H. Howard, June, 1886; W. A. Moore, -lune, 1887; E. W. Mulligan. June, 1888; 
Benj. Wilson, June, 1889; F. F. Dow, June, 189U; Ogden Backus, June, 1891; Henry 
S. Durand, June, 1892; W. B. Jones, June, 1833; Wheelock Rid. r, June, 1894. The 
otiier officers electe<i at tlie annua! meeting in June, 1894, were Cliarles R. Birber, 
vice-president, and F^. T. Williams, secretary and treasurer. 

Honorary Members. — Azel Backus, William H. Briggs, Thomas A. Brown, J. D. 
Dunning, W. S. Ely, B. L. Hovey, David Little, E. M. Moore, C. E. Rider, J. W. 
Whitbeck. 

Active Members.— ¥j. B. Angell, F. D. Andrew, M. E. Artnian, Ogd'-n Backus, C. R. 
Barber, II. L. Bealian, W. D. Becker, S. C. Bradley, W. M. Brown. C. M. Briggs, D. 
R. Buirell, W. L. Conklin, P. D. Carpenter, G. G. Carroll, C. G. Combs, M. S. Collier, 
Archibald Dann, C. E. Darrow, C. A. Dewey, F. F. Dow, H. S. Durand, S. L. Eisner, 
W. S. Ely, W. T. Fox, L. T. Gandy, Sumner Hayward, Wm. S. Hall, A. W. Henckell, 
W. J. Merriman, E. H. Howard, W. R. Howard, L. W. Howk, J. M. Ingersoll. Thomas 
Jaiuieson, J. II. Jewett, S. C. Jones, W. B. Jones, F. A.Jones. I. T. Johnson, J. J. 
Kempe, S. W. Liitle, J. W. Magill, F. A. Mandeville, H. Mann, D. G. Mason, R. M. 
Moore, J. W. McCauley, E. W. Mulligan, T. A. O'Hare. Josepli Pease, B. I. Preston, 

E. B. Potter. Frederic Remington, Wheelock Rider, J. 0. Roe, L. W. Rose. J. L. Rose- 
boom, T D Ruptrt, Hubert Schoomaker, Wallace Sibley. N. W. Soble, C. S. Starr, 

F. L. Stebl)in.s, T. O. Tait, D. C. Throop, P. G. Udell, J. C. Urquhart, George Waldron, 
L. A. Walker, J. E. Weaver, L. A. Weigel, H. T. Williams, C. W. W^ilbor. Benj. Wilson, 
C. D. Wooden, C. D. Young. F. W. Zimmer, John Zimmer, C. A. Van der Beck, George 
F. I'ope. 

Homaopathic Medical Society of the County of Monroe — On the 2d 
d^y of January, 1 866, a meeting of the Homoeopathic physicians of the 
county was liekl, for the purpose of forming a medical society. A tem- 
porary organisatiop was effected by the selection of Dr. George Lewis 
as chaiiman. Dr. D. A. Baldwin, secretary, while Drs. Mathews, Sum- 
ner and Baldwin were appointed a committee to prepare and report a 
constitutidU and by-laws for the the government of the proposed so- 
ciety. The preliminaries being settled and constitution adopted, the 
organisation became permanent, with the first board of officers as fol- 
lows: George Lewis, president; M. M. Mathews, vice-president; D. A. 
Baldwin, secretary and treasurer; W. H Brown, T. C. White and G, W. 
Peer, committee on membership; Drs. Mathews, Sumner and Peer, del- 
egates to the state Homoeopathic convention. 

The original members of the society were Drs. George -Lewis, E. H. 



THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. ^20 

Hurd, D. A. Baldwin. Charles Sumner, E. S. Preston, W. H. H. Fisk, 
D. J. Chaffee, M. M. Mathews, G. VV. Peer, W. B. Brown, T. C. White, 
Linus H. Reynolds and C. H. Greene. 

This was the first Homoeopathic society organised in Monroe county, 
and its purpose of course was the promotion of professional welfare in 
the region. Its members were disciples of the Hahnemannian theory 
and practice, which, as Dr. Dayfoot aptly said, "opens wide her por- 
tals; her domain is boujidless; the reward is sure; no barriers block the 
way, no 'code' interrupts progress. Our only creed is the relief of 
suffering humanity, and with an abiding faith, born of experience, in 
the Q^cd-cy oi sitnilia similibus curantur, we shall in our conflict with 
disease continue to enlist into the service the 'mild power that cures.' " 

For the years 1 867, '70 and '72 the records of the society omit, ac- 
cidentally, the name of the president elected for the year, but with these 
exceptions, the succession of incumbents of that ofifice has been as fol- 
lows : 

Hilem Bennett, 1868; G. W. Peer, 1860; E. S. Hurd, 1871, L. H. Reynolds, 1873; 
Joseph A. Biegler, 1874; T. C. White, 1875; E. H. Hurd, 1876; R. A. Adams, 1877; 
W. P. Fowler, 1878; J. P. Wheeler, 1879; Allen B. Carr, 1880; Charles R. Sumner, 
1881; J. A. Biegler, 1882; J. W. Buell, 1883; Charles R. Sumner, 1884; H. M. Day- 
foot, 1885; J. M. Lee, 1886; M. E. Graham, 1887; E. H. Wolcott, 1888; W. F. Clapp, 
1889; E. J. Bissell, 1890; C. E. Walker, 1891; Wm. B. Carman, 1892; T. D. Spencer, 
1893; G. M. Haywood, 1894. 

The officers for 1895 are N. M. Collins, president ; Mary M. Hoyt, vic^- 
president ; F. R. Smith, secretary ; T. J. Thurber, treasurer, and Drs. 
Hawley, Bissell, Neefus, Adams, Clapp and Carman, censors. 

The present members are Drs. R. A. Adams, M. H. Adams, H. A. Anderson, G. A. 
Buckman, J. W. Buell, E. S. Buell (So. Greece) E. J. Bissell, A. S. Bamber, W. B. Car- 
man, L. W. Carpenter, L. F. Chamberlyne, W. F. Clapp (Fairport), N. M. Collins, W. 
II. Curtis, W. H, Doane (Pittsford), E.W.'Eaile,W. P. Fowler. M. E. Graham, W. B. Haw- 
ley, G. M. Haywood, J. F. Haywood, H. W. Hoyt, Mary M. Hoyt. N. M. Humphreys (Pen- 
field), S. G. Hermance,W. A. Keegan, C. M. Kellogg, J. M. Lee, 3. I. Lee, J. A. McCallum, 
P. W. Neefus, Chas. Otis (Honeoye Falls), C. W. Perrine, J. C. Proctor, W. S. Rambo, 
M. Sherman Ricker, F. B. Seitz, F. R. Smith, S. R. Snow, T. D. Spencer, F. W. Stillwell, 
C. R. Sumner, T. J. Thurber, J. K. Tretton, E. C. Walker (Henrietta), J. F. Tubbs 
(Fairport), R. A. Van Allen, T. C. White, F. A. Weimer (Brockport), E. H. Wolcott. 

The Rochester HaJineniannian Society. — This society was organised 
January 18, 1886, by a number of Homoeopathic physicians of Roches- 



230 LAN DM AUKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

ter who were believers in the strict and uncompromisinfi Hahnemannian 
theories. In 1888 the membership was increased by the withdrawal of 
several other physicians from the county Homoeopathic society and who 
united with the new organisation. 

The first officers elected were Joseph A. Biegler, president; R. A. 
Adams, vice-president; R. C. Grant, secretary and treasurer; A. H. 
Carr, Julius Schmidt, S. George Hermance, censors. From its forma- 
tion to the present term the presidents of the society have been as fol- 
lows : Joseph A. Biegler, 1886-87; R. C. Grant. 1888: A. H. Carr, 
1889; Julius G. Schmidt. 1890; Volney A. Hoard. 1891 ; Ale.xander 
C. Hermance, 1892; W. G. Brownell, 1893 ; R. C. Grant. 1894. The 
officers for tiie year 1895 are Alexander C. Hermance, president ; E B. 
Ross, vice-president ; S George Hermance, secretary and treasurer. 

The present members are Joseph A Biegler, William Brownell, O. S. 
Bamber, A. B. Carr, R. C. Grant, M. E. Graham, Volney A. Hoard, 
Alexander C. Hermance, S George Hermance, W. W Johnson (Pitts- 
ford), Alfred Norman, Iv V. Ross, luiima L Sayles, Hubert Stratton 
and VV. 11 Young. 

Rochester Hospitals. — Though possibly not an essential element of 
this chapter, we are nevertheless constrained to make at least a passing 
allusion to the hospital institutions of the city in this connection, for at 
least two of them were the direct outgrowth of the work of medical 
societies. However, the purposes of this chapter do not suggest an ex- 
tended narrative of historj' of the hospitals but only such reference as 
seems appropriate to the general subject. 

The subject of establishing a permanent hosjiital in Rochester was 
much discussed in the medical profession, the city press and among the 
people more than half a century ago, although it was not until 1847 
that definite steps were taken to bring about the desired end, and 
many more years passed before a hospital building was in fact provided. 

The Rochester City Hospital, or as now more cominonl)- known, the 
City hospital, was incorporated by an act of the legislature, passed May 
7, 1847. ^ '""^ ^''st trustees were John B. l^luood. William Pilkin, Isaac 
Hills, Thomas H. Rochester, Patrick Kearney, Frederick Starr, Ralph 
Lester, Edward Mott Moore, John Williams, hllijah F. Smith and David 
R. Barton For hospital purposes the city transferred to the trustees 



THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. 231 

the old "Western cemetery" tract, comprising about three acres and 
having a large frontage on what is now known as West avenue, but it 
was not until 1857 that the title was perfected in the trustees, and still 
another seven years elapsed before the then main building was ready for 
occupancy. On the 28th of January, 1864, the hospital was dedicated, 
and on the 1st of February following the first patient was received. 
During the summer of that year the building was thrown open to the 
sick and wounded soldiers, and from June 7, 1864, to September, 1865, 
a total of four hundred and forty-eight disabled volunteers found com- 
fort within its walls The east wing was completed in 1865 ; the west 
wing in 1 87 1, and the upper portion of the building was made ready 
for occupancy in 1879. In 1880 the morgue was built; in 1882 tiie 
hall pavilion, and still another in 1883, the latter through the efTorts of 
Drs. W. S. Ely, E. V. Stoddard and J. W. Whitbeck, of the then 
medical stafif. 

The building has been remodeled and made to conform to advanced 
practical ideas and is now one of the best appointed and best equipped 
hospitals in this part of the state. In connection with it is a training 
school for nurses from which department one hundred and twenty- five 
trained nurses have been graduated. The affairs of the institution are 
in the hands of a board of directors and a board of managers. The 
regular hospital staff comprises seven chief and twelve assistant physi- 
cians in all departments. 

St. Mary's Hospital,— TW\s institution was established September 8, 
1857, and was in fact founded by three Sisters from Emmettsburg, Md. 
Father O'Brien, then of St Patrick's, purchased for them a lot on West 
avenue, on which stood two old stone stable buildings. These were 
fitted and converted into a primitive hospital, and on the 8th of Sep- 
tember, 1858, were opened for the reception of patients, under the di- 
rection of Sister Hieronymo. In 1858 about two hundred and fifty 
patients were treated. The erection of the present large stone building 
was begun in 1858, and was fully completed in 1865. During the war 
of 1861-65 about three thousand sick and wounded soldiers were cared 
for in this institution. 

In St. Mary's about two hundred patients are continually under 
treatment, the care of whom requires the attention of sixteen Sisters of 



2;i2 I,AM).\IAKKS (»K MONlfoK CorNTV. 

Charity directed by superior Sister Marie. Dr. Edward Mott Moore 
has been at the head of the medical staff of this institution from its 
founding. There is also a large staff of visiting piiysicians. 

The Rochester Homieopathic Hospital. — As early as i 885 the Homoeo- 
pathic physicians of Rochester and vicinity began to discuss the advisa- 
bility of establishing a Homoeopathic hospital in the cit\-, and the subject 
was frequently the occasion of much earnest comment at the meetings 
of the county medical society. The result was that on May 25, 1887. 
a hospital society was incorporated, and in April, 1889, it purchased a 
desirable property on Monroe avenue. In September following the in- 
stitution was opened for patients, and for the succeeding five years was 
maintained on the same site. However, there soon came a demand for 
better facilities and larger accommodations, and to meet this demand 
the I lomceopathic medical society and its friends in the city, all gener- 
ously contributing for the purpose, united in the construction of what is 
rcartled one of the most complete and convenient hospital buildings in 
this state ; not the largest, ])erhaps, but one of the most attractive in all 
its features. The new building, on Alexander street, with its various 
annexes and departments, was opened to the public November 21, 1894. 
In the old building in 1894 nearly seven hundred patients were cared 
for. Its capacity was sufficient for about fifty persons; the capacity of 
the new hospital is double that of the old. An important adjunct to 
the institution is the training school, from which skilled nurses have 
been graduated. 

The Hahnevietni Hospital. — As its name indicates, this institution 
was founded and constructed in conformity with strict Hahnemannian 
principles, and is the first of its kiiui to follow uncompromisingly this 
theory. For this consummation credit is due very largely to the untir- 
ing efforts of the Rochester Hahnemannian society, before mentioned in 
,this chapter, and to the equally valuable assistance of generous friends. 
The hospital was opened in 1893, its corporation having purchased the 
old Selden homestead on Oakland street. This institution also has a 
training school for nurses. About twenty-five patients may be carecl 
for at one time. The annual expense of the hospital is about $7,000. 



THE TOWNS OF MONROE COUNTY. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE TOWN OF BlUGHTON. 

On March 25, 18 14, the old town of Smallwood was divided, and 
out of its territory two other towns were erected, and named respect- 
ively, Brighton and Pittsford. The former, as originally constituted, 
contained about sixty- six square miles of land, or its equivalant in 
acres, 42,240. It was bounded on the north by Lake Ontario, east by 
Penfield, south by Pittsford (now Henrietta), and west by the Genesee 
river and the now named towns of Gates and Greece. At that time 
the town included the village settlement of Rochester, and with its otlier 
settled communities and varied interests it was numbered among the 
more important civil divisions of the region This ascendency it main- 
tained for several years, and only the reduction of its territory for the 
purpose of later formations took from it its original prominence in the 
region. A part of Rochester was taken from Brighton in 1834, Iron- 
dequoit in 1839, while the enlargement of the city during more recent 
years have necessitated further curtailments of its territory, taking not 
only its lands but as well its population and commercial interests. 

Topographically, the town may be described as having a gently roll- 
ing surface with a slight inclination toward the north. The deep valley 
of Irondequoit Bay is on the eastern border, while the streams generally 
are small brooks, tributaries of the Genesee and Irondequoit. The soil 
is a sandy loam in the east and a clay loam toward the river. Near the 
center extensive gypsum beds formerly existed and were a profitable 
industry to the town, yet the chief pursuits of the people have been 
market gardening, farming, and the growing of nursery stock. 
30 



234 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Let lis look back briefly into the early years of the century and ob- 
serve how the town was regarded and described by the writers of that 
period. The historian of 1820 says: "The soil is good, and being 
bounded west by Genesee river, from its mouth to above the falls at 
Rochester, it enjoys extensive privilejjjes for hydraulic works, and is 
increasing rapidly in population and business. Carthage, where was 
lately a stupendous bridge over the Genesee river, is in this town, but 
will probably not soon, if ever, have another such bridge, as there is 
nothing to make it absolutely necessary. This place seems now to have 
taken the name of Clyde, as it has Clyde post-office two and one half 
miles below Rochester. There is a hamlet of buildings, and an immense 
field of business will soon concentrate a busy and thriving population 
around the falls of this river and its mouth in the lake." 

The present and even preceding generations have witnessed the ful- 
fillment of the prophecy of the historian of 1820, but it is doubtful if the 
writer ever contemplated the possibility of a city so grand and progres- 
sive as that which now stands on the Genesee and largely within the 
limits of the town of Brighton as once constituted. * At that time we 
learn that the population of Brighton was 1,792, and of its inhabitants 
355 were farmers; 115 were mechanics; 46 were foreigners, not natur- 
alized. There were then no slaves in the town, but among the people 
were eight free blacks. The electors numbered 547. Acres of im- 
proved land, 4.221, and cattle, 1,048; horses, 245; sheep, 1,928; 
yards of cloth made in 1 82 I, 8,477 > three grist mills, 1 2 saw mills, two 
oil mills, four carding machines, two fulling mills, one cotton and woolen 
factory, and five asheries, comprised the other manufacturing industries 
of the town. Of school districts there were eleven, in which schools 
were maintained seven months in the year. There were 614 children 
between the ages of five and fifteen years. Incidentally we may men- 
tion that within the limits of the town (as afterward created), in 1800 
there lived 414 persons, and in i8iO the number had increased to 2,860 

Returning to the early history of the region, it is well to state that 
the original town of Boyle was formed in 1806, and included all that is 
novv Brighton, Pittsford, Perinton, Irondequoit, Penfield and Webster. 
The name was changed from Boyle to Smallwood in 1812 or '13, and 
the territory remaining under that designation, after the formation of 



THE TOWN OF BRIGHTON. 235 

Penfield and Perinton, was in 1814 erected into Brighton and Pittsford. 
As a part of the Phelps and Gorham purchase, Brighton comprised 
chiefly township 13, in range 7. The original purchasers of this town- 
ship were General Hyde, Prosper Policy, Enos Stone, Col. Job G Ibert 
and Joseph Chaph'n, none of whom, except Enos Stone, it is believed, 
were ever permanent residents in the town, but of Lenox, Mass. 

The first white settler in the town was John Lusk, who came in 1787, 
spent ?ome time in prospecting, visited among the Indians, then frequent 
in the region, and then returned to Massachusetts. In 1790, having 
learned the trade of currier and tanner, he returned to the? locality and 
became a permanent settler. He purchased at the old Irondequoit 
landing, where he established a tannery, but in 1807 removed to Pitts- 
ford, and there continued in business until the time of his death in 
November. 18 13. 

Pioneer John Lusk was accompanied by his son Stephen, his hired 
man, named Seely Peet, and also by Orringh Stone, son of Enos Stone, 
one of the proprietors. Mr. Stone opened a tavern in the new country 
and for many years occupied a position of importance among the in- 
habitants. Through the influence of John Lusk and the favorable re- 
ports concerning the country he carried back to New England, other 
settlers came in during the same year, and among them can be recalled 
the names of Erastus Lusk, Enos Stone and his family, Chauncey and 
Calvin Hyde, Joel Scudder and Timothy Allyn ; and about the same 
time came Samuel Shaffer, Enos Blossom and Oliver Culver, the latter 
a Vermonter, frt m the old and historic town of Orwell. Oran Stone 
came in 1795 and settled east of Brighton village, near Culver's. A 
\ear or two later came Judge John Tryon, who took up his abode at 
the head of the bay ; and here he laid out a village, three square miles 
in extent, built a log warehouse and made ample preparation for the 
building up of a considerable village. From his improvements the 
place became known as "Tryon's Town." Asa Dayton kept public 
house here as early as 1801, a tanner}^ and a distillery were in operation 
about the same time, and Tryon's Town at once became a settlement of 
much note in the new country. Ira West was one of the earliest store- 
keepers, and Solomon Hatch and Oliver Culver had a saw mill running 
on AUyn's Creek as early as 1806. 



33G LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

With all these early industries in full operation it is not surprising 
that Brighton's territory contained more than 400 inhabitants in 1800, 
but its growth during the succeeding ten years was still more remark- 
able, as in 1 8 10 the population had increased to 2,860 within the 
boundaries of the afterward created town. Oliver Culver was another 
of the more enterprising pioneers, for in addition to his saw mill he en- 
gaged in business with Judge Tryon and transported many boat loads of 
goods from Tryonstown to the infant settlements of the far west. About 
1795 or '96 the townspeople sent a company to the east for the pur- 
pose of driving back here a large number of swine, and while the 
project was successful, it was -attended with many hardships and 
dangers. 

The first extensive merchant of the town was Augustus Griswold, 
who, in 1798, brought from the east five sleigh loads of merchandise, 
and in partnership with Judge Tryon opened a store. Benjamin Weeks 
was the second tavern-keeper. He came to the settlement from north 
of Rochester, and it is said that he declined to pay four dollars per 
acre for a fifty acre tract of land extending from the Central depot to 
the aqueduct in Rochester. In preference landlord Weeks set up in 
business at Irondequoit landing, the latter then being the larger and 
more promising settlement. A log school was opened here in 1802, 
taught by Mr. Turner ; and this is said to have been the first school 
established in the entire town of Boyle. Stephen Lusk is credited 
with having started the first distillery, though Oliver Culver had an early 
one near his tavern, west of Brighton village, and still another north of 
his residence. 

Among the other early settlers in Brighton were Silas Losea. the first 
blacksmith; Abel Katon, Bryant Brown, William Davis, Isaac Barnes, 
Moses Morris, Miles Northrup, Gideon Cobb, Solomon and John Hatch, 
Ezekiel Morse, Philip Moore, Lyman Goff, James Washburn, Stephen 
and Alex Chubb and Leonard Stoneburner. Abel Katon and Miles 
Morse were both tavern-keepers, engaged in a business at that time 
more profitable than nearly all other enterprises. In fact Brighton, 
from first to last, has been noted for the multiplicity of its public 
houses, and in the early history of the town such conveniences were not 
only in great demand but a real necessity, for the town was the gate- 



THE TOWN OP BRIGHTON. 337 

way to the vast Genesee country. During the period of greatest emi- 
gration westward taverns were frequently less than a mile apart and all 
were patronized even to overflowing. 

It is also claimed for Brighton that the first decked vessel to descend 
the St. Lawrence was constructed within the town, but at what definite 
time we know not. However, during the war of 1812— 15 the little 
settlement at the landing was a busy locality and much lake navigation 
had its beginning here. This was an important provision and ammuni- 
tion shipping point to supply the garrisons and forts on the western 
frontier. William Stoneburner was one of the first and most adven- 
turous persons to engage in this traffic, and although generally success- 
ful on his voyage, he was at last captured by the British, his craft and 
cargo taken from him, and he for some time held a prisoner. Mr. 
Stoneburner was also engaged by the United States officers to transport 
troops along the lake and proved of much value to the government. 
After the war Leonard Stoneburner, father to William, built several 
boats, one of them a twenty ton schooner, and did an extensive lake 
business for several years. 

Among the settlers in the town about the time of or soon after the 
war may be mentioned the Cory and Dryer families. Francis Charter, 
Milo Barnes, Erastus Stanley, Barnabas Curtis, Hanford Boughton, 
Abner Buckland, William Crocker, William Kelly, Abel Follett, Enos 
and Israel Blossom, Otis Walker, Moses Hall, George Dailey, Roswell 
and Romanta Hart, Joseph G. Wheeler, and others, all of whom were 
identified with the early history of the town and worthy of mention 
among its respected families. 

In 1822 the Erie canal was completed through the eastern part of 
the county, and with this as the principal thoroughfare of travel and 
transportation through the town all local interests were advanced and 
enlarged. Oliver Culver then built and put in the canal at Brighton 
village the first packet boat of the region, and the fourth on the canal. 
From this time the little hamlet at the landing lost its prestige while 
Brighton village and its interests were correspondingly increased. In 
1840 the Auburn and Rochester railroad was opened for traffic, and in 
1853 the Rochester and Syracuse road was likewise put in operation, 
and with these several acquisitions the advancement and prosperity of 



o-AR LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

the town was assured, all local interests were fostered and an era of 
peace and plenty prevailed on every hand. As evidence of this we 
need only refer to the census tables ant! note the various changes in 
number of inhabitants in the town, and there will be discovered a 
gradual and general increase with each succeeding census enumeration ; 
and that, too, regardless of the inroads made upon the original terri- 
tory of the town caused by the extension of the city limits and the 
formation of other towns. 

As has been stated, in 1800 the number of inhabitants in the town, 
as afterward formed, was 414. In i8iOtlie population had increased 
to 2,860; in 1S20 it was 1.972; in 1830, 3.128'; 1 8 40, 2,376: 1850, 
3,117; i860, 3,138; 1870, 4.304; 1880, 3.736; and in 1890.4,543, 
the latter the largest population in the history of the town. In ex- 
planation ol the occasional falling off noticeable in the foregoing list, 
it ma\' be stated that a part of Rochester was taken from this town in 
1834, and Irondequoit in 1839. Again, in 1874, an extension of the 
city limits took further from Brighton a large tract of land on its west 
side, and as well several hundred inhabitants. 

Tozi'/i Organization. — As has been stated, the old township of Small- 
wood was divided on March 25, 18 14, and its territory organized into 
two distinct towns, and named Brighton and Pittsford. The first town 
meeting was held in Brighton in 18 14, at which time these officers were 
elected: Supervisor, Oliver Culver ; town clerk, Nehemiah Hopkins; 
assessors. Orange Stone, Ezekiel Morse, Solomon Gould ; commission- 
ers of highways, Sylvester Cowles, John Hatch, Jesse Taint.or ; over- 
seers of the poor, Ezra Rogers, Rufus Messenger; constable, Knos 
Blossom ; school commissioners, Samuel Spafiford, Enos Blossom, 
David Bush ; pathmasters, Rufus Messenger, William Moore, Philip 
Moore Solomon Gould. Orange Stone, Israel Salter, James Schofiield, 
Joseph Caldwell, Robert M. Gordon, John B. Lee. 

In this connection it is interesting to note the succession of super- 
visors and clerks of Brighton, from the organization of the town to the 
present time, as follows : 

Supervisors — Oliver Culver, 1814-16; Elisha Ely, 1817-18 ; Ezekiel 
Morse, 1819-24; Elijah B. Strong, 1825-26; Thomas Blossom, 1827; 
Ezekiel Morse, 1828; Samuel G. Andrews, 1829-31; William B. 



THE TOWN OF BRIGHTON. 239 

Alexander. 1832-34; David S. Bales, 1835-36; Samuel Heckwith, 
1837; Oliver Culver, 1838-41 ; Samuel P. Gould, 1842-43; Oliver 
Culver, 1844; Stephen Otis, 1845-47; Lorenzo D. Ely, 1848; Jason 
Baker, 1849; Elisha Miller 1850; Benjamin Remington, 1851; Abel 
Dryer, 1852; Justus W. Yale, 1853; Seth Weed 2d, 1854; Timothy 
Waller, 1855; Luther Eaton, 1856; Benjamin Huntin<jton. 1857-58; 
Henry H. Holton, 1859-60; Edwin T. Otis, 1861 ; Lorenzo D. Ely, 
1862-64; Samuel P. Gould, 1865; Ira Todd, 1866; Caleb Moore, 
1867; Ira Todd, 1868-70; Austin Crittenden, 1871-72; Henry E. 
Boardman, 1873-74; Harrison A. Lyon, 1874, to fill vacancy ; Ira Todd, 
1875-76; Thomas C. Wilson, 1877-79; David K. Bell, 1880-84; S 
Hatch Gould, 1885; K. A. Hughson, 1886-87; David K Bell, 1888 ; 
K. A. Hughson, 1889; Edwin C. Remington, 1890; William H. Row- 
erdink, 1891-92; A. Emerson Babcock, 1893-96. 

Town Clerks. — Nehemiah Hopkins, 1814-15 ; Enos Stone, 1816-20; 
Anson House, 1821 ; Enos Stone, 1822-24; Thomas Blossom, 1825; 
William B. Alexander, 1826-30 ; Harvey Humphrey, 1831 ; Henry L. 
Achilles, 1832-33 ; William Colby, 1834; Benjamin B. Blossom, 1835 \ 
Elisha Miller, 1836; Benjamin B. Blossom, 1837-38; John Boardman, 
1839-40; John Hagaman, 1841 ; Benjamin B. Blossom, 1842-43; 
Ebenezer Bowen, 1844-52 ; Henry H. Holton, 1853 ; Ebenezer Bowen, 
1854-56; Benjamin B. Blossom, 1857-59; Ebenezer Bowen, 1860-62; 
Benjamin B. Blossom, 1863-66; Amasa C. Cook, 1867-70; Ezra* 
Rosebrough, 1871-73: Charles C. Holton, 1874-75 ; Charles Meitzler, 
1875-91 ; Daniel F. Sheehan, 1892-95. 

Totvti Officers for 1895. — Supervisor, A. Emerson Babcock; town 
clerk, Daniel F. Sheehan ; justices of the peace, Charles P. Barnes, Will- 
iam H. Rowerdink, Edwin C. Smith, Bion H Howard ; assessors, E!d- 
ward C. Remington, Daniel Y.. Rowland, Charles Kelley ; commission- 
ers of excise, Eugene A. Fowler, Leonard W. Hall, Leavitt K. Fox ; 
collector, George M. Kellar ; constables, James E. Smith, Joseph B. 
Schrader, Isaac De Roo, Hiram Shaw, John K. Hallock ; overseer of 
the poor James E. Smith. 

The early settlers of Brighton were chiefly famous, who came to the 
Genesee country to better their condition. Many of them, a mafority, 
perhaps, were New Englanders, Yankees, reared among the hills of the 



240 LANDMARKS OF MONRoK COUNTY. 

Rast, and who were attracted to the western country through the rep- 
resentations and inducements held out by the land owners and proprie- 
tors. None, so far as record and tradition informs, were disappointed, 
and they found in the new region all that could be desired, and once 
settled and acclimated, their condition was indeed improved. In addi- 
tion to farming pursuits old records inform us that mills were numerous 
in the early days of the town, and in 1820 there were in operation,twelve 
saw mills, two grist mills and fourteen other industries. Fifteen years 
later, or in 1835, the town contained one grist and seven saw mills, two 
fullin;^' mills, four carding machines and one woolen factory. To-day 
the saw mills, fulling mills, carding machines, pot ashes are gone, while 
the other iiulustries are mostly embraced within that part of the town 
taken for the cit)'. 

As an agricultural town Brighton for many years held a prominent 
position in the county, but with the growth and enlargement of popu- 
lation and interests in the city, the farmer of old has found greater re- 
turns in devoting his lands to various other purposes than strict agri- 
cultural pursuits As early as 1 837 Justus Yale began producing 
nursery stock for the market, and his example was followed by others, 
until much of the land of the town was utilized for this product, and 
between the years of 1850 and 1 870 this industry was at its greatest. 
Having at length passed its profitable peiiod, the lands planted with 
nursery trees were devoted to market gardening, for which many of the 
large and fine farms were divided and sold in small parcels. Then 
again, general agriculture having become unprofitable, milk farms have 
been established, and with excellent results to the owners. Several 
large and excellent nurseries are still maintained in Brighton, but the 
chief occupation of the inhabitants to-day is milk producing and market 
gardening, the latter having brought into the town a considerable ele- 
ment of foreign population. 

Duriiio; the War. — In April, 1861, in answer to President Lincoln's 
first call for volunteers, the young men of Brighton were not tardy in 
their action, for among the three months' men were a number from this 
town Still later, and during the long and weary years of the war, the 
town furnished more than two hundred men for the service, and not a 
few of them lie buried in southern battlefield cemeteries and graveyards. 



THE TOWN OF BRIGHTON. 241 

The records also show that Brighton was represented in every branch 
of the service, infantry, cavalry, artillery, and navy, while several were 
with commands serving on the frontier. However, this subject is so 
fully treated in one of the earlier chapters of this work that further men- 
tion here seems unnecessar)'. 

Villages and Hamlets. — Previous to March 21, 18 17, that portion of 
the then village of Rochesterville lying east of the Genesee, formed a 
part of Brighton, hence the so called ville was one of the municipalities of 
this town. At that time and under the name mentioned incorporation 
was effected. However, it is quite doubtful whether, during the early 
years of the century, Rochesterville was a place of greater importance 
to the town than was Tryonstown at the head of Irondequoit bay. As 
elements of Brighton history, the former was eliminated by operation 
of legislative enactment, while the latter disappeared through natural 
causes, and as a village is no longer known to the town. 

Brighton village, or as otherwise known, East Brighton, is the larger 
and of first importance among the municipalities now existing in the 
town. Its location is in the northeast part of the town, on the line of 
the Erie canal, and also on the New York Central railroad ; and to the 
presence of these great thoroughfares of travel and transportation it 
owes its prosperity, if not its very existence. The pioneer on the vil- 
lage site was Thomas Blossom, whose dwelling stood near the southeast 
corner. In 1820 Israel Blossom opened a public house, which was 
burned in 1867, the year in which the church was destroyed. It is said 
that a store was established here in 1 8 16, but it is known that William 
Perrin had a store open in 18 18. Justus Yale built a store in 1823, 
where now stands the Caley & Nash carriage shop, and about the same 
time Linus Wilcox also opened a tavern. Ira West was an early store- 
keeper, and also proprietor of a distillery in this near vicinity. The 
post-office was established in 1 817, Dr. James Holden, postmaster. He 
•was succeeded by Benjamin Blossom, the latter holding ofifice thirty 
years. The first mails were brought on horseback from Canandaigua. 

Near the village site several boats and sailing craft were built at a 
very early day, and drawn overland with horse and cattlepouer to the 
landing. Oliver Culver, William Davis and PVancis Charter were the 
prime movers in these enterprises, and their vessels were christened, 

31 



242 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

one the "Clarissa," another the " Levanche." Charter built a forty ton 
schooner north ot the village in 1817. 

However, Brighton to day presents little of its old time appearance, 
though a few of the old dwellings and structures are still standing. 
The second and third generations of occupants turned the adjoining 
farms into nurseries, while still later dwellers superseded' the nursery 
enterprise with gardening and milk producing. About a mile south of 
the village are the extensive brick and tile yards and works of the 
Rochester Brick and Tile Company and the Rochester German Brick 
and Tile Company. The lands of these companies comprise many 
acres, and by their operations the land surface has been depressed from 
three to four feet over a vast area ; and while the clay has been removed, 
tiie land has lost none of its fertility, and is now highly valuable for 
agricultural and gardening purposes. 

Returning to the subject of village history, special mention must be 
made of the organization and subsequent vicissitudes of the church 
society which had its inception in the little meetings assembled by Rev. 
Solomon Allen, who came to the town in 18 16, and in the same year 
formed a Sunday school. The church was organized September 18, 
1 8 17, Congregational in government, and with these members: Daniel 
West, Daniel Smith, Henry Donnelly, Joseph Bloss, Orringh Stone, 
Joshua Cobb, John Morse, Charles Warring, Daniel Smith, jr., Hannah 
Donnelly, Zeriah Walker, hLlecta Smith, Amy Bloss Laura A. Bush, 
Matilda Barnes, Martha Titus, Betsey Hatch, Clarissa Howes, Sally 
Stone, Elizabeth Loder, Margaret Hemingway, and Huldah Dickinson. 
D.miel West and Daniel Smith were the first deacons, the former a 
farmer and the latter a cooper. The first church edifice, built in 1820 
and years following, stood on the hill, south of the canal and near the 
old burying ground. It was of brick, painted brown, 40 x 45 in size, 
and cost $4,000. In 1850 it was substantially remodeled and repaired^ 
but on April 18, 1867, when the village tavern was burned, a spark fell 
upon the spire and the church edifice also fell a victim to the same ele- 
ment. The second and present edifice was erected on the main street 
of the village, and was completed and dedicated in June, 1872. The 
first parsonage property was purchased in 1838. Mr. Allen was suc- 
ceeded in the pastorate in 1825 by Rev. Charles Thorpe, and the latter 





i^^-^^^:^:^2r-:?^^^-^^^.;^'-2:>^5 



THE TOWN OF BRiaHTON. 243 

by Rev. Alvan IngersoU in 1836. In 1842 the society withdrew from 
the Genesee association, remained independent until September 21, 
1870, and then became Presbyterian. The present pastor is Rev. John 
McCoU. The church membership is about 200, with a hke number in 
the Sunday school, the latter being under the superintendence of Theo- 
dore A. Drake. The elders are Harrison A. Lyon, T A. Brown, Theo- 
dore A. Drake, W. M. Parsons, F". E. Blossom and Rufus L, Herrick. 
Trustees. W. M. Parsons, A. Emerson Babcock and Andrew W. Miller. 

The Reformed Presbyterian church of Brighton was organized in 
June, 1892, by Rev. P. D. Broin, and has enjoyed a prosperous and 
steady growth of membership until the original building has become too 
small for its accommodation. At the time of its organization the so- 
ciety numbered forty eight members, with two elders, Messrs. J. Wil- 
lint and W. H. Rowerdink, and two deacons, Messrs. R. Hallings and 
J. Dp Mollie. 

The present and only pastor. Rev. J. Van Westinberg, assumed his 
duties September i, 1 892, and a congregation of 135 members now 
attests the success of his labors. Its Sunday school enjoys a member- 
ship of 185 and is under the superintendency of J. B. Pike, while a Y. 
P. S. C. E., with a large and enthusiastic member.chip was organized in 
May last with Herman Willick as president. Services are regularly 
conducted in both the English and Holland languages. Work on the 
new edifice was begun in May, 1895. 

At a public meeting held on April 27, 1885, the electors of Brighton 
village voted to procure a certificate of incorporation, which being 
done, the character of hamlet was thrown off and that of organized mu- 
nicipality assumed. Within the village limits are included about 640 
acres or one square mile of land. The first officers elected were Benja- 
min W. Fassett, president ; Benjamin Wing, Dr. J. P. Wheeler, and 
James D. Shelmire, trustees; W. W. Chapin, treasurer ; F. D, Graves, 
collector, and Thomas E. Blossom, clerk. 

The officers for 1895 are William L. Manning, president; James D. 
Shelmire, treasurer; Bart Hallings, collector ; William P, Shelmire, clerk ; 
and Erwin Terrell, Thomas F. Monks and Thomas Fletcher, trustees. 

As a manufacturing and business center Brighton has never assumed 
a standing of special prominence among the villages of the county. 



•^44 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY 

Still, at no time in its history has the volume of business been greater 
than at the present. We have already referred to the early interests of 
the place and vicinity, hence need now mention only those having an 
existence of more recent date. Sullivan Brothers' carriage work is one 
of the principal industries of the locality, and furnishes employment to 
a large number o( men. On this site was orignally built the steam saw 
mill of Samuel Hart, but, being burned, was replaced with a large 
threshing machine factory, built by Hosea Rogers. This, too, was de- 
stroyed by fire, and in its stead Hall & Glenn erected a second thresher 
factory. Their building was afterward used by Hughson & Sullivan, 
following which came the present firm of Sullivan Bros. 

Cooley & Nash are also manufacturers of carriages and wagons, and 
also blacksmiths. In the east part of the village are two basket and 
box factories, each doing a large and successful business. The Bradley 
Fertilizer Company established a plant here in 1894, and in the same 
year a heading and hoop factory was also put in operation. In addi- 
tion to these interests are several well stocked mercantile houses, a like 
number of small shops and three hotels. 

West Brighton is a smaller hamlet, a post village, situate south of the 
city. Its business interests are few, and comprise a few shops and two 
hotels. In this vicinity are the fair grounds and other public institu- 
tions which contribute to local advancement. 

Before closing this chapter at least a brief reference may properly be 
made to the past and present educational interests of the town at large; 
and in this connection it is also proper to call to mind the old Genesee 
Model School, or, as incorporated April 7, 1848 (and by the Regents, 
February 23, 1849), the "Clover Street Seminary." This, however, is 
one of the things of the past, though in its palmy days one of the best 
institutions of the county. It was at one time under the care of Mrs. 
Brewster, the author of Bloss's Ancient History. 

The town records reveal the fact that the first regularly elected 
school commissioners in Brighton were Samuel Spafiford, Enos Blossom 
and David Bush, and that under their direction and supervision the ter- 
ritory of the town was divided into five school districts, each arranged 
as far as possible to suit the convenience of the then scattered inhab- 
itants. Tradition has it that the first school in Brighton was opened in 



THE TOWN OP CHILI. 245 

1802, with a Mr. Turner as teacher. Soon afterward a second was 
started at the village and a third on the present city site. These things 
indicate that even during the pioneer period the townspeople here were 
not unmindful of the educational welfare of their children. In 1820 the 
districts numbered eleven, and at that time 614 children were in the 
town; and of these 556 attended the public school. In 1836 the dis- 
tricts numbered twelve, while the school population was 781. Twenty 
years later the number of districts had been reduced to nine, while the 
children of school age in the town numbered 1,005. 

According to the present disposition and arrangement of common 
school interests in Brighton, the nutuber of districts is nine, and each is 
furnished with a good school building. Five buildings are of frame 
and four of brick construction. The value of sites is $5,650, and of sites 
and buildings, $19,650. During the last current year, ending July 31, 
1894, the number of teachers employed in the town was 14, to whom 
was paid the gross sum of $4,785.01. The number of children in the 
districts, of school age, was 948. To maintain these schools there was 
apportioned to the town, public moneys to the amount of $1,768 82, 
added to which the town raised by tax $4,661 68. Total available 
funds for the year, $6,794.39. Paid for libraries, $18.70; for appara- 
tus, $45; for repairs, $611.17; for maintenance and other expenses, 
$738.94. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE TOWN OF CHILI. 

One of the most generous and meaning compliments ever paid the 
town of Chili is found in the utterance of an old-time writer of local 
history, wherein he says : " The inhabitants are all Yankees, all that 
need be said in commendation of their improvements, social institutions 
and industry." Such was the opinion of the unbiased and competent 
observer of Chili and its inhabitants three-quarters of a century ago, 
and in all the subsequent years to the present time, the descendants of 



246 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTV. 

Chili pioneers have honestly maintained the standing attained by tiieir 
ancestors. 

Previous to its separate organization Chili formed a part of the older 
town of Riga, and its early history was entirely contemporaneous with 
that of the mother town, Indeed this part of Riga was known origin- 
ally as East Pulteney, and a little later as East Riga, while Riga proper 
was known as West Pultene)- and West Riga. The separation was 
made February 22, 1822, several years after pioneership had ended; 
in fact at a time when the population of the town was nearly two 
thousand. 

Geographically, Chili occupies a position in the southwest part of the 
county, and is distinctively an interior town. Its land surface is level 
or slightly rolling with a gentle inclination to the east. The Genesee 
river forms the cast boundary, and Black creek, a quite sluggish stream, 
flows east through near the center. The soil is a claj' loam, mixed with 
sand. South of Black creek are several peculiar gravelly knolls, the 
principal of which is " Dumpling Hill," near the rivtr. In the town, as 
now constituted, are five small villages or hamlets, known, respectively, 
as Chili, North Chili, Chili Station, Clifton, and South Chili, each of 
which will be specially mentioned in this chapter. 

As is intimated in the first paragraph of this sketch, the first settlers 
of this town were Yankees, that is New P^nglanders of pronounced 
type, who brought to the new country the customs and manners sup- 
posed to be peculiar to all inhabitants of Yankeedom. So far as can 
now be accurately determined the pioneer in fact of this locality was 
Joseph Morgan, who located near the south line in 1792, his lands join- 
ing with those of Peter Shaffer, the pioneer of Wheatland and the suc- 
cessor to the notorious Ebenezer Allen. In 1794 Andrew Wortman 
settled near the river, and in 1795 Col. Josiah Fis-h and his son Libbeus 
came from Vermont and took up their abode on the river at the mouth 
of Black creek. This intrepid pioneer employed Indian help in con- 
structing his first log cabin, to which his whole family came in 1796. 
Stephen Peabody came in 1796. and soon after built a distillery, the 
first industry of the town. In 1797 Jacob Widner and his sons 
Samuel, Jacob, Abraham, William and Peter added materially to the 
settlement; and about the same time Joseph Cary also made a be- 



THE TOWN OF CHILI. 247 

ginning here. Still later, yet previous to I 8oo came Lemuel and Joseph 
Wood, Samuel Scott, Joshua Howell, Benjamin Bowman, John Kimball, 
Daniel Franklin, Mr Dillingham, George Stottle and others whose names 
have become lost with the lapse of time. 

After the beginning of the century and after the general character of 
the lands of the region had become known in the east, settlements be- 
came more rapid and the year 1 820 found East Riga with a population 
bordering on two thousand. Among the many families who made 
settlements during this period, we may recall the names of John 
McVean from Ontario county, who was accompanied by six stalwart 
sons — Duncan, Samuel, John, Daniel, Peter and Alexander, also Will- 
iam Woodin and his family from Seneca, the latter settling in the north 
part of the town. There were also Lemuel and Zebulon Paul, John 
Weidener and his children James, Amos, Rosalia, Cordelia and Rich- 
ard, all of whom were here previous to 181 2. Later settlers were 
Joseph Sibley, Benjamin Brown, Joseph Davis, Daniel Franklyn, Will- 
iam Holland, George Brown, John Wetmore, Joseph Thompson, Isaac 
Burritt, Berkley Gillett, Daniel Barrett, Alfred Schofield, Pliny Fields, 
Thomas Sheldon, Daniel Jameson, Moses Sperry, Eben Burnham, 
James Coleman, Isaac Lacy, William Pixley and others, all of whom, 
though perhaps not pioneers, were nevertheless early settlers and 
worthy of mention in connection with improvements and development 
three-quarters of a century and more ago. Mention also may be made 
of Deacon Tunis Brocaw, Edwin S. Reed, Eben B. Wetmore, Levi 
Campbell, Timothy Baldwin, Joel Baldwin, Isaac Brocaw, Lemuel 
Potter, David Deming, Isaac Hemingway, William Pixley (proprietor 
of ashery and distillery), Abel Belknap, Thomas Merlin, Apollos Dewey 
and Conrad Markham, all good and worthy men, many of the descend- 
ants of whom still live in the town and county. 

Referring briefly to first events of Chili history, we may note the 
fact that Joseph Morgan built the first log dwelling, in 1792, also cleared 
the first land and raised the first grain, and as well, with Colonel Fish, 
planted the first fruit-trees. Colonel P"ish built the second house, and 
was the first supervisor of old Northampton, organized in 1797. The 
first birth was that of a child of Joseph Wood, in 1799. The first death 
occurred in the family of Joseph Morgan. James Chapman kept the 



248 LANDMARKS oK MONROE COUNTY. 

first store, in 1807, and James Gary built the first mill. Stephen Pea- 
body built the first distillery. Other and later storekeepers in the town 
were Mr. Filkins at the Center, Mr. Hawes. near the Presbyterian 
church, and Theodore Winans at Buckbee's Corners. The first tavern 
was kept by P2Iias Streeter, about or before 181 i, on the Chili and 
Spencerport road. Paul Orton was the second landlord. The old 
"Checkered tavern" was at one time kept b\- one Pennock, and was a 
historic old building, and perhaps was so named in reference to the 
quite checkered career of some of its inmates. Joseph Cary's mill was 
located north of Clifton, on Mill creek, and near by was built in the 
same year (1807) a gristmill, by Comfort Smith In 1811 Joseph 
Sibley built a saw mill near Buckbee's Corners and soon afterward a 
grist mill. Tiie first school house was erected north of Black creek, 
one mile west of the Center. A school existed in the town as earl\ as 
1806. and in 1810 Anna Niles kept school in a room of her father's 
house. 

So rapid indeed was the development of local interests and the growth 
of population in this eastern part of Riga, that the convenience of the 
inhabitants demanded a division of the mother town. Consequently, 
an act was passed and the division effected on the 22d of February, 
1822, the new creation containing then, as now. 24.558 acres of land. 
The first town meeting was held at the house of James Coleman on 
April 2d following. The ofificers elected were as follows: 

Joseph Sibley, supervisor ; Joshua Howell, town clerk; l^enjamin 
Brown, Joseph Davis, and Daniel Franklyn, jr.. assessors ; Willian 
Woodin. William Holland, and George Brown, road commissioners ; 
Isaac I^urrilt and Berkley Gillett, school commissioners ; Daniel Bassett, 
Isaac Schofield, and Pliny h'ields, school inspectors ; John Wetmore, 
loseph Thompson, and Johua Howell, overseers of the poor; Benjamin 
Brown, collector; Thomas Sheldon, Daniel Jameson, Moses Sperry, 
and Kben Burnham, constables. 

The supervisors of Chili, from 1822 to 1895, have been as follows: 
Joseph Sibley, 1822-23; Josiah Ho^vell. 1824-25; Alfred Schofield, 
1826-28; Isaac Lacey, 1829; Benjamin Brown, 1830; William Pixley, 
1831-32; George Brown, 1833-34; Moses Sperry. 1835; William 
Pixley, 1836-37; Moses Sperry, 1838-39; Isaac Lacy, 1840; John T. 



THE TOWN OF CHILL 249 

Lacey, 1841 ; Isaac Burritt, 1842; John T. Lacey, 1843; Moses 
Sperry, 1844; John T. Lacey, 1845-46; William P. Hill, 1847-48; 
Franklin Gate, 1849-51; William Pixley, 1852; Moses Sperry, 1853- 
54; David Starkie,i855-58 ; Edward J. Reed, 1859-60 ; William P. Hill, 
1861-64; A. S. Little, 1865 ; Albert H. King, 1866; William P. Hill, 
1867; William Voke, 1868-70; Albert H. King, 1871 ; Frederick 
Fellows, 1872-76; William Fellows, 1877-78; Edwin A. Loder, 1879; 
William P. Hill, 1880-81 ; Benjamin Fellows, 1882-84 ; Byron D. Beal, 
1885-86; Lewis B. Carpenter, 1887-90; Myron Sperry, 1891 ; John 
B. Johnston, 1892-5. 

Town ofificers for 1895: John B. Johnston, supervisor; C. A. 
Nichols, town clerk ; W. D Purdy, D. S. Bly, J. C. Case, and E. R. 
Harmon, justices of the peace ; Alfred Fenton, George W. Tunnison, 
and Charles Finley, assessors; James Tweady, overseer of the poor; 
W. J. Fisher, collector; William Bailey, A. Curtis, and John Love, ex- 
cise commissioners ; John Porter, Myron Sickles, Earnest Miller,William 
Crowley and George Dougherty, constables. 

A somewhat noticeable, though possibly not surprising fact in con- 
nection with the history of Chili, is that the present population of the 
town is very little greater than in 1825. From the time of its organi- 
zation in 1822, to i860, there was a steady and healthful increase in 
number of inhabitants, but from that until the present time there has 
been a corresponding decrease in population. A brief reference to the 
census tables informs us that in 1825, three years after the erection of 
the town, the inhabitants numbered 1,827, and in 1830 had increased to 
2,010, In 1840 the population was 2,174, and in 1850 was 2,247, In 
i860, according to the census returns, Chili had 2,903 inhabitants, but 
in 1870 the number had decreased to 2,367. In 1880 it was 2,274, and 
in 1890, the last federal census, was 2,109. Careful observers now esti- 
mate the town to have a population of about 2,000. 

The town has never been noted for magnitude or variety of manu- 
facturing industries. On the contrary there has been a rather noticea- 
ble absence of such interests, for the situation of the town and the entire 
absence of suitable water privileges have precluded the possibility of 
any prominence in this respect. However, Chili now is and for many 

years past has been regarded as one of the substantial agricultural towns 
32 



250 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

of the county, or in fact, of the whole Genesee country, and in all farm 
products yields abundantly in return to proper cultivation. As early 
even as 1835 there were under cultivation 14,636 acres of land, and on 
the farms were tiicn kept 1. 869 cattle, 862 hoists, 5,353 sheep, and 2,616 
swine. In that year there was manufactured in the town 2,619 yards 
of fulled cloth, 3,329 yards of woolen cloth, and 586 yards of cotton and 
linen cloth. The manufacturing' interests comprised one grist mill, two 
siw mills, one carding mill, and one woolen factory. To day the only 
factory of note is a single saw and grist mill, situated at Clifton. 

During the period of its history, several small hamlets or trading 
centers have been established in this town, among which Clifton has 
always ranked first in |)oiiit of po[)ulation, although since the construc- 
tion of the railroad through the northern part this place has lost much 
of its old- time importance. The population of this village never ex- 
ceeded two hundred inhabitants, and its business interests have been 
limited to two or three mills and shops and a like number of general 
stores. In the early history of the town Clifton was on the old stage 
road and was then in the zenith of its glory. A post office was estab- 
lished here many years ago and for a time all local interests flourished, 
llowever, in 1852 the Buffalo and Rochester railroad (now New York- 
Central) was opened for traffic and from that time Clifton interests de- 
clined in importance. Its location in the southwest part of the town is 
pleasant, and around it is some of the most productive farming lands of 
the county. The present business interests here comprise the general 
stores of J. B. Weidner and W. J. Weston, and the water-power saw 
and grist mill of Brown & McCreedy. 

In the town, also, though not a part of any village settlement, is the 
large nursery farm of the (ireen Nursery Company. This enterprise is 
the leading industry of the town, and one of the most extensive in the 
entire region and is worthy of mention in this chapter. The managing 
officer of the company is Charles A. Green. 

North Chili is a small hamlet in the north part of the town, and de- 
rives its greatest importance from the presence of the somewhat noted 
Chili Seminary. As a trading or business center this hamlet has never 
attained a position of importance, and only a few years ago the post- 
office was removed from North Chili to Chili Station on the line of the 



THE TOWN OF CHILI. 2^1 

railroad. It was re-established, however, later on. The only business 
interest here is the general store of A. H. Cady. 

The Chili Seminary, to which occasional reference has been made, 
was founded during the fall of the year 1869, through the efforts of the 
Rev. Benson H. Roberts and in the interests of the Free Methodist 
Church. The school was first organized in the old tavern at North 
Chili, that building being used until the completion of the commod- 
ious structure occupied so many years for the purposes of the scliool. 
However, in the winter of 1893, an unfortunate fire destroxed the main 
building, causing serious loss, but in the following year a new and per- 
haps more attractive seminary building was erected. From the time of 
its founding to this day, Rev. Benson H. Roberts has been at the head 
of this most worthy institution and much of its success during all these 
years has been due to his untiring efforts. In connection with the course 
of instruction pursued in Chili Seminary, a religious monthly publica- 
tion is conducted, and known as the Earnest Christian. Mr. Roberts 
acts in the capacity of editor. The number of students in regular at- 
tendance at the seminary averages about seventy- five. 

Chili Station is the name of a hamlet and post-office on the line of the 
Central railroad, and to the construction of the latter it owes its very 
existence. Chili is a post village, and South Chili is a mere cluster of 
houses in the south part of the town. 

During the long and interesting period of its history, several church 
and religious societies have been organized in this town, and of each of 
them we may briefly speak. The pioneer religious society of Chili was 
the Presbyterian church, for it appears that a majority of the first set- 
tlers in this region were either Presbyterians or Congregationalists, 
The local society was organized in June, 18 16, in Isaac Brokaw's barn, 
the original members being Abel and Bertha Belknap, Patty Heming- 
way, Leah Merlin, Apollos Dewey, Daniel Clark, Conrad Mortman, 
Nancy Merlin, Sarah Gridley, Timothy, Joel and Sarah Baldwin, Daniel 
and F'anny Deming, and Lemuel Potter. The first deacons were Apol- 
los Dewey and Joel Baldwin. This church was formed as a Riga so- 
ciety, but after the division of the town assumed a local name. The first 
edifice was built in 1821, and stood one mile east of Buckbee's Corners. 
A second edifice was erected on the same site in 1833. The first pastor 



252 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

was Rev Mr. Chase, who took charge in 1817. The last pastor was 
Rev. John Kincaiu who resigned in the spring of 1895. 

The First Methodist Episcopal church of Chili was organized at 
Buckbee's Corners, March 20, 1832, with thirty- three original members, 
h^or a tinie meetings were held in the school-house, but in 1836 the 
brick church edifice was built at the Corners. This was destroyed about 
1850 and at once replaced with a more suitable church house. The 
present members of this church number about eighty, and the society 
is under the pastoral charge of Rev. D. D. Cook. A second Methodist 
church and society were organized in the town at a later day, and had 
its place of meeting at North Chili, where the church edifice was erected. 
This society was practically an off-shoot from the mother church above 
mentioned, and has a healthful membership of about sixty persons. 

The Vree Methodist church of North Chili was organized during the 
latter part of i860, by a few former members of the M. K. church who 
withdrew therefrom and established a new church, and from the latter 
there grew and developed the Chili Seminary above noted. The church 
edifice was erected in i860. The first pastor was Rev. J. W. Reddy. 
The members at present number about sixty persons, and are under the 
pastoral direction of Rev. B. H. Roberts. The Baptist church of Clif- 
ton was organized in 1852, by residents of the vicinity of that village 
who had previously been members of the older church at Wheatland. 
The first deacons of the new church were Charles Tcnny, A. Harmon 
and A. Hosmer ; the first pastor was Rev. H. K. Stimson, succeeded 
by Rev. E. F. Crane. The church edifice was built in 1852. At one 
time the members of this church numbered one hundred and sixty, but 
now the number does not exceed eighty. The present pastor is Rev. 
VV. T. Taylor. The Baptist church at Chili Center includes many for- 
mer members of the Clifton church, and is in all respects a prosperous 
society. Its members number about seventy persons. The present 
pastor is Rev. V. J. Palmer. 

St. Fechan's church, Roman Catholic, is also one of the religious or- 
ganizations of Chili, and was formed in 1850. In the same year the 
church edifice was erected. For several years this church was an out- 
post, attended from Rochester, Churchville or Scottsville. The present 
pastor is Rev. F'ather D. J. Curran. The communicating members 
number about seventy. 



THE TOWN OP CHILI. 253 

In closing this chapter it is proper to make some brief allusion to the 
schools and educational system of the town of Chili. Early records, 
though quite brief and meagre, disclose the fact that a school was 
opened in this part of Riga as early as 1805 or '6, and the first north 
of Black creek was that at the Center, taught by Mr. Thompson. An- 
other early school was that taught by Anna Niles, in her father's house, 
although the first in the town was one of several opened in the south- 
west part, in the vicinity of Streetor's tavern. 

In 1822. at the first town meeting, Isaac Burritt and Berkley Gillett 
were elected school commissioners, and Daniel Bassett, Alfred Schofield 
and Pliny Fields were chosen school inspectors. After the division the 
new town was divided into districts and provision made for the support 
of a school in each. In 1835 these districts numbered thirteen, and the 
number of children of school age in the town was seven hundred and 
eighteen. Twenty years later, in 1855, the districts were eleven in 
number and the children six hundred and ninety-seven. 

According to the present arrangement, Chili is divided into eleven 
school districts, and each is provided with a comfortable school- house. 
Of the buildings, eight are of frame and three of stone construction. 
The total value of school property in the town is estimated at $11,500. 
For the school year ending July 31, 1894, the amount of school money 
available in the town was $4,448.82, of which $1,560.94 was appor- 
tioned to the town, and $2,761.94 was raised by tax. Twelve teachers 
were employed during the year, and were paid $3,496.17. The school 
population of Chili is 61 2. 



•254 LANr)MARK^^ OF MONROE COUNTY. 



CHAPTER III. 
THE TOWN OF CLARKSON. 

On the 2d of April, 1819, the Legishiturc divided the town of Murray, 
in Genesee county, and erected a new town under the name of Clark- 
son. It was so calletl in honor of General Clarkson, an extensive land- 
holder in this locality, and who donated one hundred acres to the town. 

Murray, the mother town, now one of the civil divisions of Orleans 
county, was formed from old North Hampton on the <Sth of April, 1808. 
As originally formed and organized Clarkson was a large district and 
embraced within its boundaries the fourth and fifth townships of the 
Triangle tract. It extended along the lake more than nine miles, and 
south from the lake nine and one- half miles. On the south boundary 
the town was nearly seven miles wide. The total area was 47,173 
acres, or about seventy four square miles of land. Union, now Ham- 
lin, was formed from Clarkson October 11, 1852, and took from the 
other towns 26,395 ^cres of land, or considerably more than half of its 
territory. 

Clarkson, as now constituted, has an area of 20,778 acres, and is 
situated in the northwest portion of this county, having for its western 
boundary the Orleans county line. The land surface is generally level, 
with slight undulations in the southern part. It is drained to the 
northeast by the head branches of Salmon and Little Salmon creeks. 
The soil is a sandy loam, mixed alternately with gravel and clay, pro- 
ducing strength and fertility, remarkably adapted to the growth of 
cereals, to fruit culture and to general agriculture. 

Although a question never satisfactorily determined, common con- 
sent has granted to Moody Freeman the honor of having been the first 
permanent settler in Clarkson. He made his purchase in 1803 and is 
believed to have settled in the town soon after that time. James Sayres 
purchased at Clarkson Corners in 1804 and was the first settler on the 



THE TOWN OF CHIK. 255 

Ridge road. Eli Blodgett also came to the town in 1804. In 1805 
several settlers came, among them Simeon Daggett, west of the Cor- 
ners ; John and Isaac Farwell, north of the Ridge; William Davis, 
John Fowle, Benjamin Boyd, Dr. Noah Owen and David Stanton. 
Still other early settlers were Olney F. Rice, 1806; Robert Hoy, with 
his family of seven children, James, John, Robert, jr., Jane, Ann, Nancy 
and Betsy, in 1 808, locating one mile north of East Clarkson. They 
came from New York city, as did also Thomas Caleb, Robert and other 
members of the Brown family. In the same connection may also be 
mentioned the names of Eldridge Farwell, Isaac Lincoln, John Mallory, 
Wilber Sweet, Eli Mead, L VV. Udall. Robert Clarke, Danforth Howe, 
Alvin Hamlin, Eli Randall, Jonathan Mead and EliTia Lake, all of 
whom were settlers in this town previous to 1809. 

In 1 8 10 and the year immediately following the settlement and de- 
velopment of tlie town progressed rapidly, and among those worthy of 
mention in connection with the period were David Forsyth. James, 
Adam, and Henry Moore, Silas Taft, Simeon B. Nathan, John Daggatt, 
William B. Worden, Henry Grinnell, Isaac Randall, Walter Billings, 
James Ladd (for whom Ladd's Corners was named), Ebenezer Toles, H. 
McCall, Dr. Abel Baldwin, Dr. Nathaniel Rowe, Deacon Joel Palmer, 
Joshua Fields, Bannister Williams, Lewis Swift, Gustavus Clark, and 
others whose names are perhaps equally worthy of mention, but who 
through lapse of years are now forgotten. 

The war of 18 12-15, was an eventful period in local liistory, for 
Clarkson appears to have been a general rendezvous for troops and also 
the temporary depository for supplies and munitions of war. At that 
time Clarkson village, or as then known, Murray Corners, was a hamlet 
of considerable note ; the Ridge road was sufficiently improved to allow 
the transportation of stores, and was the great thoroughfare of travel 
between Canandaigua and Lewiston. The Corners was a stopping 
place where horses were exchanged and travelers allowed brief rest 

The Ridge maintained its importance until the completion of the 
Erie Canal, after which time most of the travel to the western part of 
the State naturally sought that great thoroughfare. During the period 
of its prosperity the Ridge road became well settled, many fine farms 
were built up along its route, and many public houses were opened in 



256 LANDMARKS OF MONROK COUNTY. 

the town. The still later construction and operation of the Rochester, 
Lock-port & Niagara Falls railroad, in 1852, had the effect to largely 
attract travel to more southern localities and the result was a natural 
yet lasting decline in local interests. 

Clarkson, according to local traditions, was a fruitful field of first 
events, to some of which a brief reference may properly be made. Pio- 
neer Moody Freeman, ihc first settler, built the first log house, cleared 
the first land, raised the first grain, was the first farmer and also the 
first justice of the peace The first white male child born was a son of 
Mrs Clarkson, and the first born ot the opposite sex was Elmira 
Palmer, daughter of Deacon Joel Palmer. Isaac Williams built the first 
frame house, and was the first blacksmith in Clarkson village. Laura 
White taught the first school, though Charlotte Cummins also taught 
about the same time. Dr Noah Owen was the first physician, and Dr. 
Rowe the second John Bowman was the first lawyer. Henry McCall 
built and kept the first store, also the first tavern at East Clarkson. 
James Ladd was the first storekeeper at the latter point. The first and 
about the only newspaper published in Clarkson was the Jeffersonian, 
first issue June 17, 1835, and continued for about a year when it was 
suspended. The first saw mill was erected previous to 18 1 1, by James 
Sayres, and stood a half mile cast of the Corners. A grist mill was 
built about the same time by one Toles, and stood just south of East 
Clarkson, but was soon afterward moved to the Ridge. Later on Henry 
McCall and Robert Perry also built mills in the town. Several distil- 
leries were also among the early local industries, having their location 
along the Ridge road. A post-office was established at Clarkson in 
1816, the first postmaster being Dr. Baldwin. Other early post- offices 
were at East Clarkson, also West Clarkson, but both were discontinued 
after a few years. A school house was built at Clarkson village during 
the war of 18 1 2-1 5, and at East Clarkson in 18 18. 

From what has been stated in this narrative it will be seen that set- 
tlement in this town, and the developments of local interests, was rap- 
idly accomplished; in fact, in 1820, the population of the town numbered 
1,612, and it was but natural that the inhabitants of this part of Murray 
should be set off into a separate jurisdiction. This was done, as has 
been stated, in 1819, and the first town meeting was held on the 4th of 



THE TOWN OF CLARKSON. 257 

April of the next year at the house of Dr. Baldwin. The officeis 
elected were as follows : 

Aretas Haskell, supervisor; Gustavus Clark, town clerk; E. Cook,, 
collector ; Frederick R. Stewart, William Cook and B. Cook, assessors ; 
Isaac Allen, Samuel Perry and Jonathan Cobb, highway commission- 
ers; Nathaniel Rowell, Gustavus Clark and Ariel Chase, school com- 
missioners; Abel Baldwin, William Graves and Ezekiel Harmon, school 
inspectors; Eli Hannibal and Walter Billings, overseers of the poor; 
David Forsyth, poundmaster ; Aretas Haskell, William Lambert, 
Robert Walker and Worden F. Perry, constables. 

The supervisors of Clarkson, from its organization to 1895 have been 
as follows: Aretas Haskell, 1820-22; Gustavus Clark, 1823-24; 
Aretas Haskell, 1825 ; Abel Baldwin, 1826; William Grover, 1827-29 ; 
Gustavus Clark, 1830-32; Simeon B. Jewett, 1833-34; Henry Martin, 
1835-36; Isaac F. Allen, 1837; Theodore Chapin, 1838; Jonathan 
Prosser, 1839; William Grover, 1840; Henry Martin, 1841-42; Samuel 
R. S. Mather, 1843; Alphonzo Perry, 1844; Isaac Houston, 1845-46; 
George W. Clark, 1847 ; James R. Thompson, 1848 ; James H. Warren, 
1849-51; George W. Estes, 1852; James H. Warren, 1853; Isaac 
Garrison, 1854; James H. Warren, 1855-56; William P. Rice, 1857; 
William H. Bowman, 1858; Cicero J. Prosser, 1859-60; Adam Moore, 
1861-62; Elias Garrison, 1863-64; G. W. Estes, 1865-66; J. H. 
Warren, 1867-73 ; W. L. Rockwell, 1874-76; John B. Snyder, 1877-79; 
A. P. Chapman, 1 880-8 1 ; EH H. Gallup, 1882; Henry Allen, 1 883-84 ; 
William Leach, 1885-86; John B. Haskell, 1887; WiUiam Leach, 
1888; John Prosser, 1889-90; William M. Gallup, 1891-93; Irad Crip- 
pen, 1894-95. 

The officers of Clarkson for the year 1895 are as follows: Irad Crip- 
pin, supervisor ; Baxter A. Rounds, town clerk ; J. J. Babcock, W. H. 
Clarke, C. J. Hendrickson and Henry Webster, justices of the peace; 
Reuben Paine, Thomas Murphy and Elias Garrison, assessors; W. L. 
Rockwell, collector ; H. J. Vosburg, overseer of poor ; Joseph Good ■ 
berlet, highway commissioner; Samuel Stanley, Thomas Murphy and 
George Lawton, excise commissioners; Isaac Thompson, George Soper, 
and William Graham, constables. 

The pioneers and early settlers of Clarkson came to this region that 
33 



258 LANDMARKS OF MUxNROE COUNTY. 

they might better their condition in a new and rich agricultural county. 
The niiijority of them were farmers and sought to pursue the same oc- 
cupation in this locality, and a few of them were mechanics and artisans 
who also hoped to improve their condition in this locality ; however, 
the laying out and opening of the once famous Ridge road had the 
effect to change somewhat the character of the occupancy of Clarkson, 
and where were once large original farms were soon afterwards public 
houses, mills, distilleries or other places of business instead of legitimate 
farms. Still these things had the effect of building up and populating 
Clarkson very early in its history. In 1820, a single year after the erec- 
tion of the town, the population was 1,612, and in 1830, had more than 
doubled, and was 3,249. In 1840 the number was 3,486 and in 1850 
was 4.555. In i860, Union in the meantime having been set off, the 
number of inhabitants in Clarkson was reduced 2,093. ^^ 1870 the 
number was 1,884; in 1880 was 2, 1 00, and in 1890 was 1. 741, about 
one hundred more than seventy years previous. 

Clarkson village is a pretty yet small hamlet of about 500 pofmlation, 
situated near the center of the town, and one and one-half miles north 
of Brockport. Previous to the construction of the Erie Canal and dur- 
ing the palmy days of the old Ridge road, Clarkson was a place of con- 
siderable importance, but since completion of the canal and tlie still 
later construction of the railroad, Brockport has gained an ascendency 
over this village, and all Sweden has profited while this town has cor- 
respondingly lost in commercial importance. 

Reference has already been made to the early business of Clarkson 
Center, wherefore in the present connection reference need only be 
made to the present condition of affairs The business interests of to- 
day, comprise the general stores of Fred K. Hixson and Charles H. 
Bellinger, the water-power grist mill of M. J. Hillyer, and the extensive 
industry carried on by the Ridge Road Creamery Company. The lat- 
ter is incorporated, and is of first importance in the industries of the 
town. Its officers are E. R. Campbell, president ; F. R. Hixson, secre- 
tary ; M. Minot, treasurer; and William M. Gallup, manager. Addi- 
tional local interests are the carriage works of Flagler & Oelih, the cus- 
tomary small shops found in country villages, and two hotels. Here 
also is a district school and a Presbyterian church. 



TilE TOWN OF CLARKSON. 259 

The Presbyterian church of Clarkson Corners was organized as a 
Congregational society on the 4th of September, 1 8 16, and it was not 
until the year 1825 that a house of worship was erected. In 1830 the 
church became Pre-byterian, but in 1853 returned to its original form 
of government. However, in 1869 Presbyterian government was 
adopted and has since so continued. The church now numbers seventy- 
five members and is under the pastorate of Rev. Mr. Foster. 

Garland is a hamlet in the east part of the town, on the Ridge road. 
This place was originally called Ladd's Corners, so named for James 
Ladd, an early storekeeper. The name was afterwards changed to East 
Clarkson, and during President Polk's administration a post-office was 
established here. The office was discontinued after a few years, and 
has been quite recently re-established under the name of Garland. The 
merchant here is Edward Root, and there is also a hotel kept by Land- 
lord Bates and called the Garland House. 

The eastern portion of the town appears to have been for many years 
a center of Methodism, for during the history of the town no less than 
three Methodist societies have been formed here. The first was the 
Bethel Methodist Episcopal church of Clarkson, organized January 8, 
1825, with nine members. The next was the Second Society of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church of Clarkson, organized in 1848 at the 
school house two miles north of East Clarkson. The third was the 
First Methodist church of East Clarkson, organized January 25, i86u 
At least two of these societies are in active existence at the present 
time and have a joint membership of about 125 persons, and under 
the pastorate of Rev. D. D. Cook. 

The educational interests of Clarkson have ever been zealously 
fostered and carefully guarded. Imperfect though the records may be, 
we nevertheless know that the first school house in the town was located 
at Clarkson Corners, and was built during the war of 18 1 2-1 5 ; and we 
are also told that while the work of construction was in progress the 
builders distinctly heard the artillery firing at the battle of Lundy's 
Lane. Laura White and Charlotte Cummins are said to have been 
the first school teachers in the town. In 1821 the territory was divided 
into nine school districts, and these were afterward occasionally changed 
to suit the convenience of the inhabitants. In 1853, after Union had 



260 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTT 

been set off, the remaining territory of the town was rearranged into 
districts, yet the number was maintained, for, in the meantime the 
population had increased, thus necessitating smaller districts and better 
facilities in general. 

As at present constituted, tliere are ten school districts in Claikson, 
one of which, No. 5, is joint with Murray, the school house being 
located in the latter town. In this town we have nine good school 
buildings, five of which are frame, two of brick, and two of stone. 
During the school year ending July 31, 1894, ten teachers were em- 
ployed for the instruction of 393 children of school age in the town. 
These teachers were paid the sum of $2,584 85. Additional expenses 
were $945 for libraries; $261.22 for repairs, and $324.56 for main- 
tenance. In the }-ear mentioned the town raised by tax for the support 
of schools, $2,029.67, and there was apportioned to the town of public 
moneys, $1,265.36. The total available school revenue was $3,502.04. 
The estimated value of school sites and buildings in Clarkson is $9,200. 



CHAPTER IV. 
TIIH TOWN OF GATES. 

The original town of Northampton, one of the civil divisions of On- 
tario county, included within its boundaries all that vast area of country 
l\ing between the Genesee and Niagara rivers.. The town was organ- 
ized in April, 1797, and the territory remained undisturbed until the 
general division of 1 808, when four separate towns were formed out of 
it. The two townships bordering on the Genesee and immediately 
south of Lake Ontario comprised one of the four and retained the name 
of the mother town of Northampton. However, on June 10, 1812, the 
old name was dropped and in its stead Gates was adopted, the latter in 
allusion to Gen. Horatio Gates, one of the heroes of the war for Amer- 
ican independence , 

In regard to the absolute accuracy of the above statements, there 
seems to exist the possibility of doubt, for another authority, equally 




J^T-cMr^t^ C^ JUrUM^ 



THE TOWN OF GATES. 261 

reliable with that from which the foregoing is taken, informs us the 
town Northampton was divided and Gates set off as early as March 30, 
1802, the latter including all that is now Gates, Greece, Parma and 
Riga. The last two towns were taken off in 1808, and Greece in 1822. 
However the truth may have been is perhaps unimportant at this time, 
for the fact is well known that Gates was one of the principal elements of 
old Northampton township and was duly and regularly set off from it ; 
and that from the time of its separation to March 22, 1822, it included 
what is now Greece and constituted one of the best and most fertile 
agricultural regions of Ontario, Genesee and Monroe counties, to which 
it successively belonged. 

Gates, reduced to its present limits, contains an aggregate of eleven 
thousand nine hundred and fifty- one acres of land, the city of Roch- 
ester having taken from the east side of the town a considerable area of 
its best land. But notwithstanding these several reductions. Gates is 
assessed (1894) at $2,336,845, standing third in real estate value among 
the towns of the county. 

The land surface in Gates is undulating, with an inclination toward 
the north. It is drained by small streams. The soil is a fine quality 
of calcareous loam, intermixed with clay. In this connection it is inter- 
esting to reproduce a descriptive sketch of this town, published soon 
after 1820, and long before the enlargements of Rochester city had 
deprived the town of its richest lands. 

The sketch runs as follows: " Gates, a post township near the center, 
the capital of Monroe county. The post borough of Rochester, the 
seat of the county buildings, is in this town. Greece was erected from 
the north end in 1822, and Chili, the adjoining township on the south, 
from the east part of Riga ; previous to which Gates comprised the 
area of about two townships of the surveys of this county." Further, 
in reference to the characteristics of the town the sketch continues : 
"There is a pleasing undulation of surface in the lands of this township, 
in which the mountain ridge just shows itself and disappears to make 
room for the valley of the Genesee River, rising again toward its level 
on the east side. The land is as good and as rich as it ever ought to 
be immediately around a populous town, just at the falls, and is excel- 
lent farming land in other parts, waving, and for that country, well sup- 



2(52 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTV. 

plied with springs. The ' Alluvial Way,' or Ridge Road, extends west- 
ward from Rochester to Lewiston, on which the mail is carried three 
times a week, by a line of post coaches between Canandaigua and Lew- 
iston, by way of Rochester. This (the ridge, now in Greece), is the 
principal route of travel for people going to Upper Canada," etc. 

The population of the old town of Northampton in 1800 was 778, 
and of the town of Gates as constituted in 1810, a total of 464. In 
1820, inclusive of Greece, the inhabitants numbered 2,643, of whom 473 
were farmers, 296 mechanics, 17 traders. There were also then in the 
town eighteen free blacks and nine slaves, but not many years were 
suffered to pass before the slaves were manumited and set free. How- 
ever, let us turn backward, and see who were the first settlers in Gates, 
the pioneers to whom belonged the honor of having been first on the 
soil of the town, and who laid the foundation for the welfare and pros- 
perity of succeeding generations. 

All writers of the past history of this town agree that the first settler 
was I saac Dea n, a native of Vermont, a farmer and miller by occupa- 
tion, but the exact year of whose settlement has ever been clouded in 
doubt. Several early authorities have mentioned 1809 as the year, but 
this is an evident mistake, as several other families were located in the 
town previous to that time. It is believed that pioneer Dean came to 
the region in 1799, settled about a mile south of the center, and that in 
1 8 10 he built the famous saw mill that made his name and works espe- 
cially prominent in local history. John, Abraham and Charles Harford, 
and Isaac Ray were also among the earliest settlers, all thought to have 
come to the town in 1800. John Harford was one of the largest land 
owners in the county and is said to have possessed at one time at least 
the twelfth part of Gates. He located near the junction of tne Lyell 
and Spencerport roads. Isaac Ray was a farmer and had his home 
east of Gates Center. Samuel and Daniel Gilman and Augustus B. 
Shaw were settlers in 1 804, followed soon afterward by John Van 
Sickle, Dr. Wellman and Mr. Caswell. The Wells family came into the 
town about 1811 and settled near the Gillmans. The first town meet- 
ing was held at the house of Jeremiah Olmstead in 1809, and Zaccheus 
Colby acted as presiding officer ; hence each of these persons must have 
been among the pioneers, as also were the other officers chosen on that 
occasion. 



THE TOWN OF GATES. 263 

The first town officers were as follows: Supervisor, Zaccheus Colby ; 
town clerk, Hugh McDermaid ; assessors, John Williams, Thomas King 
and Richard Clark; road commissioners, Matthew Dimmick, Moses 
Clark, Nathaniel Tibbies; overseers of the poor, Abel Rowe and Moses 
Clark ; collector, Richard Clark ; overseers of highways, Thomas Lee, 
Charles Harford, Frederick Rowe, Erastus Robertson, Asahel Wilkin- 
son, Moses Clark and Nathaniel Jones ; fence viewers and pound 
keepers, Abel Rowe, Augustus B. Shaw, Thomas King and Samuel 
Latta. 

Referring collectively to other early settlers and in one way and an- 
other identified with olden times in Gates, we may mention the names 
of Ansel Griffin, an early collector of the town ; William Hinchey, who 
came about iSioand lived south of the Center; Philip Lyell, for whom 
the " Lyell " (sometimes written *' Lisle ") road received its name ; Da- 
vid Frink and Everett H. Peck, also Thomas Jameson, who came before 
1812. The same may be said of Ezra Mason and Richard Paul. The 
first white female child born in Gates was the daughter of Ezra Mason ; 
the year 18 18. Lowell Thomas, Ira Waite, Orange, Elliott, Ira and 
Cyrus Bartlett, Calvin G. Hill (a surveyor), and Luther Hall were also 
settled in the town previous to 18 17. In their vicinity, known at an 
early day as the rapids, Asahel Bentley, Jeremiah Knapp and Daniel 
Muringer were also early comers. Simeon Hunt came to Gates pre- 
vious to 1 8 14, built a house west of the Center, but afterward moved to 
Michigan. Chauncey Dean and Asahel Ainsworth, and also Amasa 
Kellogg and Spencer Woodward were in Gates about 18 15. Samuel 
and Humphrey Hart, William Van Slycke, Gideon Baker were also 
here before 1820. Luther Field, a Windham county Vermonter, came 
in i8r6. Other early comers to the town were Lindsley Sturgis, Joel 
Wheeler, Samuel Weibert, Eleazer Howard. Daniel Loomis, William 
Booth, Chester Field, Calvin Sperry (1825), and still others whose 
names are perhaps forgotten, but all were worthy of mention among 
the former residents of Gates and associated with its early events. 
Many of these heads of families still have descendants in the town, 
others were here for a time and then moved to another locality, while a 
few names have become extinct. 

According to recollections of early events, it was on the land of John 



264 LANDMARKS UF MONROK COUNTY. 

Harford that the first ^rain was sowed, wliile Isaac Ray, who had mar 
ried Harford's daughter, cleared some of tlie first land and erected one 
of the first houses. The old log tavern, the pioneer hotel in the town, 
was built in 1806, and William Jameson was its landlord. Joshua Bee- 
man followed him as host. At the rapids Mr Caswell had a hotel as 
early as 18 10, and Dr. VVellman the third a little later on. Asa Mun- 
son's tavern west of the rapids, was opened about 1820. At Gates 
Center Eleazer Howard opened public house about 1823. and another 
was soon started farther west, on the Buffalo road by Lindsley Sturgis. 
Chester Fields opened hotel on the same road in 1832, and others were 
subsequently started by others elsewhere on the principal thorough- 
fares leading west. In fact the old Buffalo road enjoyed much the 
same early prominence as did the famous Ridge road farther north, and 
during the period when westward travel was at its greatest it was cus- 
tomary to find public houses about every two or three miles ; and to- 
day in passing along one of these roads the old structures originally 
built for public houses are still noticeable, although now put to other 
uses. The Robert Currier brick hotel was built in 1864. The old 
Dean saw mill, built in 18 10, stood near the Chili line, one and one- 
half mile south of the Center. Chauncey Dean owned it in 181 i. Ira 
Waite kept the first store. 

Such was the pioneer and early settlement history of the town of 
Gates, one of the oldest divisions of Monroe county. These settlers 
were mainly from New England, while a fair proportion of the others 
came from the counties in the eastern part of the. State, and all sought 
to better their condition in the justly famed Genesee country. 

A part of the town was taken for the organization of Rochester in 
18 1 7, and in 1822 the erection of Greece took from Gates more than 
half of its remaining territory, nevertheless the local population in 1830 
numbered 1,631. During the next ten years, it increased to 1,728, and 
in 1850 the number of inhabitants was 2,005. By i860 it had grown 
to 2,710, and in 1870 to 3,541. The extension of the city limits in 1874 
reduced the number to 1,988 as shown by the census of 1880, but dur- 
ing the next ten years the population had increased to 2,910, according 
to the enumeration of 1890. 

The chief occupation of the early settlers was farming, but as the 




/^ jf.x^c,:^,^^ 



THE TOWN OF GATES 265 

city was constantly and rapidly increasing, both in numbers of inhabit- 
ants and business interests, there was created a demand for other prod- 
ucts of the then ordinary agricultural labors produced, hence the people 
of the town turned their attention to market gardening and milk pro- 
ducing. The result has been entirely beneficial to the town, and to- 
day Gates stands well up in the front rank of progressive towns in the 
the county. In 1820 there were 5,288 acres of land under cultivation, 
employing 1,431 cattle, 282 horses, and grazing 1,937 sheep. At that 
time also the town had in operation two grist mills, eleven saw mills, 
one fulling mill, one carding machine, one cotton and woolen factory, 
three iron works, two trip hammers, five distilleries and three asheries. 
During the next ten years, by creation of other towns, many of these 
industries were also separated from Gates, but in 1835 we find 6,t,t,6 
acres of improved land, 6,362 cattle, 1,047 horses, and 389 sheep, with 
only one saw mill and one ashery in operation. 

The town was organized at a meeting of the inhabitants held April 
4, 1809, at the dwelling of Jeremiah Olmsted. At his time a full board 
af officers was elected, the names of the first officials having been men- 
tioned on an earlier page in this chapter. However, in this connection 
it is interesting to note the successsion of supervisors from the first 
meeting to the present time, as follows: 

Supervisors. — Zaccheus Colby, 1809; Samuel Latta, 18 10; Zaccheus 
Colby, 181 1 ; John Masteck, 181 2-1 6; Roswell Hart, 1817; Ira West, 
1818; Matthew Brown, 1819-21 ; Jesse Hawley, 1822; Matthew 
Brown, 1823; Samuel Works, 1824 ; Jacob Gould, 1825; Seth Saxton, 
1826; Fletcher M. Haight. 1827; Matthew Brown, 1828; Ezra M. 
Parsons, 1 829; Nathaniel T. Rochester, 1830-32; James H. Gregory, 
1833; William J. Bishop, 1834; Ezra M. Parsons, 1835 ; Calvin Sperry, 
1836; Henry K. Higgins, 1837-39; Silas A. Yerks, 1840-42; E. 
Darwin Smith, 1843 ; Melancthon C. Wetmore, 1844-47; Joshua Fish, 
1848; James Warner, 1849; Joseph Dewey, 1850-51; Hiram Sher- 
man, 1852 ; Melancthon C. Wetmore, 1853 ; Joseph Dewey, 1854-55 ! 
James Warner, 1856-57; Ezra M Parsons, 1858-60; Nathan Palmer, 
1861 ; James Warner, 1862 ; William Otis, 1863 ; James Chappell, 1864; 
James Warner, 1865-66; Chester Field, 1867-71: James L. Pixley, 
1872-74; Edward C. Campbell, 1875; Reuben L. Field, 1876; Ed- 

34 



266 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

ward C. Campbell, 1877 ; Reuben L. Field, 1878-80: Avery L. Reed. 
1881-82 ; Reuben L. Field, 1883 ; Edward C. Campbell, 1884-86 ; Al- 
fred Wright, 1887 ; Reuben L. Field, 1888; Jacob Haight, 1889-91 ; 
Albert Hondorf, 1892- 95. 

The present town officers in Gates are as follows : Albert Hondorf, 
supervisor; G. B. Sperry, town clerk; Edward C. Campbell. Reuben 
L. Fields, Edwin Roe and Thomas J. Leddye, justices of the peace ; 
George F. Olmstead, John H. Morgan and Reuben L. Fields, assessors ; 
William S. Perry, overseer of the poor; William D. Eagan, collector; 
John Statt, Anthony Kuhn and John Uhl, commissioners of excise ; 
Andrew J. Smith, John Haight, Carlisle Barsdale. Jonathan Reynolds 
and Peter Amish, constables ; Andrew R. Miller, road commissioner. 

In Gates, as in many other towns in the Genesee country, the early- 
history is more interesting than that of more recent times. In the early 
days of the town there was much more sociability and interchange of 
of visits among the people than at the present day. In this locality 
this condition is in a measure explained by the close proximity of the 
large and constantly increasing city of Rochester, for there, if time per- 
mits, the people are accustomed to go, whether in quest of pleasure or 
business. This close relation to the city has also operated against the 
building up of any considerable village in the town, for Coldwater and 
Gates Center are hardly more than cross roads settlements, though the 
former is a station on the Central road. However, the only business 
enterprise at this place is the store of Mrs. Max Scheg. 

In the eastern part of the town are several large manufacturing in- 
dustries, and while within the geographical limits of Gates, they are in 
reality city interests, and the only great benefit the town derives from 
them is their value as taxable property. Among these may be named 
the Rochester German Brick Company, which may be called a Gates 
industry, though operated by city capital. The slaughter house of John 
Joslyn, on the Buffalo road, two and one half miles from the city, is one 
of the largest and most complete enterprises of its kind in the region. 
The Standard Sewer Pipe Company also have their works in the town. 
There is also a large lime kiln, where is manufactured the famous Snow's 
White lime, a valuable commodity and a product of Gates. Mention 
may also be made of the large co-operative foundry, situated in the 



fHE TOWN OF GATES. 267 

town, just beyond the city limits, and other manufactures in the same 
locality. 

As we have stated these are not strictly Gates enterprises, although 
the town derives a material profit from their existence and operation. 
They are assessed locally and bring population into the town, thus add- 
ing to the tax revenues and using the products grown here. However, 
there is a fair probability that within the next three years another ex- 
tension of the city boundaries will absorb these interests. 

The ecclesiastical history of Gates, while interesting, is nevertheless 
limited, as the close relation of town and city has drawn from the former 
and added to the membership in the churches of the latter. However, 
from its earliest history the people of the town have not been unmindful 
or neglectful of the spiritual welfare of their families. In 1828 two 
church organizations were effected, the Presbyterian and Methodist 
Episcopal, and both have continued in active existence to the present 
day. In the meantime other societies have been formed, but, having 
little sustaining power they continued for a time and then dissolved 
However, during a recent year a Catholic church and parish has been 
organized, and a church home provided at Coldwater. Its membership 
is comprised of both German and Irish Catholics, the former predomi- 
nating largely. The church is under the pastoral care of Rev. Jacob C. 
Staub. 

The First Presbyterian church of Gates was organized on the 15th of 
October, 1828, and Matthew Garest, Amasa Kellogg and William Jam- 
ison were elected its first trustees. The first officiating minister was 
Rev. George G. Sill, and early services were held in various convenient 
places, frequently in the dancing-room connected with landlord How- 
ard's old tavern, at the Center. The first church edifice was built about 
the year 1832, and was located at the Center. This building was re- 
moved in 1844 and replaced with a larger and more attractive structure. 
This edifice is still occupied by the society and is in very good condition, 
having been substantially reconstructed in 1892. The regularly installed 
pastors of this church have been few, the pulpit having been supplied 
much of the time. The present membership is one hundred and two 
persons, under the pastoral charge of Rev. Frank G. Weeks. The trus- 
tees of the society are E. B. Avery, Alfred Fenton and Silas W. Cook. 
The Sunday school has about seventy-five members. 



2G8 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

The First Methodist Episcopal church of Gates, or, as originally and 
accurately known, the First Society of the M. E. church in Gates, was 
organized as a class in 1826, and as a church in 1 828, the latter proceed- 
ing^ takin^^ place in the little old log school standing less than a mile 
north of the present church site Rev. John Copeland was the mission- 
ary worker on this circuit at that time, and through his efiforts the 
church was formed. The first church edifice was built in 1840. The 
present membership in this church is not large and it has no settled 
pastor, being a station and supplied from Spencerport. The present 
supply is Rev. B L. Robinson, succeeding Mr. Hudnutt. 

In educational afTairs Gates has kept even step with with the other 
towns of the county, although the old records furnish but little reliable 
information concerning cither early schools or districts. Tradition, un- 
reliable at best, has it that the first school in the town was opened near 
the old Dean saw mill, about the year 1810. However, in 1820 the 
then entire town (inclusive of Greece) was divided into twelve school 
districts, and within the town were four hundred and thirty-eight chil- 
dren of school age ; that is, between the ages of five and fifteen years. 
In 1835, then reduced to nearly its present area, the town contained 
eight school districts, while the children of school age numbered four 
hundred and thirty-three. Again in i860, the districts numbered ten, 
and the pupils in attendance one thousand and seventy-four. 

According to the present disposition and arrangement of school in- 
terests in Gates, more complete, thorough and perfect than at any time 
in its history, the town is divided into seven districts, and the total num- 
ber of children between the ages of five and twenty years is one thou- 
sand and twenty-eight. According to the commissioners' reports for the 
fiscal year ending July 31, 1894, we learn that the amount of public 
moneys apportioned to the town was $1,269.37 ; raised by tax, $2,671.- 
21; total for the year, $4,190.09. Expenditures: Paid teachers, $2,- 
989.15 ; paid for library extension, $47; for school apparatus, $25.63; 
for repairs, $187.65, and for all other expenses, $583.13. During the 
year nine teachers were employed. Of the school houses four are of 
frame, two of brick and one of stone. The value of school sites in the 
town is estimated at $3,424, and of sites and buildings, $10,474. 



THE TOWN OF GREECE. 2G9 



CHAPTER V. 

THE TOWN OF GREECE. 

On the 22d of March, 1822, the Legislature passed an act dividing 
the old town of Gates, and from its territory the northern part, and by 
far more than half thereof, was set off and named Greece. The few 
remaining records of the town contain ho information by which we may 
know why so large a portion of Gates was formed into a new town, 
and tradition, equally silent, affords no light on the subject. However, 
the inference has been made that the extreme north part of the new 
jurisdiction was deemed comparatively valueless for agricultural pur- 
poses, hence, lacking in quality, the town was compensated in quantity. 
Even here was made an error, for some of the supposed worthless 
regions have developed surprisingly, to the general benefit of Greece 
and its inhabitants. 

According to present established surveys and measurements, Greece 
contains a total of 29,729 acres of land, being the largest in area of the 
towns of Monroe county. Earlier in its history the town was supposed 
to be even larger than in fact it is, surveys made about 1835 placing its 
area at 31,319 acres, of which 14,168 were then improved lands. 

Geographically, Greece lies near the center and on the northern bor- 
der of the county, the lake forming the north boundary, while the 
Genesee river is on the east. Parma lies west, and Gates south. The 
surface is roiling, with a general inclination toward the lake. The soil 
is a clay loam, with large areas of drift sand along the lakes. The town 
is drained by several streams which flow into the small bays that indent 
the lake shore. These bays, six in number, beginning at the west are 
Braddock's or Prideaux's bay, and Cranberry, Long. Buck, Round and 
Little ponds. These ponds have no special commercial value, owing to 
the constantly shifting sand bars at their mouths. Of these bays, or 
ponds, Braddock's receives the waters of Salmon and Little Salmon 



270 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

creeks ; Rush creek discharges into Long pond ; Wilh'ams creek into 
Buck pond, and Raccoon creek into Round pond. 

The town of Greece is located in the northeast corner of the famous 
Mill- Seat Tract; a tract twelve miles wide and twenty- four long, ex- 
tending from the lake south along the Genesee on its west side, which 
the Phelps and Gorham proprietary obtained from the Indians through 
palpable fraud or gross misrepresentation, paying them a mere nominal 
consideration as the purchase price. This subject, however, will be 
found more fully treated elsewhere in this work. 

The mention of Indian occupants and owners suggests the fact that 
the lake region, and particularly the small bays and Genesee river vaj- 
ley, were for many years the favorite fishing, hunting and trapping 
grounds of the Senecas. The Canawaugus and the Tuscarawas Indians 
were tribes or branches of the Seneca nation, and they were the dwell- 
ers in this vicinity. This subject, too, is more fully mentioned in an- 
other department of this volume. 

Old records and publications inform us that the first settlement in 
what is now Greece was made in the spring of 1792, by William 
Hencher and his family, who came to a location at or near Hanford's 
Landing, as afterward called. Hencher had been a former resident of 
Newtown Point, but came originally from Massachusetts, in the latter 
having been a participant in the once famous " Shay's Rebellion." It 
is also said that in 1791 Mr. Hencher and his son William went with an 
ox team and sled, from Newtown (now near Elmira) by way of Cath- 
arinetown (Watkins, Schuyler county) and Seneca Lake to Genesee 
Falls, and thence cut his road through the forest to a point in what is 
now Irondequoit, on the east side of the Genesee. Here he found 
one Walker, the pioneer of Irondequoit, with whom he remained until 
the spring of 1 792, then crossing the river and becoming the pioneer of 
what is now Greece 

Noting collectively and briefly the names of other pioneers and early 
events in Greece, it may be said that John Love came into the town in 
1793, and located at the mouth of the river. Zadoc Granger and 
Gideon King settled at the Lower Genesee Falls in 1796, at the place 
latterly known as Hanford's Landing, but originally as King's Landing, 
after the pioneer. In the winters of 1796 and '97, Eli Granger,Thomas, 



THE TOWN OF GREECE. 271 

Hiram, Gilbert and Simeon King, Elijah Kent, Frederick Bushnell and 
Samuel Latta located in the town, all near King's Landing. At this 
place Eli Granger and Abner Migells built a schooner in 1799, and said 
to have been the first vessel of American build put upon the waters of 
Lake Ontario. 

Jeremiah Olmsted settled on the afterward called Ridge road, about 

1797, and at his dwelling was held the first town meeting after the divi- 
sion of old Northampton. Frederick Bushnell is also said to have come 
the same year. Bradford and Moses King located at the landing in 

1798, and soon after came the families of Dr. Stone, pioneer physician, 
and a Mr. Graham. Hugh McDermaid came before 1800 and was one 
of the prominent men of the town for several years. Abel, Asa and 
Frederick Rowe came soon after 1800 and settled on the Ridge road, 
near Greece post-office. Dr. Zaccheus Colby is claimed as the pioneer 
physician of Greece, although Gates makes the same claim, while the 
good doctor himself in fact belonged to an old pioneer family in Ogden, 
still not living but a short time in the latter town. Other settlers of 
about this time were Samuel Latta, Felix McGuire, Nathaniel Jones, 
Moses and Richard Clark, Erastus Robertson, Matthew Dimmick, 
Nathaniel Tibbies, and Asahel Wilkinson. 

Between 1800 and 18 10 many families came and took up their resi- 
dence in Greece, and among them may be mentioned the names of 
Thomas Wood, Asa Hurd, John Mastick, Ephraim Spaulding and 
Daniel Budd. The Hurds lived near the Gates line, and Spaulding 
located three miles west of Charlotte. Mastick was the pioneer lawyer 
of the county, conceded by all past writers, although accounts differ 
as to the year of his settlement at Charlottsburg. Daniel Budd was a 
good .farmer, even at an early day, and brought into the town eighteen 
head of cattle. 

Soon after 18 10 and during the succeeding five years, the north part 
of Greece became pretty well settled, and among the early occupants of 
this region are to be recalled the names of Wheeler Heacock, John 
Bagley, Silas Lloyd, Joseph Bullock, Silas Smith, John Utter, James 
Dailey, Francis Brown, Aristotle Hollister, Benjamin Fowler, John 
Odell, Daniel W, Miles, H. R. Bender, Robert Faulkner and Abijah 
Newman. However, a number of these settlers remained in the town 



272 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

only a few years, then sold out their improvements and went further 
west. In the same connection we may briefly call to mind some of the 
other early dwellers in this town, each of whom was in some manner 
identified with its history. Among the many we may mention William 
Wilkinson, George Wimble, the Kingsleys, Jacob Teeplcs, the snake 
hunter, so called, who was never known to work but who succeeded in 
completely fooling Supervisor John Mastick and causing him to pay 
several times the bounty on rattlesnakes. Mr. Mastick would throw 
the rattles out of a rear window, and as often Teeples would get tliem 
and again offer them for bounty. John Mastick was supervisor of 
Gates (before Greece was set off) from 1812 to 181 7 

The construction of the famf)us Ridge road was of great importance 
in early Greece history, for by it an avenue of entry to the town was 
offered which had not been previously enjoyed. The road followed the 
general course of the old Indian trail. Travelers and prospectors, 
crossing the Genesee, found themselves in Gates, now Greece, and al- 
most at once began looking for a suitable location. To furnish accom- 
modations for the ever increasing tide of new comers, the settlers set up 
public houses all along the Ridge, while Ilanford's Landing and Char- 
lotte became [ilaces of much importance. As early as 18 10 Abel Rowe 
had a tavern at Greece, and soon afterward another was built by George 
Wimble. Other innkeepers of the period were Landlord Kingsley on 
the Ridge, near Parma line, and at North Greece by Mr. McKinney, 
who also had the first store there. 

In 1 82 1 the north part of Gates become quite well settled, while along 
the Ridge road the whole territory had been taken up and occupied, 
and along this great highway three small villages were built up. They 
were Ilanford's Landing, on the Genesee; Greece, or Center Greece, 
near the central part of the town, and West Greece, on the line between 
this town and Parma. At that time Ilanford's Landing was a busy 
little hamlet, and in 1820, according to an old and reliable authority, 
had a post office, store, tavern and a few dwellings. Here was the first 
landing place for boats on the river, and here also was built, in 1798, 
the first dwelling, and in 18 10 the first store on the river below Avon 
on the west side. Falltown was the name of another old settlement on 
the river, about half a mile below the Landing and opposite Carthage 
in Irondequoit. 




o. 



(^zZr^ .^ ^^<^ 



THE TOWN OF GREECE. 273 

According to the census of 1820, Gates had a population of 2,463 
persons, scattered over a territory some six miles in width and a dozen 
or so in length. Many of the early town meetings had been held on 
the north side of the town, to the great inconvenience of the residents 
further south, and when held in the south part a corresponding annoy- 
ance was occasioned to the residents on the north. Asa result the peo- 
ple determined to divide the territory, and the erection of Greece on 
March 22, 1822, followed. A full board of town officers was elected. 

In 1825 the population of this town was 1,547, and in 1830 the num- 
ber had increased to 2,571. At the end of the next ten years the 
number was 3,669, and in 1850 it was 4,219. The next ten years 
showed a slight reduction in number, the census of i860 showing a 
population of 4,177, but since that year the increase has been gradual 
and constant. In 1870 the inhabitants were 4,314 in number, in 1880 
the number was 4,848, and in 1890, 5,145. Few towns in Monroe 
county can show a like healthful increase. 

As has been stated, Greece was organized as a town in 1822, but we 
are prevented from furnishing a complete list of the first officers by 
reason of the fact that the town records, previous to 1865, have been 
lost. However, having recourse to the proceedings of the board of 
supervisors, the succession of supervisors of Greece is obtainable, and is 
as follows : 

John Williams, 1822; Frederick Bushnell, 1823-25; Silas Walker, 

1826-29; John Williams, 1830 ; Haghitt, 1831; Holden, 

1832-33; Asa Rowe, 1834-35; Samuel B. Bradley, 1836-38; L. B. 
Langworthy, 1839-41; Asa Rowe, 1842; A. B. Carpenter, 1843; 
George C. Latta, 1844-45; James S. Stone, 1846-47; A. B. Carpen- 
ter, 1848 ; George C. Latta, 1849; L. B. Langworthy, 1850; Levi H. 
Parrish, 185 1-52; James S. Stone, 1853 ; EHas Avery, 1854-55 ! Erastus 
Walker, 1856-57; Joshua Eaton, 1858; Simeon Butts, 1859; A. 
Wilder, i860; Peter Larkin, 1861-62; H. A. 01ms^ed, 1863; Nelson 
Lewis, 1864-69; Simeon Butts, 1870-71 ; Peter Larkin, 1872 ; Erastus 
Walker, 1873; David Todd, 1874-75; Peter Larkin, 1876; A. P. 
Britton, 1877-78; John M. Lowden, 1879-80; John Kintz, 1881 ; E. S. 
Benedict, 1882-83 ; A. P. Britton, 1884-85; Lucian A. Rowe, 1886; 
A. P. Britton, 1887; John M. Lowden, 1888-89; Thomas H. Eddy, 

35 



274 LANDMARKS OK MONROE COUNTY. 

1890; Joseph R. Beaty, 1891-92; A. P. Hritton, 1893; James B. 
Castle, 1894-95. 

The town officers of Greece for the year 1895 are James B. Castle, 
supervisor; William 11. Ander.son, town clerk; Jacob Smith, Edward 
S. Brown, Owen Ri<,mey and Thomas Laverty, justices of the peace ; 
Edward Frisbie, Edward Truesdale and John Garrison, assessors; 
Aaron Garrett and John J. Patten, overseers of the poor; Charles H. 
Banker, collector ; Thomas Teal, Francis Vance and John McShea, 
excise commissioners ; Lewis Seigler, John Curran, John D. Harris and 
F. Donavan, constables; Joseph Flemming, road commissioner. 

During the full hundred years of its occupancy, the town of Greece 
has had built up and established within its borders not less than half a 
dozen villages and hamlets. Hanford's Landing and Charlottsburgh, 
now Charlotte, for several years were of about the same size and the 
same importance, but the latter at least gained the supremacy and 
developed into an incorporated village of some note. The Landing 
held sway for a time, but its interests declined or went elsewhere. 

On the Ridge road, near the center of the town, is the old hamlet of 
Greece, a place of prominence when the Ridge was the chief thorough- 
fare of travel into the western part of the State, but it declined in im- 
portance with the completion and operation of the canal and railroad 
on the south. In its best days the population here numbered about 
one hundred and fifty. The present interests are few, the principal ones 
being the general store of W. H. Anderson, the evaporator works of 
Burling, Casburn & Dyson, while in the vicinity is the " Big Elm Stock 
Farm" of C. W. Voshall. Here also is the wagon and blacksmith 
shops and grist mill of John Fitzner, and the blacksmith shop of Joseph 
Paille. 

West Greece is a small hamlet on the Parma line, and contains one or 
two stores and hotels and the shops usual to such villages. The Con- 
gregational church here stands on the line between the towns. It was 
one of the old institutions of the locality, but is now abandoned. The 
merchant here is Henry Pulis. 

South Greece is also a small hamlet on the line of the " Falls" road, 
a station being established here for local accommodation. Hon. George 
Payne has a large general store, and also an evaporator. Henry Brinke 
has a large warehouse here. 



THE TOWN OF GREECE. 276 

North Greece is another httle settlement in the center of a fertile 
farming region. Its merchants are Henry Phelps and John Haddock, 
and Thomas Greenwaid has a wagon and blacksmith shop. Greece 
Center and Read's Corners are other localities having a name. 

In the southeast part of the town, near the city line, there have been 
built up and established several industries and institutions, among them 
the extensive works of the Eastman Kodak Company, the Charles 
Upton stock farm, Herman Glass's seed farm and others, built and 
operated by city capital yet having their place of business in the town. 
Here also, near the line, is the Holy Sepulchre Cemeter}^ and adjacent 
to it that recently erected yet grand educational institution known as 
St. Bernard's Seminary, the most elegant structure in the town. 

The church societies of Greece, outside the village of Charlotte, are a 
part of the history of the town at large, and may be mentioned gen- 
erally though briefly in this connection. The old First Congregational 
church of Parma and Greece was organized at Parma Corners Decem- 
ber 2, 1 8 19, and included in its membership residents of both towns. 
The church edifice was begun in 1824, and completed the next year. 
The society grew and prospered for many years, but at length declined 
and was dissolved. 

The Methodist Protestant church of Greece was organized July 25, 
1 84 1, but in 1866 changed its doctrinal teaching and thereafter became 
known as the Methodist church. In 1867 the society purchased the 
old Christian church building (erected in 1844). The present pastor is- 
Rev. Bela Post. 

The First Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Greece, near 
North Greece, was organized November 22, 1843, ^^^ among the first 
trustees were Henry Miller, William Wilkinson, Jesse Townsend, A. S. 
McKinncy, Cornelius Soper, John Lewis and Joseph Lake. For a few 
years, and until the erection of the church edifice at North Greece post- 
ofifice, the meetings of this society were held in the school house. This 
church and society is not now reported in the conference minutes. 

The First Free Methodist church at West Greece was organized 
February 4, 1861, and during the same year the church edifice was 
erected. This is the only church of its denomination in the town. 

Roman Catholic Church. — The following account of the Catholic 



276 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

church in Greece is furnished by an excellent authority: "The first 
Catholic church erected in any country place in the State of New York 
was built in the township of Greece in the year 1829, a fiame build- 
ing under the inspection of Felix McGuire, one of the first settlers of 
the neii^hborhood, assisted by a few of his countrymen who immigrated 
from Ireland and located in the vicinity for a permanent home. It 
was then called the 'Church in the Woods,' and was noticed as such 
in a supplement to the New York Truth Letter of November 15, 1834, 
in poetic style by Patrick Bulger, brother of the Rev. Father Bulger. 
The church was opened for divine service by the Rev. Father O'Dono- 
hue, who celebrated mass and dedicated the church to St. Ambrose. A 
resident clergyman was stationed at St. Ambrose in the year 1840. 
This church has recently given place to a splendid brick structure, the 
corner stone of which was laid June 19, 1859, by the Rt. Rev. Bishop 
Tieman, of Buffalo, N Y. Said edifice was carried to completion in the 
course of fifteen months under the very auspicious supervision of 
the Rev. John M. Maurice, the present pastor of the church and the late 
pastor of St. Ambrose. The indefatigable exertions of the reverend 
father in erecting said church were ably assisted by Messrs. Joseph 
Flcmming and Peter Larkin, his associate, inspector of the work, who 
generously rendered their services gratis, thereby meriting the everlast- 
ing gratitude of the congregation. The new church was dedicated to 
the Mother of the Seven Sorrows on September 16, i860, by the Very 
Rev. Michael O'Brien, pastor of St. Patrick's church of Rochester^ 
N.Y. The Very Rev. Dr. Cahill delivered the dedicatory sermon ; sub- 
ject, 'The Immaculate Conception.' Among the above recorded 
names, the name of Nicholas Read, who for nearly half a century has 
been foremost among the benefactors of the church, should not be for- 
gotten. The following extracts arc taken by permission from the 
address written by Joseph Flemming, esq., upon the occasion of Rev. 
Father John M. Maurice's golden jubilee, and of his thirty years' pas- 
torate among his people here: 'On Sunday the feast of the Mother of 
Sorrows in September, 1856, Father Maurice said mass for the first 
time in Greece, and his parishioners believe that Almighty God sent his 
servant. Father Maurice, to administer to their spiritual wants. As 
referred to above, he ably with others supervised the erection of the 



THE TOWN OF GREECE. 277 

brick church at a cost of over eight thousand dollars. The old church 
was removed from the cemetery and converted into a parochial resi- 
dence, and a stone memorial cross was erected in its place, at a cost of 
$Soo, and beneath that cross on every second day of November, after 
mass said here, you and your people assemble in the midst of our de- 
parted friends to pray to Almighty God for the repose of their souls, 
and for the repose of the souls of all the faithful departed. Next we 
find you negotiating for this large and beautiful picture above our altar 
painted under the supervision of His Eminence Cardinal Bedini, at 
Rome, at a cost of over a thousand dollars, and you pro. ured this 
painting and placed it above the altar, not as a memorial of Rome, not 
for a mere ornament, nor for the delight which as a true work of art it 
gives to sense and intellect, nor for religious adoration — Catholics never 
adore pictures, statues, or images — but that it might when we come into 
the temple of the living God and looking up behold it, bring our 
minds, as it does in a most vivid manner, to the crucifixion, suffering 
and death of our Divine Redeemer, and the sorrow of his immaculate 
Mother. Again, in 1867, we find you erecting a tower to the church 
at a cost of $6,800. This tower, with its tall, graceful, symmetrical 
steeple, and the cross, its finale, pointing heavenward, indicates the 
direction in which, by your works and your example, you constantly 
endeavor to direct our thoughts. Then again you procured at a cost of 
$1,050 a large, sweet- toned bell from a celebrated foundry at Troy, 
N.Y., and placed it in the tower to call our people, and remind them of 
their spiritual duty. Our bishop, who honors us with his presence to- 
day, blessed and baptized our bell and named it the Maria Dolorosa. 
When a member of this congregation dies word is immediately sent to 
the church and the bell is tolled in order that all who hear it may with 
you, dear father, at the same moment offer up a prayer to Almighty 
God for mercy on the departed soul summoned into his presence for 
judgment. And you having with the blessing of God achieved so 
much with your own people, cast longing eyes west and east, so the 
people of Greece had a church erected for them under your supervision 
and had it dedicated to Almighty God under the patronage of St. John 
the Evangelist. And stilN again we find you in Charlotte purchasing 
two village lots on the beautiful eminence overlooking the Port of 



278 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Genesee, converting a frame building into a cluirch and liad it dedicated 
to Almighty God with the beautiful name of the Holy Cross. Both of 
these new churches to the eastward and westward you attended regu- 
larly for nine or ten years From the people of Charlotte you accepted 
no compensation ; your salary you left to them to assist in providing 
for the needs of the new congregation. The good bishop abridged 
your labors by putting other priests in these new churches, which were 
organized Uuder your fostering hand and fatherly care. Joseph Flem- 
ming. esq , has served very ably as a trustee of the mother church at 
Mount Read ever since Father Maurice came and took charge of this 
branch of the Lord's vineyard.' " 

The Church of St John the Evangelist (Roman Catholic), at Greece, 
was organized in 1865, by Father Maurice. The first edifice was the 
old Rowe tavern, on the Ridge, remodeled for church purposes. It was 
dedicated May 22, 1 865, and was used until 1875, and then replaced 
with the present edifice. This church is now under the pastoral charge 
of Rev. Father Jacob F. Staub. 

In concluding this department of the present chapter we may briefly 
allude to the educational interests and system of the town, though the 
data furnished by the town records is indeed incomplete. In 1822, 
when Greece was set off" from Gates, the town was organized into eight 
school districts. In 1836 the districts numbered fifteen, and the chil- 
dren of school age 1,060. In 1876 there were eighteen districts, each 
provided with a good school house. According to the commissioner's 
report for the year ending July 31, 1 894, the total number of districts 
is sixteen, including the Union school at Charlotte. For the year 
the town was apportioned of the public moneys, the sum of $2,787.04, 
received from the regents, $232.58 ; raised b>' tax in the town, 
$6,727.11. Total amount for the year, $1 1,2 14,38. During the year 
the amount paid teachers was $7,252 ; for libraries, $250.02 ; for 
apparatus, $45 ; school repairs and additions (exclusive of the addition 
to the Charlotte school), $1,742.65 ; all other expenses, $1,236.77. 
The number of teachers employed in the schools was twenty, and the 
number of children of school age, 1,653. O^ ^1^^ school buildings, 
eight are of frame, seven of brick, and one of stone construction. The 
value of school sites in the town is estimated at $4,600, and of sites and 
buildings, $22,450. 



THE TOWN OF GREECE. 279 

Charlotte. — In the early history of Western New York the Httle ham- 
let at the mouth of the Genesee was a point of more than passing impor- 
tance, and its origin by several years antedated the organization of the 
county or town of which it now is an integral part. The names from 
time to time applied to this village have been various, at one time Char- 
lottsburg, then Charlotte, later Port Genesee and finally and perma- 
nently Charlotte, now incorporated as such, but with a strong indica- 
tion at one time on the part of its people to name the village North 
Rochester. This may have been a prophetic desire, for, should the city 
increase as rapidly during the next score of years as in a like time past, 
Charlotte may indeed form a part of the " Greater Rochester." 

In this immediate vicinity pioneer William Hencher made his settle- 
ment in 1792, and here also Samuel Latta located and did business as 
the agent of the Phelps and Gorham proprietary, one of his first enter- 
prises being the erection of a warehouse. Mr. Latta later on became 
collector of customs at the Port of Genesee, which port was established 
here about 18 15. The custom house stood about on the site of the 
Stutson House. As the interior regions were developed this place be- 
came a customs port of much importance, in proof of which statement 
we quote from an old publication describing this point in 1820: " The 
exports from Port Genesee, according to the collector of customs, for 
the years 1 818, '19, '20 and '21 were about $375,000. In 1820 the ex- 
ports were 67,468 barrels of flour; 5,3 10 barrels of potatoes ; 2,643 
barrels of beef and pork; 709 barrels of whiskey, and 175,000 staves." 
The total value of these exports was estimated at $375,000. In 1822 
the collector estimated the quantity of flour exported from here at 
100,000 barrels, and the value of exports for the year at $500,000. 

The first merchants at Charlotte were the firm of Childs & Gardiner, 
while the vessel owner was Porter Benton. Charles Sweet commanded 
the boat and did business between Charlotte and Kingston and Ogdens- 
burg. This was in 18 lO. The next year Frederic Bushnell and James 
K. Guernsey commenced business, but soon afterward, on account of the 
possible disastrous results of the war, they thought prudent to remove 
their stock to Victor, Ontario county. However, in 18 15 they returned 
to Charlotte. Samuel Currier built the first hotel here in 1807 o*" '08, 
its site being afterward occupied by the Craig House. The second 



280 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

public house was opened about 1810 by Erastus Spaulding, and stood 
where the Stutson House was afterward built. A school was opened 
in the village in 18 13. 

During the early history of this hamlet, its village portion lay down 
the hill, along the river front, where the railroad was afterward built. 
The now principal business and residence part of Charlotte, along the 
Boulevard, has been built up within the last quarter of a century, 
though here are occasionally noticeable some of the dwellings of old 
residents. At that time, also, the little village gained quite a promi- 
nence as a boat building point, and from here dozens of craft, large and 
small, have been launched into the river and lake. In 1809 Roswell 
Lewis built and launched the schooner " Experiment," and his experi- 
ment became an assured success. Later on were built the other 
schooners " General Brown," "Julia," "Mary Jane" and "Charlotte," 
also the river steamer " United States," and the other schooners 
"Guernsey" and "Cleveland." The lighthouse was constructed in 
1818. 

Thus we discover that at a very early day Charlotte wasa hamlet of con- 
siderable importance in a commercial way, and among the men of the 
times who contributed to the prosperous condition of affairs may be re- 
called by name Samuel Latta, James K. Guernsey, Frederic Bushnell, 
Porter Barton, James Currier, J)r. Bingham, T. R. Hawkins, George C. 
Latta, and others perhaps now forgotten. 

Other villages of Monroe county have noticeably decreased in popu- 
lation and business importance as the city of Rochester has increased 
and enlarged, but Charlotte seems to have been an exception to this 
rule in many respects. To be sure, some local interests have declined 
and been abandoned, while others equally important and valuable have 
been established in their places. Instead of a manufacturing or exten- 
sive business center, Charlotte has become a summer resorting place of 
much note; its industries are few while its resources in other directions 
have developed wonderfully, and all have tended to the general good. 
In 1867 and '68 the inhabitants of the then hamlet began to discuss 
the project of incorporation, and in the early part of 1869 that consum- 
mation was reached. The first election of village officers was held on 
June 24, of the year last mentioned, and resulted in the choice of Am- 



THE TOWN OF GREECE. 281 

biose Jones, Joshua Eaton, John Farnham, George Hardison and Alex- 
ander Wilder as trustees. Mr. Jones was elected president of the board 
of trustees, and F. A. Jones a.s clerk and treasurer; D. K. Thompson, 
constable and collector. In 1874 a charter was obtained and thereafter 
a village president was elected by the people, Samuel H. Barnes being 
the first incumbent of that office. 

However, after several years of prosperous village life there came a 
period of disturbance and litigation that threatened the downfall of the 
village itself, at least in a political way. For a time there were two 
boards of trustees and occasionally two incumbents for the village offices, 
with the natural clashing of interests, and also personal conflicts. For 
a time public excitement ran high but without very serious results. At 
last better counsel prevailed and good order was speedily restored. 

The village of Charlotte, as at present constituted, has a permanent 
population of about twelve hundred persons, and it is in all respects a 
well governed municipality. The village property consists of a good 
hall or public building, which was erected during the fall of 1889. The 
upper part of the hall is used for village purposes, and the lower for 
fire department apparatus. The latter comprises a good Silsby steamer, 
a hook and ladder truck, and two serviceable hose carts. There are 
two organized fire companies, commanded by a chief engineer — John 
T. Cunningham, and a board of fire wardens, the latter comprising Peter 
M. Schwartz, John W. Preston, Bert Allen, William Shawnessy, J. T. 
Cunningham, Benjamin F". East and Nicholas Wickham. 

The village officers for the year 1895 ^^^ George W. Ruggles, presi- 
dent; Peter M. Schwartz, clerk; William H. Denise, treasurer; Frank 
P. Farnam, collector; Thomas Laverty, police justice; William J, Pol- 
lock, William H. Newcomb, Francis J. Vance and Robert C. Corbett, 
trustees. 

Charlotte is also provided with four regularly organized church 
societies, each of which has a suitable house of worship. They are the 
Methodist Episcopal, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic and Protestant 
Episcopal. 

The First Society of the Methodist Episcopal church of Charlotte 

was formed at a meeting held at the school house in the village on the 

17th of May, 1848, and the board of trustees elected at that time were 
36 



282 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

William Rankin, John Baker, Collins Wells, George C. Latta and 
Charles Wickham. For several years after the society had been formed 
services were held in the school house, but about 1857 the church edi- 
fice in the village was erected. It is a plain and unpretentious wooden 
structure, sufficient for the society at the time of organization, but now 
somewhat small and unsuitable. About the year 1868 or '69 the soci- 
ety experienced a period of depression and barely escaped dissolution, 
but in 1873 a reorganization was effected upon a secure and permanent 
basis. The church is now under the pastoral care of Rev. A. D. Wil- 
ber, of Rochester. The membership numbers thirty three persons, and 
in the Sunday school are about fifty attendants. 

The Presbyterian Society of Charlotte was organized in January, 
1852, and immediately thereafter the erection of a church edifice was 
begun. It was completed in June following, and in the edifice on the 
24th day of the month the church organization was perfected, with four- 
teen original members. The first elders were Joshua Eaton and Z. N. 
Colburn ; first pastor, Rev. A. Furgeson. This is perhaps the largest 
religious society in this part of the town, the church members number- 
ing about one hundred, and about the same number in the Sunday 
school. The present pastor is Rev. A. M. Lindsay. 

The Church of the Holy Cross (Roman Catholic) at Charlotte, was 
organized in 1863, by Rev. John M. Maurice and had an original mem- 
bership of about twenty five persons. The parish is now materially 
increased, including all the Catholic families in the northeast part of 
Greece. After about eighteen years of almost constant use the church 
edifice, originally a dwelling house, was burned, and in its place, in 
1 88 1, a large and substantial brick church was erected. This church 
and its parish are under the pastoral care of Rev. Father John M. Fitz- 
gerald. 

St. George's Protestant Church at Charlotte is the youngest of the 
religious societies of the village. The church was organized several 
years ago, and even earlier mission services had been held in the vil- 
lage. The pretty little chapel was built in 1892. The membership in 
this church is small but includes all the Protestant Episcopal families of 
the vicinity. The present rector of the church is Rev. Henry Rollings. 

In the village regular business interests are fairly well represented. 



'THE TOWN OF HAMLTN. 283 

There are no manufactures of importance. During the beating season 
the village presents its busiest appearance and the influx of pleasure- 
seekers is at times something surprising. From the Port of Genesee 
boats are constantly departing for other lake points and a correspond- 
ing number are daily returning. As a summer and pleasure resort 
Charlotte and the Beach are the most popular places in Monroe county. 
To accommodate the multitudes frequently gathered here, the village 
proper is provided with six hotels, while at the Beach are four more. 

One of the largest and most attractive buildings in the village is the 
Union school. This was formerly tiie school house of district number 
four, town of Greece, built in 1869, but through the progressiveness of 
the people a Union Free district has been established, and in 1894 a 
material addition was made to the school building. The present Board 
of Education is comprised of A. J Mulligan, cliairman ; William M. 
Richmond, John M Allen, and B. S. Adams, clerk. 



CHAPTER VI. 
THE TOWN OF HAMLIN. 

On the iith day of October, 1852, the northern part of the then 
town of Clarkson was set off and formed into a separate jurisdiction 
and named Union. Then, as now, the new creation had a superficial 
area of 26,395 acres of land, the second in size of the towns of Monroe 
county. Its location is in the extreme northwest corner of the county, 
and until the completion of the Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg 
railroad was only accessible from the county seat by carriage or foot 
travel, though in the early history of the region flat boats and other 
water craft were occasionally employed in transporting wares and pro- 
duce along the lake shore and thence up the Genesee as far as navi- 
gable. 

The land surface in this town is slightly rolling and inclines toward 
the lake on the north. It is drained by a number of small streams, the 
largest of which is Sandy Creek. The soil is a sandy, clayey and grav- 



284 LANDMARKS OK MONROE COUNTY. 

ell\' Inam, rich and fertile, strong and enduring in its productive quality, 
which natural characteristics have been of immense benefit to the inhab- 
itants of the town, for Hamlin is regarded as one of the best producing 
districts of the count}'. General agriculture is and for many years has 
been the cliief occupation of the jjeople, and their special products, 
those which yield most profitably, are barley and beans ; and it is a 
poor and ill-kept farm in this town thai will not yield, in an average 
season, from thirty to forty and frequently more bushels per acre. At 
one time also, early in the history of the town, salt was manufactured 
here, though not in sufficient quantity to attract much attention to the 
locality. 

Tiie pioneer and early settlement of Hamlin was made while the ter- 
ritory of the town belonged to the old jurisdiction called Murray, or- 
ganized from the original township of Northampton in 1808. In 18 19 
Clarkson was formed, while Union was not separated from the town 
last named until 1852. In i860 the name of this town was changed to 
Hamlin. The early history ot this town is so closely connected with 
that of Murray and Clarkson that it is difficult to separate them, espe- 
ciall)' in relation to facts which belong to the history of a region, 
rather than a limited and quite recently organized district. However, 
it is said that James M. Carson purchased the first lot of land in this 
t(nvn in 1 804, though no proof is offered to support the statement that 
he settled here at that early day. Abijah Sayre and John Chapman 
bought farms here in 1805, and Perry Nichols in 1806. The first 
known settlement in this locality was made by Aretas Haskell (some 
writers call it Hascall), a Yankee from the State of Maine, .in 1808, and 
he was accompanied or followed very closely by Josiah and Samuel 
Randall from the same State. About the same time, possibly in the 
same year, there came John Nowlan and his family of seven sons and 
daughters — Michael, Hannah, Harry, Loena, Patty, William and Napo- 
leon. Silas Nowlan, born after the settlement, was the first white male 
child born in Hamlin, while Michael Nowlan figured as the first school 
teacher in the town. Next came the Billings family and settled near 
the lake, a region then not specially desirable on account of the marshy 
lands and very malarious atmosphere. For this or some now unknown 
reason, Billings soon left the locality. 



1 




^/^Ty/Ti 



THE TOWN OF HAMLIN. 285 

In i8ii the settlers were Alanson Thomas, Joshua Green, and the 
family of a Dutchmen, named Strunk, the latter settling near the mouth 
of Sandy Creek. It is not a fact, as found believers in some quarters, 
that the coming of the Strunk family gave rise to the German element 
of population now so strong in Hamlin. About the only settler who 
came here in i8i2 was Steplien Baxter, and his family, from Oneida 
county, yet even his coming added materially to local growth, as he 
brought six children — Asahel, Reuben, Polly, Stephen, Lucy and 
John. 

During the war of i8 12-15, very little was done in the way of settle- 
ment or development, as the region, while never invaded or threatened 
seriously, was quite exposed to the ravages of the British and Indians, 
and "scares" were of frequent occurrence. However, soon after the 
close of hostilities other settlers came here, and among the many may 
be recalled the Wright family, on the Parma line, the descendants of 
whom are still in the locality. There were also Thomas Hayden, Will- 
iam Cook, P. Beebe, Joseph Knapp, the Paul and Pixley famijies, Caleb, 
James and William Clark, Albert Salisbury (near the Center), Isaac 
Allen, Howard and Aden Manley, Eli Twitchell, all of whom were here 
previous to 1820, and a number as early as 1815 or 1816. They were 
chiefly from New England, with a few from the eastern part of New 
York, but all were united in the common purpose to build up for them- 
selves and their children a better home in the then new country. That 
they accomplished substantial results is conceded, and is proven in the 
many fine farms of Hamlin as it is to-day. 

However, the character of the population of this town has changed 
wonderfully during the last thirty- five years, and many of the old pio- 
neer families are no longer known to the town, though their work and 
their example have lived after them. As is noticeable all along the 
lake towns in this county, so in Hamlin, the Yankee pioneers have 
been followed in occupancy by foreigners, in this particular locality 
chiefly by Germans, many of them natives of the fatherland, while the 
younger element are mainly of American birth. And it may be stated 
that this change in occupancy has not worked any disadvantage what- 
ever to Hamlin, or to its interests or institutions, for the present people 
of the town are thrifty, industrious farmers, honest and determined 



286 LANDMARKS OV MONROE COUNTY. 

men and women, and their eftbrts in life liave been rewarded. This 
statement, too, may be made of the entire population, whether de- 
scendants of the pioneers or of more recent residence here, for Hamhn 
is as clean and wholesome a town, socially, morall}- or otherwise, as can 
be found in Monroe county 

Returning again to the subject of early history, we may properly re- 
call some of the first events in the town. The first saw mill was built 
by Joshua Green, about 1813, and stood on Sandy creek, and soon 
afterward James Sayres built the second mill west of the Center. 
Aretas Haskell built the third, Alanson Thomas the fourth, and then 
still later others by Carney Newell, Mr. Haskell and O. C. Webster 
until they became numerous in the town. Grist mills were also built 
and put in operation quite early, that of Alanson Thomas the first, fol- 
lowed by O. C. Webster, and still later E. K. Webster. 

The first death in the town was that of Mr. Strunk, in 181 2, followed 
soon afterward by that of Charlotte Barker. The first tavern was at 
East Hamlin, built by Philander Kane about 1830, and from this fact 
the locality was known as Kane's Corners. A. D. Raymond opened a 
tavern at the Center in 1842, though south of that hamlet David Look 
previously kept public house. H. Heebe had the first store at the East 
village, and Daniel Pease the first at the Center, while the first post- 
master here was Henry Kimball. At East Hamlin the first postmaster 
was Elisha Wheeler, and at East Kendall, Andrew Clark. At Thomas- 
ville. North Hamlin, the first postmaster was L. Hovey. 

Such were the early events of Hamlin history, all perhaps important 
and worthy of record as they in a manner reflect the pioneers of a 
region difficult of settlement, and so situated and constituted as to 
occupy the position of passive factor in the affairs of the county. It is 
no discredit to say that Hamlin has never built up a municipality of 
either size or note, nor need her people lament the fact that manufac- 
turing industries, except saw and grist mills, have never had a place in 
local annals; but, at the same time, they have never had at an\' time 
either jail or station house, and very little of lawlessness or evil-doing. 
The light and opportunity of knowledge has been opened to this people 
through schools, churches, newspapers and books. 

When first set off from Clarkson, Union, or Hamlin, had about 2,300 



THE TOWN OF HAMLIN. 287 

inhabitants, and in i860 had 2,460. In 1870 the population was 2,304, 
which had increased in 1880 to 2,556. The population of the town in 
1890 was 2,338. 

The first town meeting was held March i, 1853, at the house of John 
C. Patterson, at which time officers were elected as follows : Ebenezer 
Barringer, supervisor ; Harry Kimball, town clerk ; Seymour Sherwood, 
collector; Alanson Thomas, justice of the peace; Charles Barrows, H. 
J. Smith and Andrew Randall, assessors; Cuitis H, Hole and Peter 
Crowell, overseers of the poor ; James M. Cusic and Jermon Elliot, 
highway commissioners ; Seymour Sherwood, George Clow, Daniel R. 
Childs and E. C. Goodrich, constables. 

The supervisors of Hamlin have been as follows : Ebenezer Barringer, 
1853-61; Seymour Sherwood, 1862-63; Martin Webster, 1864-66; 
George H. Lee, 1867-71; James N. Kenyon, 1872-74; Walter A. 
Ferris, 1875-77; James H. Redman, 1878-80; George W. Storer, 
1881-83; Enos B.Wood.. 1884-86; James H. Redman, 1887-92; 
PVank Elliott, 1893 ; James H. Redman, 1894-95. 

The town officers in 1895 are James H. Redman, supervisor; H. E. 
Redman, town clerk ; James Burke, overseer of the poor ; A. D. Wood, 
J. G. Barry, G. M. Burt and J. H. Redman, justices of the peace ; Mel- 
ville Morey, Joseph Klefhen and Nathan Fisk, jr., assessors ; Henry 
Schott, collector; Alfred Hosmer, highway commissioner; J. C. Gas- 
coign, George Stoltz and John Klefhen, excise commissioners; How- 
ard Manley, Frank Madden, J. G. Nesbitt and Elmer E. Wright, con- 
stables. 

During the period of its history there have been built up and estab- 
lished within the proper limits of this town several small villages or 
hamlets, none of which has ever attained sufficient population or com- 
mercial importance to justify incorporation, yet each is conveniently 
and pleasantly situated in the center of a productive agricultural region, 
hence a benefit to both town and its people. Among these hamlets, 
that known as Hamlin Center is the largest, has the greatest number of 
business houses, and is also the seat of town affairs. The early residents 
and interests of this place have been described, hence in this connection 
only the present need be mentioned. The local population numbers 
about three hundred. The merchants here are James H. Redman & 



288 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Son. general store; T. W. Swansen, general store and large produce 
dealer; James Burke, harness store and shop; Pease & Bullard, gro- 
cers and druggists ; H C, & A. C. Ilaniil, hardware; Semon & Feltz, 
proprietors of grist and cider mills. The hotel is known as the Hamlin 
House. 

East Hamlin is a quiet little hamlet in the east part of the town, about 
where was once the settlement known as Kane's Corners. The inhabi- 
tants here number about 150, and the business interests comprise the 
general stores of Horner & holler, and Hamil Brothers. 

North Hamlin is another small hamlet of the town, situate in the 
northern part, on Sandy creek, where once stood the Thomas's Mills, 
by which name the locality was once designated. The merchant here 
is Hiram Hovey. 

Webster Mills, Kendall Mills, East Kendall, and Morton, designate 
a small village in the extreme west part of the town, the local interests 
being principally in the adjoining town of Kendall, Orleans county. 
This place now bears the name of Morton. The store here is owned 
by Elliott & Kenyon. 

A history of the religious societies of Hamlin is a part of general town 
rather than local records, for they were built up and organized by the 
people of the town at large. The Freewill Baptist church at East 
Hamlin was organized about the year 1 824, by Rev. Eli Hannibal, with 
an original membership of about twenty persons The first church edi- 
fice was erected in 1834. and was located about half a mile southeast of 
East Hamlin station. The church of this denomination at North Parma 
was an offshoot from the society at Plast Hamlin, thirty one members 
withdrawing to form the new society in 183 I. In later years the soci- 
ety barely escaped dissolution, but in 1858 was reorganized. The old 
edifice was abandoned and a new one provided ; and about fifteen years 
ago a third edifice was erected half a mile south of its predecessor. 
The membership in this church now numbers about forty-five persons. 
The present pastor is Rev. E H. Grifiin. 

In 1883 a Union church was erected by the Freewill Baptist and 
Methodist Episcopal societies and was located at East Kendall, though 
on the Hamlin side of the line. The Freewill society here was organ- 
ized as early as 1828 by Elder Eli Hanibal and has ever since main- 



THE TOWN OF HAMLIN. 289 

tained an existence. After many years of joint occupancy of the old meet- 
ing house, the societies parted company and the Baptists now have a 
new church edifice for their own use. The membership comprises fifty 
persons, and is now under pastoral charge of Rev. R. Tanner. 

The Methodist Episcopal society at West Hamlin was organized in 
1830 and united with the Freewill Baptists in the erection of a meeting 
house. 

In the neighborhood of Morton and East Kendall is a fairly large 
Presbyterian society. Its members number seventy-five persons. 
Here, also, is a society of the Free Methodist church. It has no regu- 
lar pastor, services being conducted by supplies. 

St. John's Evangelical Lutheran church of Hamlin was organized 
April I, 1875, with eighty-one members, comprising representatives 
from nearly all the German families then living in North Hamlin. 
From that time this membership has grown to 300 persons, being by 
far the largest religious society in the town. The present pastor is 
Rev. Mr Muehlhauser. The church edifice was built in 1874. 

The Methodist Episcopal church in Hamlin Center was organized in 
1869, and three years afterwards erected a substantial church edifice. 
The present members number seventy- five. The pastor is H. B. 
Mason, who also officiates in the same capacity at Morton. Also at 
Hamlin Center is a regularly organized Baptist church and society, 
having sixty members and under the pastoral charge of Rev. Mr. 
Adams. 

Tradition informs us that the first school teacher in Hamlin was 
Michael, son of pioneer John Nowlan, but the records furnish very little 
information by which we can determine either the location or teachers 
of the early schools. This question, however, is not of great im- 
portance to the present reader, and we may therefore briefly note the 
present condition of educational interests in the town. As now con- 
stituted, the school districts in Hamlin are fourteen in number, and in 
addition thereto is one public school with about thirty-five pupils. Dur- 
ing the school year ending July 31, 1894, the amount of money avail- 
able for school purposes was $4,562.61, of which $1,778.20 was pub- 
lic money apportiontioned to the town, and $2,541.89 was raised by 
town tax. In the year mentioned the number of children of school 
37 



290 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

age was 617, for whose instruction fourteen teachers were employed 
and were paid for their services $3,648.97. In the town are fourteen 
comfortable school houses, ten of which are frame, three of brick and 
one of .stone. The total value of school property in Hamlin is esti- 
mated at $9,350. 



CHAPTER Vn. 

THE TOWN OF HENRIETTA. 

This town was formed from Pittsford, March 27, 1818, and contains 
within its boundaries 21,584 acres of land; and land of as good quality 
for general agricultural purposes as can be found in Monroe county. 
And it is no idle compliment to say of the farming inhabitants of 
Henrietta that they have ever been known as a thrifty and enterprising 
people, descendants from equally progressive ancestors who had to con- 
tend with more hardships and discouragements than almost any set of 
pioneers in the region. It so happened that the early settlers of this 
town were poor men, who came to a little known and then quite un- 
inviting region, where the lands were at first thought to be of compara- 
tively small value, and whatever advancement the pioneer was able to 
make was the result of determined effort; " hard knocks" as known at 
the present day. Even then, after having made a small beginning, in 
case it so happened the settler could not promptly meet the payment 
due on his land, he was ruthlessly dispossessed by the agents, receiving 
no compensation whatever for improvements made. 

These are rather unpleasant recollections of pioneer days in Henrietta, 
yet are nevertheless true, as numerous instances will attest, and show a 
quite unscrupulous character on the jjart of some of the proprietors. 
However, in spite of all these early disadvantages and embarrassments 
the determined pioneers of the town finally succeeded in establishing 
themselves firmly, developing fine farms, improving every profitable 
opportunity, and to-day the descendants of these hardy sires find them- 



tHE TOWN OF HENRIETTA. 291 

selves possessed of the desirable comforts of life; and all this is the 
glorious result of Yankee energy and determination. 

The early settlement of Henrietta was entirely accomplished while 
its territory formed a part of the still older subdivisions known suc- 
cessively as Smallwood and Pittsford. The first mentioned was one of 
the old provisional districts of Ontario county, and Pittsford was a later 
formation and of much less area. So long as Henrietta remained a 
part of Pittsford it was known as West-town, thus describing the 
western part of the mother town. 

The first attempt at settlement in this locality was made in 1790, by 
Major Isaac Scott, who received for niilitary services a grant of nine 
hundred acres in the southwest part of the town. Major Scott made 
his improvement in 1790 and after two years of fruitless effort aban- 
doned his land and sought a more inviting abode. About this time the 
township passed into the ownership of a party of Holland capitalists, 
who, being aliens, could not lawfully own lands and hold titles in this 
country, hence procured the title in the name of their agents, the Wads- 
worths, who were extensive land operators in the Genesee country. 
However, it was not until the early years of the present century that 
the settlement in fact of the town began. In 1806 the town was sur- 
ve}'ed into farm lots, and almost immediately the pioneers came. The 
first comers were Lyman and Warren Hawley, who located southwest 
of the West village. Here they cleared fifty or sixty acres and .sowed 
part of it with wheat. In the same year Jesse Pangburn made a settle- 
ment at West Henrietta. The first settler on the east side of the town 
was Joseph Carne, who came in from Pittsford in 1806. Charles 
Carne, son of Joseph, born October 16, 1806, was the first white child 
born in Henrietta. Ira Hatch and Moses Wilder were other pioneers 
in the same locality, the latter planting the first apple orchard in the 
town. Mrs. Hatch was the first white woman settler in Henrietta. Other 
settlers in 1806 were Charles Rice, Moses Goodale, Benjamin Boles, 
Thomas Sparks, George Dickinson, Asa Champlin, Selah Reed, Gideon 
Griswold, Asa Hull, William Thompson, Elias Wilder, Capt. Joseph 
Bencraft, John Gould and Orlando Brown. Jonathan Russell came into 
the town in 1807, and his son Moody was the second white male child 
born here. Hezekiah Sherwood was also here in 1807, and the death 



292 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

of his infant daughter was the first event of its kind in the town. 
Other settlers in this year were Jonathan Wilder, Mr. Parish, Artemas 
Bauer, Phineas Baldwin and his sons Jacob. Ansel and Chailes. In 
1808 Silas and I^dward Dunkain settled, and in 1809 Asa Burr and two 
sons of James Sperry ; Mr. Sperry ca^ue here in 181 2. In 1809 there 
were but thirteen families in the town. 

The later settlers may be mentioned collectively and without refer- 
ence to exact year, f(jr the greatest difficult)' is encountered in deter- 
mining correctly when many of the old families came in here. There 
were, however, John and Michael Brihinstool, John Cook, Charles 
Case, Isaac F. Nichols, P>ederick Samples, Ira McNoll, Charles Cos- 
grove, Simon Moore, Bitternell Hitchcock, John Spring, Abijah Gould, 

^■|ohn and Andrew^ ^shtjiaji, WilHam Leggett and his five sons, Will- 
iam, Ira, Franklin, Stephen and Charles, all settlers in town previous 
to or during the year 1 8 12. About the same time or within a year or 
two afterward there came Charles Daniels. David and Barzilla Archer, 
Harry Miller, William F'razee, Alva Remington, James Tinker, Daniel 
Roy, Timothy Torrence, Bishop Stilwell, George I.. Valley (who had a 
lime kiln here as early as 18 10), Captain Blodgett, David Scribner, and 
others. Jonathan Smith built the first saw mill in 181 1, and the second 
was built by P>ager Wells. Daniel Richards put up a small tannery 
building about 18 13, and with the leather there made Phineas Baldwin 
and Mr. Austin made shoes for the townspeople. John Gooding was 
the first distiller, having come from Bloomfield with his brother Ebe- 
nezer. Sidney Warner made the first chairs in town, and Daniel 
Hedges afterward set up in the same business. 

Among the pioneers of Henrietta were a number of old Revolu- 
tionary soldiers, whose names, so far as known, are worthy of mention. 
They were Major Gilbert, Joel Clark, Robert McLoud, Lyman Wright 
and Daniel Phillips. Also in the war of 181 2-1 5, the town was repre- 
sented by several men who made honorable records, among them 

Jacob, John and Samuel Hibbard, Loren Connise (died in service), 

Bartlett (killed), Beckwith (died in 1813), Samuel Cady (died in 

service), Ira, James and Dr. Phillips. 

In the town, too, at an early day were a number of squatters, persons 
occupying land without claim or color of title; and though in no sense 



THE TOWN OP HENRIETTA. 293 

pioneers of the locality, they are perhaps deserving of mention as early 
residents. So far as known they were George Allen, James Lawless 
(who made pot ashes), Simeon Magoon, Anson Beebe, Elijah Rose, 
James Whitehouse, Noble Clark, James Bliss. Amos Wood, James Gor- 
don, Robert McCloud, Hulbert Wilcox, Lyman Wright, Elihu Roberts, 
Seth Roberts, Abram Pease, Lyman and Sheldon Pierson, and others 
named Hartshorn and Baldwin. Several of these were worthy pioneers 
and afterward became permanent residents and were identified with 
town affairs. 

Once well begun, settlement in Pittsford's " west town " was accom- 
plished rapidlx', and naturally gave rise to the question of a division of 
the town In fact there was existing some little difficulty between the 
representatives of the east and west districts of Pittsford, each of course 
looking for the chief town officers and public improvements for the 
respective localities. Other disputed questions entered into the con- 
troversy, whicii, by the way, did not become more serious than a war 
of words, but the result was a division of the town and the creation of 
Henrietta; so named in allusion to Henrietta Laura, daughter of Sir 
William Pulteney. The division was accomplished March 27, 1818, and 
on the 20th of April the first town meeting was held. 

The first officers for the new town were as follows : Jacob Stevens, 
supervisor; Isaac Jackson, town clerk; Martin Roberts, Lyman Haw- 
ley and Noah Post, assessors ; David Dunham and Elijah Little and 
Solomon Hovey commissioners of highways; Elisha Gage, collector; 
Thomas Remington and Daniel Hedges, overseers of poor; Justus 
Baker, Richard Daniels and Abel Post, school commissioners; Jacob 
Stevens, Charles Sperry, Chauncey Beedle, school inspectors; Roswell 
Wickwire and Elisha Gage, constables 

In this connection may properly be given the succession of super- 
visors, viz : Jacob Stevens, 1817-20; Elijah Little, 1821-22; Ljman 
Hawley, 1823 ; Elijah Little, 1824; James Sperry, 1825 ; Elijah Little, 
1826-27; Isaac Jackson, 1828-29; Joshua Tripp, 1830-31; Elijah 
Little, 1832-33; Isaac Jackson, 1834-39; Elisha Gage, 1840; Mat- 
thias L. Angle, 1841-42,; Isaac Jackson, 1843; Micajah W. Kirby, 
1844; M. L. Angle, 1845; Wells Springer, 1846-47; Alexander Will- 
iams, 1848; Wells Springer, 1849; Alexander Williams, 1850; Ezra 



204 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Howard. 1851; Isaac Jackson, 1852-53; Samuel Hoyt, 1854; Ash- 
man Beebc. 1855; Wells Springer, 1856; Alexander Williams, 1857; 
Warren Diver, 1858-59; Jerome Keyes, i860; Wells Springer, 1861; 
Jerome Keyes, 1862-63; A. A Stearns, 1864; Jerome Keyes, 
1865-68; William C. De Witt, 1869-70; Robert Martin, 1871-74; 
Samuel M. Calkins, 1875; Samuel Beckwith, 1876; Marvin WMliams, 
,877-79; C G. Starkweather, jr, 1880-82; George J. Green, 1883-84; 
Ahnon T. Nichols, 1885-87; Cliarles J. Smith, 1888; Charles E. 
Green, 1889-91 ; Chauncey G. Starkweather, jr., 1892-95. 

The town officers for 1895 are as follows: Chauncey G. Stark- 
weather, supervisor; W. H Fretts, town clerk; Samuel Ctilkins, Will- 
iam Milton, Warren Caswell and Frank Stone, justices of peace; Willett 
Chase, George De Witt and Pllijah Sherman, assessors ; Thomas Rob- 
bins, overseer of the poor ; H.J. Holcomb. collector; Daniel Harring- 
ton, William Shillinger and I. Dayton Ladd, excise commissioners; H. 
P. Porter, John Glendon and Prior F. Martin, highway commissioners ; 
William Reeves, Charles Williams, Timothy Haley and Kirk Martin, 
constables, 

A rather surprising fact in connection with the history of Henrietta 
is revealed by the statement that the industries and manufactures of the 
town were greater in 1820 than at the present time, yet this disclosure 
in no wise reflects discredit on the town or its people at this day, lor 
such enterprises as were in operation during the period of early history 
long ago fulfilled their mission and then passed out of existence in the 
natural course of events. In the year mentioned three saw mills were 
running, and there were also five distilleries, and six asheries in the 
town. Fifteen years later none of these industries was in use, for then 
the forests were nearly all cut down, rendering valueless the mills and 
asheries, while the distilleries had found a more profitable location in 
the thickly populated parts of the county. Notwithstanding this, these 
years witnessed a substantial growth in stable interests as a brief com- 
parison will show. In 1820 Henrietta had 6,889 'icres of improved 
land, 1,562 cattle, 263 horses, 3,382 sheep, while in 1835 there were 
1,449 acres of land improved, and 2,234 <attle, 852 horses, 5,731 
sheep, 2,95 I swine, but no mills whatever. During this period the pop- 
ulation increased only two hundred. 



THE TOWN OF FiENRIETTA. 295 

It is also interesting to note the changes in population of the town, 
which is best shown by reference to the census taken at the beginning 
of each decade In 1820 the inhabitants numbered 2, 18 1, the accumu- 
lation of fourteen years. In 1830 the number was 2,332; in 1840 was 
2,085; in 1850 was 2,513; in i860 was 2,249; '" 1870 was 2,280 ; in 
1880 was 2,243, sf'd in 1 890 was 2,135, or just forty-six less than sev- 
enty years before. 

Henrietta has been for many years a distinctly agricultural town, 
producing abundantly in return to proper cultivation. Early in its 
history immense quantities of wheat were grown here, a fact which 
attracted considerable outside attention, and at one time called for a 
mild reproof on the part of an early writer of local annals, who said : 
"The land is peculiarly well calculated for grazing and dairy farms. 
Henrietta wants a few full-blooded Yankees from the grazing and dairy 
towns of Berkshire county, Mass., as schoolmasters in business." True, 
this town did and yet does produce handsomely in cereal products, and 
was and is well calculated for dairy farms. All these changes came in 
the natural course of events, but the native Yankees of Henrietta ac- 
complished the results just as effectually and profitably as could their 
brethren from the " Berkshire Hills," and to-day among the civil divis- 
ions of Monroe county, this town ranks well as a general agricultural 
region and in the production of potatoes and cabbage is rarely excelled. 
With a railroad on both east and west sides, and within convenient dis- 
tance of the county seat, all needed facilities are afforded for marketing 
produce, while no extravagant tax is imposed on the people for general 
or local improvements. However, the people of the town did at one 
time lose heavily by the failure of the old water works company. The 
reservoir was located one mile south of the East village, and here a vast 
amount of labor was done, but never paid for. The highway was badly 
broken up by digging pipe trenches and much other disturbance cre- 
ated in a general way; but the greatest injury done was through the 
complete failure of the whole enterprise and the dissatisfaction caused 
by it. 

During the course of its history, within the limits of this town there 
have been built up two small villages, neither of which has ever attained 
the dignity or importance of corporate character. Each is conveniently 



296 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY 

and pleasantly situated and equidistant from the county seat about 
eight miles; also distant from each other about three and one half 
miles, "as the crow flies." These are Henrietta and West Henrietta, 
though coiiinionly designated as the East and West villages. 

On the site now occupied by East Henrietta the first settlers were 
the family of Deacon Samuel Wise, coming here in 1812. The earliest 
village adjuncts were the blacksmith shop of John Wise, Sidney Weav 
er's turning shop and saw mill, and Richard Daniel's tannery. John 
Acer opened public house, and James Smith brought in a stock of goods 
and started a store. Mr. Acer was also postmaster, mails being brought 
in once each week from Avon. The first store in the village proper 
was started by Stephen Cody in 18 13. Benjamin Baldwin built the 
brick store in 1824 and '25, and was succeeded in business by Elihu 
Kirby Dr, James Lewis kept a drug store in 1825, and was the third 
village postmaster. The second was Charles T. Whiffs. Ebenezer 
Gooding and Isaac Robinson, better known as "one-eyed " Robinson, 
were other early tavern keepers, and still later were Jacob Baldwin and 
Richaid Wilkins. Wilkins and Jarvis Sherman built the first frame 
hotel on the site later occupied by the Henrietta House. 

A Masonic lodge was also one of the institutions of the village in 
early days, and if local traditions be true the meetings held about the 
time of the Morgan excitement were quite exciting. Other persons 
connected with early village history were Jacob Stevens, Alfred White, 
John Russell, Dr. Jonah D. Simonds, Dr. Beadle, Dr. J. H. M. C. 
Hazeltine, Dr. Samuel Weeks, William Pierce, L. C. Chamberlain and 
others now forgotten. 

The old Monroe Academy, incorporated by the Regents July 2, 
1827, and February 7, 1843, ^^''is 'i^ one time one of the most notable 
institutions of the town. It was founded in 1825 and the means with 
which the building was erected were raised by subscription, sixty-two 
persons contributing for this purpose. Orange Hedges donated two 
acres of land for the site and on this the academy was built. It was 
opened in the fall of 1826, David B. Crane being principal, Mary Allen, 
preceptress, and D. M. Crosby and Mr. Smith, assistants. Although 
this institution began operations with more than lOO pupils and was 
thereafter conducted with greater or less success for a period of forty 



THE TOWN OK HENRIETTA. 297 

years, the corporation was dissolved in 1886. In this year school dis- 
tricts Nos. 4 and 5 were consolidated, a union district estabhshed, and 
the old academy building occupied for its purposes. However, during 
more recent years, this institution has taken the character of an advanced 
district school and is now conducted as such. The trustees are D. G. 
Mason, Alfred Stone and H. J. Holcomb. Three teachers are employed 
in this school. 

As at present constituted, Henrietta village has a population of about 
200 inhabitants. It is distant about a mile from the Lehigh Valley rail- 
road, but even this quite recent acquisition has not materially added to 
local growth. The present business industries are the general store of 
Marsh & Griffin, the market of W. E Fretts, and one or two small 
shops. 

Here in this immediate vicinity are three organized church societies, 
neither of which at the present time has a resident pastor. However, 
of these churches some brief mention is proper. 

The First Baptist church was organized June 10, 1812, and embraced 
in its membership most of the settlers in this entire locality. In 1832 
the members numbered 132, more by far than at the present time. 
The first house of worship was built in 1831 and after ten years was 
sold to the Methodist society. In 1843 a new church was built, but 
this structure was burned September 18, 1871. The third church house 
was begun in 1875 and completed three years after. 

The Congregational church of Henrietta was organized in 18 16, al- 
though Presbyterian and Congregational services were held in the town 
at least ten years before that time. There was no regular preaching, 
however, previous to 1823, when Rev. John Taylor held meetings in 
the log house near the center of the town. The church edifice in the 
East village was built in 1831, but the building was destroyed by fire 
in 1865. During the next year a new church edifice was built. 

The Methodist Episcopal church and society of East Henrietta was 
organized about 1826, and was the outgrowth of a still older society 
formed in 1822 ; the first meetings were held in the academy hall un- 
til 1 841, when the society purchased the brick church formerly owned 
by the Baptist society. This was used until 1868 when a new church 
edifice was erected. 
38 



298 T.AXDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

West Henrietta is a small hamlet of about 250 population, situated 
in the western part of the town. Like its sister village on the east, this 
hamlet has never gained any prominence from a business point of view, 
but is in the center of a rich agricultural region and is a convenient 
trading point. Its business interests are few, and comprise the general 
store of Jones & Buckley, the market and produce business of Charles 
Sherman and a few small shops. Forty years ago there was in opera- 
tion here a steam mill, a furnace, an extensive carriage shop, and the 
village then contained about forty houses. 

The spiritual welfare of the people in this part of the town is also well 
provided for, and regular Baptist and Catholic services are conducted 
here. The Baptist church was organized in 1813, and a house of wor- 
ship was erected in 18 » 8. Although a primitive structure this was the 
first church edifice in the town. In 1838 the West Henrietta church 
separated from the mother society and built a new church in the West 
village ; the latter society has been continued to the present time, and 
while not large in point of membership, the services are well attended 
and well supported. 

In this connection it is well to also briefly refer to the early Metho- 
dist services held in the town, and to mention the fact that in the past 
no less than three M. E societies have been organized. Mention may 
also be made of the fact that the Catholic church has gained a foothold 
in tlie town and is doing an excellent service for its people. Seventy- 
five years ago the Quaker settlers in Henrietta organized a society and 
erected a meeting house, the latter being built nearly a mile north of 
the I<^ast village on land donated by John Russell. 

In closing this chapter some brief reference to the schools and edu- 
cational system of the town seems appropriate. The first school wus 
opened in 1810 on the river road and was taught by Lucy Branch. 
Later teachers were Linus Evarts and Polly Boughton. In tlie east 
part a log school house was built in 181 i and was taught by Sarah 
Leggett, and afterward by Selah Dayton and Mr. Holmes. This build- 
ing was burned in 1814, and was replaced with a frame school house in 
1 8 16. 

In 1820 Henrietta comprised twelve school districts, and the school 
jiopulation of the town was 786. In 1835 there were thirteen districts, 



THE TOWN OF IRONDEQUOTT. 299 

and 700 children of school age. As at present constituted there are 
eleven districts and 588 children of school age. Of eleven school 
houses, seven are of frame and four of brick, and the value of school 
property in the town is $14,525.00. In 1 894 thirteen teachers were 
employed in the town and paid for these services $3,699.50. s 



CHAPTER VIII. 
THE TOWN OF IRONDEQUOIT. 

On the 27th of March, 1839, the old town of Brighton was divided, 
and that part thereof lying next south of Lake Ontario, and between the 
Genesee river on the west and Irondequoit Bay on the east, was erected 
into a separate jurisdiction and named Irondequoit in allusion to the 
bay we have mentioned. 

To the Indians, the Senecas of the Iroquois, this almost historic body 
of water was known by the name Neo-da-on-da-quat, signifying "a 
bay," while the present name is only the educated and civilized perver- 
sion of the original. This bay was also known in the early history of 
the region as Teoronto, having substantially the same signification as 
noted above. 

In some respects this town has a history not common to the general 
region, for during the period of French dominion in America, and nearly 
an hundred years previous to the Revolution, this special locality was 
visited by the French on a warlike errand. The occasion to which we 
refer was the invasion of the Seneca country by Marquis de Nonville, 
in July, 1687, who came with his French forces, and allied Canadian 
Indians to chastise and subdue the native Indians, as the latter did not 
kindly receive the priestly advances of the Jesuit fathers, nor did they 
fully relish the French ambition to occupy, own and govern the most 
valuable of the Senecas' territory. French accounts tell us that on July 
lOth De Nonville proceeded to the head of the bay and then built a 
palisade fort for the protection of his army. It is believed that the 
French intended the erection of a permanent fort at the head of this bay. 



300 LANDMAK'KS oF MONROE COUNTY. 

with design to make this a central seat of operations However, the 
French power in America was not as enduring as that government 
could desire, and was overthrown in 1763. 

Succeeding the French was the British dominion, no less important, 
far more substantial, yet only a transient power in this region. The 
English also occupied the region of Irondequoit Bay and the lands of 
the town named for the bay ; and even to a comparatively recent date 
did the latter power maintain a post therein. 

In less than ten years after the end of the British dominion the hardy 
American pioneer made a permanent lodgment in this new town. 
William Walker figures in history as having been the first white settler 
to make an improvement in what is now Irondequoit, yet it is doubtful 
whether he is entitled to the honor of first pioneer. He had been en- 
gaged with Butler and Brant during the Revolution, and had taken part 
in the Irequcnt merciless slaughters of white men, women and children 
in the frontier settlements. With the Senecas W^alker had also fled 
before the approach of the avenging Sullivan, and it is a known fact 
that many of the refugees found a temporary residence at the mouth of 
the Genesee. These events took place in 1779 and through them the 
character of this region became known. Therefore, after the return of 
peace. Walker found this a place of residence congenial to his character, 
for he was a ranger, hunter, fisherman and occasional trader. He was 
in no sense the typical pioneer nor a tiller of the soil. He settled near 
the mouth of the river in 1791 or '92, but later on became involved in 
some difficulty and departed to Canada. 

The .second settler on Irondequoit soil was one Dunbar, a mulatto, 
who came from Massachusetts in 179S, and whose family comprised six 
persons. He, too. was a hunter and fisher, though he did raise some 
fruit and otherwise fulfill the duties of pioneer. Oliver Culver and Sam- 
uel Spafford first visited Irondequoit Landing, at the head of the bay 
in 1796. but afterward went west with a party of emigrants. In the 
same year John Parks located in the town, and he was also a hunter 
rather than farmer. He was the hero of many adventures, and, if rec- 
ollection be true, once barely escaped with his life. From these re- 
marks the reader will infer that the lands of Irondequoit at the time 
referred to were poorly calculated to tempt settlement by the pioneer 




HOSEA ROGERS. 



THE TOWN OF IRONDEQUOIT. 301 

farmers, and such was in fact the case. Bounded on three sides by 
water, with numerous bays, indentations and much marsh land, the region 
offered temptations only to the hunter and trapper. However, in the 
course of time, after the forests were cleared and the sun had dried out 
the wet lands, it was discovered that this town possessed some of the 
most fertile and productive soil to be found in the whole Genesee country ; 
and at the present day this characteristic peculiar to the town is of the 
greatest value, as Irondequoit is in summer almost one vast garden, 
producing abundantly year by year, and stands first among the market 
gardening towns of the county. 

The settlement in fact of this town began in 1800, when a little col- 
ony of Vermonters came to the region, took up lands and built up 
homes. They seemed to possess the characteristic energy and deter- 
mination native to the descendant of the Green Mountain State, for the 
hardsliips of pioneer life had no terrors for them. It was no difficult 
task for them to make an opening in the forests, build log cabins, clear 
land and sow the seed ; nor did they ever attempt to picture the dis- 
advantages of pioneer life in the new region, but instead made the lands 
worthy to be lived upon and fit to be enjoyed by their children. In 
this party of Vermont pioneers were Oliver Culver, Samuel Spafford, 
Jesse Case and Jesse Taintor. who with the exception of Mr. Scudder, 
had families; and within the next two years others came, among them 
Elmer Reynolds and John Culver, the latter a brother of Oliver Culver* 
Ransford Perrin came to the town in 1805, ^"^ '" 1824 moved to the 
Brighton side of the line. Adonijah Green settled here in 1810, and 
was for many years a leading man in the town He died in Rochester 
in 1871. 

Referring briefly to other early residents we may note the names of 
Abner Wakley, who came from Greene county in 1 8 14, and Abel Dens- 
more in 1 81 5, the latter from Massachusetts. Joseph Leggett came 
soon afterward and settled near the center of the town. The settlers in 
181 5 were Isaac and James Warring, Henry Case, Samuel Knififen, 
Reuben Hickok, Petit Loder, Patrick Dickinson, A M. Goff, Archibald 
and Jerry Hoffman and others whose names are now lost. In this 
year, also, Elisha B. Strong, afterward first judge of the old Common 
Pleas Court, and h>lisha Beach, purchased together a thousand-acre 



;j(,i2 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

tract of land on the east side of the Genesee, and here tliey established 
the little hamlet called Carthage, about opposite Haniord's Landing. 
This village was intended to outrival Rochesterville and become the 
seat of justice of a new county, for it is a known fact that these enter- 
prising Yankees even tiun had in contemplation the erection of a new 
county in tlie Genesee country. In 1824 Carthage had several indus- 
tries and business enterprises, among which were three stores, two 
warehouses, a hotel, a chair factory, a grist and saw mill, tannery, oil 
mill, two cooper shops, and a blacksmith shop, and the ever neces- 
sary distillery. Mr. Strong, in company with Elisha Beach, Herman 
Norton and Francis Albright, in 181 7, began the construction of a 
bridge across the river at Carthage and completed the structure in 
1819. This historic old pile withstood the ravages of time and the ele- 
ments only a single year, plus one day, when it fell with a crash into 
the river. In 1856 a suspension bridge was built over the river at this 
point, but that, too, met early disaster. However, as years passed, 
Carthage became a suburb of Rochester, somewhat contrary to the 
expectations of the doughty Yankee city builders, for their munic- 
ipality was swallowed up by the growth of the county seat. 

Returning briefly to the subject of early settlement, we may recall 
the names of other worthy residents of Irondequoit, among them Oliver 
Taylor, Mr. Rogers and Captain Spear who located at or near 
Carthage. Caleb Simmons was the pioneer blacksmith of the town, 
opening a shop here in 1817. Captain Spear opened public house in 
Carthage in 18 '9, while Mr. Taylor built the first tannery. John 
Graham, and hi? sons Joseph and John, jr., were here in 18 17, and 
Oliver Strong, Harvey Kimball and Levi H. Clark (a lawyer) came in 
[818. In the same connection maybe mentionetl the names of the 
brothers Evans (Lester and Sylvester), and also Captain VVoodham, Ira 
Drake, Harvey Culver, Abner Jennings, Whitney Culver, Captain and 
John T. Trowbridge. General Moore, the Russels, the Drapers, the 
Smiths and the Johnsons and Joneses, all of them early settlers, all 
heads of respected families, and all united in the common welfare of 
the town. The descendants of some of them are still in the county, 
but others went away in later years and found homes farther west. 

These men and their families and descendants improved, developed 



THE TOWN OF TRONDEQUOIT. 303 

and built up Irondequoit. At an early day they were chiefly farmers, 
following legitimate agricultural pursuits, but later generations have 
changed the character of occupation, and to-day instead of a farming 
region Irondequoit has been noted as a market gardening region, 
standing in the front rank in the county, and also enjoys an enviable 
fame in the production of berries and small fruits. The town has now 
villages or hamlets hardly worthy the name as such, though enterpris- 
ing capitalists have established a summer resort at Irondequoit Bay. 
As the town is bounded on three sides by water, so, also, to the same 
extent it is now surrounded with railroads, thus adding to local values 
and affording easy access to the city on the south bounds of the town. 

When this town was set off from the parent town of Brighton the 
local population (1840) was 1,252, and was then supposed to be a 
reasonably well settled agricultural region. However, during its fifty- 
five years of existence this population has doubled, the several changes, 
shown by the census reports, having been as follows : In 1 850 the in- 
habitants numbered 2,397 J '" i860 the number was 3,547; in 1 870 was 
3,990; in 1880 was 1,980, and in 1890 was 2,415. It will be seen 
from this that the greatest population was reached in 1870, while ten 
years later the number was reduced to 1,986. The reader will remem- 
ber that in 1874 the city limits were extended, and included a consider- 
able portion of land of Irondequoit. 

After the erection of the town in 1839 the first meeting of the electors 
was held on the 2d of April, and at that time these ofificers were elected : 
William Shepard, supervisor; Alexander A. Hooker, town clerk; Isaac 
Cunis, Alexander A. Hooker, George W. Beers, James Lyon and Abner 
D. Jennings, justices of the peace; Micajah W. Jackson, Enos Ganyard 
and Hale Clement, assessors ; Hiram Pardee, Henry Butts, Hosea 
Rogers, commissioners of highways ; Isaac Warring, and Henry Case, 
overseers of the poor ; Isaac Butts, collector ; A. H. Selcien, Isaac 
Butts, Allen Barnes, J. H. Waring and Hiram Hickok, constables. 

The supervisors of Irondequoit have been as follows: William Shep- 
ard, 1839-40; William Blossom, 1841 ; William Shepard, 1842; Jonah 
Brown, 1843-44; John McGonegal, 1845-46; James Marshall, 1847; 
James Swayne. 1848-49; Benjamin Wing, 1S50; S. W. Bradstreet, 
1851-52 ; John Smyles, 1853 ; James Sherry, 1854-55 ; James Swayne, 



304 LANDMARKS OF MONROK COUNTY. 

1856-57; John Smyles, 1858-59; George E. McGonecjal, 1860-61; 
Jedediah White, 1862; James Sherry, 1 863 ; A. C. Hobbie, 1864-66; 
Richard D. Cole, 1867-70; Samuel Dubelbeiss, 1871-72; Henry 
Walzer, 1873-76; Alexander II. Wilson. 1877; Winfield R.Wood. 
1S78-79; John Evershed, 1880-82; Richard Hill, 1883-84; William 
H. Sours. 1885-91 ; John D. Whipple, 1892-95. 

The present town officers (1895) are John D. Whipple, supervi.sor ; 
Ezra Stanton, town clerk ; Isaac Buyck, Joseph A man, Erwin C. Payne, 
and Abram Franke, justices of the peace; James Eraser, collector; 
E Bronson, George Dunbar, William J. Serth, Joseph Rayton and 
David Slater, constables; M. W. Jackson, William E. Rudman and 
Martin Fritz asses.sors ; Chauncey Porter. Joseph G. Rayton and John 
C. Aman, excise commissioners ; Jacob Buyck, overseer of the poor. 

As has been intimated in this chapter the last half score years has 
developed an inclination on the part of capitalists to make the lake and 
bay regions a summer resorting place, and the efforts thus far put forth 
have been rewarded with a fair degree of success, though the vicinity 
has not yet attained more than a local prominence. No considerable 
village has yet been built up, nor is there a single merchant doing busi- 
ness within the limits of the town. Irondequoit is the only post-oflfice, 
and here the town business is chiefly transacted. The Irondequoit 
Union Chapel is the only approach at church organization and construc- 
tion, and here on each Sunday afternoon services are held. The chapel 
is located near the Forrest House. The W. C. T. U. Hall stands on 
Titus street, and is to be mentioned among the fixed and beneficial in- 
stitutions of the township. 

From the time of its earliest settlement the inhabitants of Irondequoit 
have taken a zealous interest in the educational welfare of their children. 
The proximity of the town to the populous city of Rochester has ren- 
dered unnecessar\' the construction of churches in the town, neither 
have the people felt the need of a trading center to supply their material 
wants. Previous to 1839 the schools of this locality were a part of the 
system in vogue in Brighton, but since that time local provision has 
been made for their support and maintenance. At the first town meet- 
ing, held April 2, 1839, the people elected as commissioners of common 
schools, Alexander A. Hooker, Samuel W. Bradstreet and Jonah 



THE TOWN OF MENDON. 305 

Brown ; and as inspectors of common schools, William Shepard, Isaac 
Curtis and James Lyon. The first school in Irondequoit was opened 
in 1814 in a log building, 18x24 feet in size, and was conducted by a 
young woman brought here from Canandaigua. This old building was 
accidentally burned, after which the school was transferred to the so- 
called " Hencher House." 

According to the present disposition of school interests in Ironde- 
quoit, the town is divided into six districts, each of which is provided 
with a comfortable school house. The number of children of school 
age is 496, and for their instruction nine teachers were employed in 
1894, and paid the sum of $2,936.38. The amount of moneys appor- 
tioned the town for that current year was $1,177.24, added to which 
the town raised by tax $2,641.01, and had on hand from all sources, 
$4,011.80. There was paid for libraries, $24.45 ; for apparatus, $1.25 ; 
for repairs, $286.54, and for other expenses $552.77. Of the si.x school 
buildings, five are of frame and one of brick construction. The value 
of sites is estimated to be $1,900, and of sites and buildings $11,400. 
The town has an area of 10,962 acres, and an equalized value of 
$1,450,370. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE TOWN OF MENDON. 

This town was formed from Bloomfield, Ontario county, May 26, 
1812, and was township number 11, range 5, of the Phelps and Gor- 
ham Purchase. The original town of Bloomfield comprised a consider- 
able tract of land, embracing several surveyed townships, but subsequent 
subdivisions reduced its area very materially, and now the old name is 
wholly lost, West Bloomfield being the only district bearing any part of 
the old designation. Mendon was organized as a town of Ontario 
county and was annexed to the territory of Monroe on the erection of 
the latter in 1 82 1. Therefore the early settlers of Mendon were located 
in the older county, Ontario. 



306 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Township ii, range 5, was sold by Phelps and Gorham to Messrs. 
Franklin and Houghton, and by the latter was subdivided and sold in 
smaller tracts to several proprietors, whose names were Catlin, Ferris, 
Waddington, Pepoon, Jonathan Ball, Ebenezer Barnard and Jeremiah 
VVadsworth. The town is situated at the southeast corner of the 
county, but notwithstanding its somewhat remote location from the 
county seat, is regarded as one of the more important civil divisions of 
Monroe, in point of population, resources and general worth. In area 
it contains 23,096 acres of land. Its surface in the north and east is 
rolling, and in the southwest moderately hilly. Honeoye creek flows 
through the southeast corner, and Irondequoit through near the center. 
There are several small ponds in the northwest part. The soil is a 
clayey, calcareous loam, and well adapted to the general agricultural 
pursuits in which a majority of the inhabitants are engaged. 

Zebulon Norton has been accorded the honor of being the pioneer of 
this town, although Captain Jonathan Ball moved to his tract at an 
earlier date, but finding the surroundings not wholly congenial, sold his 
interest and returned to Connecticut, whence he came. His grantees were 
Augustus and Peter B. Porter and Zebulon Norton, the last mentioned 
of whom made a jiernianent settlement and improvement in 1791. Nor- 
ton had lived in Victor, but being desirous of building a mill, made the 
purchase noted, his lands including about 1,820 acres. After erecting 
a log hut in which to live, this worthy pioneer did construct a primitive 
saw mill, and also a grist mill, both during the year 1791. As custom 
increased Mr. Norton enlarged his mills, and they were afterward oper- 
ated by succeeding members of the family for many years. Zebulon 
Norton died in 1814, and a number of his descendants, like the pioneer 
himself, were worthy and valued men in the town. By this it will be 
seen that Mr. Norton was not only the pioneer of Mendon. but also the 
founder in fact of the village of Honeoye Falls, a municipalit}' that has 
always maintained an important relation to the best interests of this 
county. 

Among the other early settlers on the Norton tract, or in the vicinity 
of Norton's Mills, as the settlement was then called, may be mentioned 
William Moon and his sons Philip and Stephen, also John Moon, the 
latter dying herein 1801. In 1794 Calvin Perrin, Jason Cross and 



THE TOWN OF MENDON. 307 

Samuel Sterling came here, and in 1798 Jacob Young arrived from 
Otsego county. Mr. Young lived in the town until the time of his 
death, March 11, 1872, having attained the remarkable age of 102 
years, 10 months, and 18 days. Recalling briefly the other early resi- 
dents here, we may mention Benjamin De Graw, the village carpenter, 
whose frame house was afterward occupied by Dr. Knickerbocker. 
The latter was the founder of Knickerbocker Hall, at Avon. Welcome 
Garfield was the first schoolmaster, followed later on by Hannah Gates. 
A school house was built in 18 10. The first birth was in 1795, when 
William SterUng saw the light of day ; Julia Norton, daughter of Ezra, 
was born in 1798. Abraham Parish was one of the first tavern keepers, 
he having opened public house previous to the war of 181 2. John 
Case, Daniel Gibson, Samuel Ladd and Capt. John Lines, were later 
landlords. Benjamin Baker was the first blacksmith. John and James 
Dunn built a distillery about 18 13, and about the same time James 
Dixon and Atwell & Grout had pot asheries. Clark & Wright were 
the pioneer tanners. Smith Wicks had the first carding machine, but 
Samuel Hanna changed the building to a trip hammer shop. 

Turning briefly from the pioneer settlers and events in the vicinity 
of Norton's Mills, let us note the names of early occupants of other 
parts of the town. On the Porter tract the first settler was one Moore, 
followed by Daniel Shaw, John Babcock, Stephen Burton, Luther Gates, 
Abner Bond, Zebedee Bond, Thomas Sanford, Samuel Jerome, W. F. 
Waite, Edward James, Gideon Ball, Zebulon, Robert, Ezra and Henry 
Townsend, John Moore, Marvin Smith, Henry Shelters, and others. 

In the " Eleven Thousand Acre Tract," the purchase of James Wads- 
worth, the pioneer was Cornelius Treat, while other early comers were 
Benjamin ParkT Dan Williams. William Hickox, Squire Gofif, John 
Newton, Stephen Porter, Salmon Miller, David Beers, Elijah De Land, 
Samuel Lane, Joseph Lunt, Timothy Barnard, Noah Cole, Benjamin 
Eckler, Abraham De Garno, Jonathan Dewey, Joab Hughes, William 
Lane, Charles Foote, Gideon Ball, Elijah Williams, Ebenezer Rathburn, 
Moses PIverett, Moses Rowell, Ralph Strong, Daniel Dunks. Samuel 
Stimson, Knowlton, Woodbury, Michael Molatt, Dr. John Delamater, 
Henry Wilson, Henry Hinman, Perrin Batchellor, Abijah Marshall, 
Ambrose Mattison Philetus Chamberlain, Edward De Wolf, Chauncey 



308 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Roberts, John Story, Calvin Mansfield, Rufus Colvin, and Samuel Rose, 
all of whom are believed to have been in the town previous to 1815. 

The " Callin and I'^erris Tract," so called, was surve)ed in 1792 into 
fifty-five lots. It was at one time known as the " Franklin Tract," and 
for many years was the subject of litigation. Settlement here was 
somewhat delayed, yet among the early comers were the brothers Selley, 
named John, Satchel and Clark, also Daniel Lines, John Hayes, Elijah 
De Land, John Harris, William Russell, David Fellows, Joseph Smith 
and Robert Briggs, each of whom in his own way contributed to the 
general development of the region. 

With settlement begun and accomplished so rapidly is indicated by 
the numerous names above given, the reader must see that the early 
creation of a new town was not only desirable for the convenience of 
the inhabitants, but absolutely necessary for their own and the public 
good. In 1810 the population of this district was estimated at 1,000 
persons, and the people, living as they did, west of the center of trade 
in old Hloomfield, naturally sought an organization among themselves. 
Consequently, on the 26th day of May, 18 12, the town was divided and 
Mendon erected into a separate jurisdiction. 

The first meeting of electors was held on the first Tuesday in April, 
18 1 3, at the house of Thomas Ewer, and adjourned to his barn. Timothy 
Barnard was chosen moderator and under his supervision the meeting 
was conducted, with result in the election of the following officers : John 
Allen, supervisor ; Daniel Dunks, town clerk; William Smith, Cornelius 
Treat and Cholett Cady, assessors ; John Newton, Thomas Vandevere 
and Thomas Shaw, jr., highway commissioners ; Hezekiah Newcomb 
and Charles Day, overseers of the poor; Calvin Mansfield, jr., collector 
and constable ; Timothy Barnard and William Brown, commissioners 
of schools; Cornelius Treat, Charles Day and Daniel Dunks, inspec- 
tors of common schools. 

The succession of supervisors of Mendon from the year of its or- 
ganization to 1895 has been as follows: Jonas Allen, 18 13- 15 ; Cholett 
Cady, 1816; Ezra Sheldon, jr., 1817; C. Cady, 1818; James Parmele, 
1819; C. Cady, 1820; James Smith, 1821-25; Elijah Sheldon, jr., 
1826-27; Timothy Barnard, 1828-29; Charles Foot, jr., 1830-31; 
Milton Sheldon, 1832; Jeremy S. Stone, 1833; Milton Sheldon, jr.. 




J-c^.,^^f^U-^^M. C^'lfr^^je^^-^iCct^-*^^^ 



THE TOWN OF MENDON. 309 

1834; Elijah S. Rust, 1835 ; Henry E. Culver, 1836; George S. Stone, 
^^37-S^ '^ I'^iye Abbott, 1839; Abram Cole, 1840-42; John Park, 
1843; Mason Cole, 1844-45 ; R- M. Gates, 1846-50; Thonias Wilcox, 
1851-52; Benjamin Smith. 1853-54; George W. Allen, 1855-57; 
Anson L. Angle, 1858; Timothy H. Holden, 1859-60; John M. Davis, 
1861-62; G B. McBride, 1863; Timothy H. Holden. 1864; E. H. 
Barnard, 1865-66; John M. Davis, 1867; E. H. Barnard, 1868; 
Timothy H. Holden, 1869-70; Homer C. Ely, 1871-77; Judson F. 
Sheldon, 1878-80; Charles Strong, 1881-85; Theodore E. Bramble, 
1886; Charles Strong, 1887-88; Porter Smith. 1889-90; George 
Webster, 1891-95. 

The officers of the town for the year 1895 ^^^ George Webster, 
supervisor ; Fred C. Nan, town clerk ; L. N. Allen, William Buberry 
and H. E. Bushman, justices of the peace ; John Jones, E. D. Allen 
and Allen Graves, assessors ; F'red J. Bare and Schuyler La Mont, 
overseers of the poor; J. L. Harnish, collector; M. M. Burt, C. R. 
Hyde, and William H. Howland, excise commissioners ; A. W. Starr, 
Robert Greer and William Wood, constables ; John Quinn, N. T. Earl 
and George A. Stayman, road commissioners. 

Honeoye Falls. — This pleasantly situated municipality has long 
figured as one of the most interesting and historic villages of Monroe 
county, and in its record and annals dates back to the very beginning 
of the present century. In a preceding portion of this chapter is told 
the story of its first settlement and founding by Zebulon Norton, from 
whom it was named " Norton's Mills," a name that was retained until 
1838. In 1 82 1, when the other settled localities of the county, in- 
cluding the county seat, were mere hamlets, Norton's Mills was a 
place of some importance in the commercial history of the region, as at 
that time there was in operation here Lyman Norton's saw and grist 
mills, Andrew Young's carding machine, Hanna & Baxter's gun shop, 
Atwell & Grout's general store, also an ashery, Daniel Barnes's wagon 
shop, Harry Dunn's cooperage. John Fox's shoe shop, two blacksmith 
shops. Parish's tavern, and other evidences of village life. Dr. Dirck 
Knickerbocker was the local physician, and the place also had a tailor, 
a school and a church. 

From this small beginning the settlement grew into early local im- 



310 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

portance, and as early as 1838 the inhabitants procured an act of in- 
corporation under the name "The Village of Honeoye Falls," and from 
that time the old designation of Norton's Mills was dropped. The act 
incorporating the village was passed March 13. and on June 5th fol- 
lowing the first village officers were elected, viz.: Henry P. Culver, 
Samuel Rand, Harry Allen, Hiram Finch and Matthew Ogden, trustees ; 
John B. Dixon, Samuel P. Sterling and Adam VV. Willis, assessors ; 
Horace Wheeler, clerk and treasurer ; Jotham Bickford, collector. On 
April 24, 1865, an amendatory art enlarged the corporate powers of 
the village, and a still further amendment was passed in 1869. By these 
a charter was obtained and from that time Honeoye Falls became a 
village of the first class. The present village officers are as follows : 
J. D. Martin, president; E. G. Brooks, clerk; G. R. Dutton, treasurer; 
Daniel Druschel. constable and collector ; J. D. Martin, Sylvester Wil- 
cox, W. R. Yorks, William Lacy, H. S. Benham and A. B. Peck, 
trustees. 

The village hall was built in 1881, and is in all respects a substantial 
and useful building. The lower floor is occupied for fire and munici- 
pal purposes, while the upper story is neatly arranged and fitted for 
entertainm nts. The village fire department is a well equipped and 
regulated organization, and comprises four companies. The apparatus 
is a good Silsby steamer, a hook and ladder truck, two hose carts and 
1,500 feet of good serviceable hose. Water for use in extinguishing 
fires is taken from the outlet and also from wells and cisterns in various 
parts of the tovn 

As at present constituted and established, Honeoye Falls is regarded 
as one of the most progressive villages of this county, and in point of 
manufactures and commercial interests is first in importance outside the 
city. The outlet for almost a century has furnished ample water power 
for many mills that have lined its banks on either side, but during the 
last few years the value ol this stream as a mill privilege has been 
practically destroyed by the appropriation of the waters of Hemlock 
Lake for municipal and domestic purposes in the city of Rochester. To 
be sure compensation has been made the mill owners in nearly all 
cases, and steam has been substituted as a motive power, to replace the 
water power, yet the query naturally arises as to the ultimate effect of 



THE TOWN OF MENDON. 311 

this diminution of volume of water on the industries and business in- 
terests of the village. 

Having already noted the early manufacturing and business interests 
of the village, we may with equal propriety mention those that have a 
a present existence here. The manufacturing mterests now in success- 
ful operation are the woolen mills of A. H. Hunt; the flouring mills of' 
H. E. Boardman and William Hamilton; the sash, door and blind fac- 
tory and planing mill of M. & S. Pierce; the large cooper shops of 
James Claffie ; the plant for the manufacture of " conveyor flights," 
owned and operated by Charles H. Fairchild ; and the Enterprise Straw- 
board and Wrapping-paper Company, operated by J. G. Neal, F. A. 
Neal and H F. Brooks, 

In the same manner we may briefly refer to the present mercantile 
interests of the village, among which are the general stores of J. H. 
Bernard, Pratt & Little, F. S. Hanford, William Downey, and E. F. 
Park & Son ; the furniture and undertaking stores of Burton & Brooks ; 
J. F. Kent's tobacco store; Sherman & Tyrrell, custom tailors; Jesse 
Carley, grocer ; Max L. Ney, harness shop and store ; J. J. Donnelly, 
bakery; E. H. Cutler, grocer; F. L. Remington, druggist; Robert 
Layton, jeweler ; S. Lowenstein, clothing; G. R. Dutton, druggist ; W. 
G. Starr, hardware ; J. M, Pride, liardware. There are also two good 
and well appointed hotels, the Wilcox House and the Ridzenthaler 
House. Other business interests equally worthy of mention are those' 
of Downey & Lacy, also Humphrey & Holdridge, both dealers in 
coal and produce ; W. H. Tring, coal, produce, and elevator ; E. F. 
Dibble, seed dealer. 

Another of the institutions of the village, worthy of more than pass- 
ing notice, is an excellent Union free school, the district of which em- 
braces the village proper and some territory adjacent. The school 
house is a large brick building, substantially built and well arranged. 
Here six teachers are employed, and the attendance averages between 
four hundred and five hundred pupils. The members of the Board of 
Education are M. H. Cutler, J. H. Barnard, J. W. Flick, C. A. Shuart, 
G. R. Dutton, James Claffie and Leonard Burton ; clerk, D. G. Brown. 

A newspaper, the Honeoye Standard, was started in the village as 
early as 1837, t>y Gary A. Hough, and he was succeeded by Vedder & 



312 LANDAfARKS OF MONROE COUNTY 

Norris. The paper was discontinued after about two years. In Janu- 
ary, 1863, S. Francis Jory issued the first number of the Mendon Free 
Press, but on January i, 1 869. the name was chan<^ed to Honeoye Falls 
Free Press, and so remained to the end of its existence. The Honeoye 
Falls Gazette came next. August 12, 1876, with A. Tiffany Norton, 
proprietor, and C. A. Goheen, editor and manager. This paper was 
continued about fifteen years, and was succeeded about four years ago 
by the Honeoye Falls Times, a bright, newsy and well edited paper, 
issued weekl}', and under the proprietorship of William O'Brien. 

The Bank of Honeoye Falls had its origin in a banking business 
established in the village on April i. 1868, by F. H. Holden, A. H. 
Martin and B. T. Martin. This firm was succeeded on May i, 1870, 
by A. M. Holden, who has continued the business to the present time. 

Among the several orders and societies that have found organized 
life in the village may be mentioned Union Star Lodge No. 320, F. & 
A. M.; also a lodge of United Workmen, of Red Men, of I'^. K. O. R.; 
a G. A. R. Post; also one or two other benefit societies. 

The First Methodist Episcopal church, Honeoye Falls, was organized 
as a society of the town February 21, 1820, and reorganized in October, 
1824. A church edifice was built in 1825. This church is now under 
the pastoral care of Rev. L. D. Watson, and has a membership of 
about one hundred and sixty persons. 

The society of the Christian church or the Church of the Disciples of 
Christ, was organized November 24, 1817, and two years later the erec- 
tion of a meeting house was begun, but not completed until 1826. A 
new and large stone house of worship was built about 1 840, the frame 
portion of which was burned only a few years ago. 

The Presbyterian Church at Honeoye Falls was organized March 1, 
1 83 I, with only six original members, although during that year forty- 
seven persons united with the church. The first church edifice was 
completed in 1831, and was afterward substantially rebuilt The pres- 
ent members of this church number about 200 persons. The pastor is 
Rev. George P. Frost. 

The parish and church of St. John's, Protestant t^piscopal. was (or- 
ganized June 24, 1840, S. Rust and Horace Wheeler being the first 
wardens. A plain though substantial church edifice was soon after- 



THE TOWN OF MENDON. 313 

ward erected, and for many years the church maintained a healthful 
existence. However, during more recent years interest seems to have 
declined and only occasional services are held in the village. 

St. Paul of the doss Roman Catholic church of Honeoye Falls was 
organized as a parish about the year 1850, although the church edifice 
was not erected until twenty years afterward, the priest in charge at 
that time being Rev. Father W. Gregg. The present priest is Rev. 
Father M. J. Clune. In this parish are about 500 Catholics. 

The Evangelical Reformed church of Honeoye Falls, commonly 
known as the German Lutheran church, was organized March 26, 1862, 
with seven members, and Rev. Louis Herman as pastor. The church 
edifice was erected in 1866-67. The present pastor of this church is 
Rev. Paul Reinhardt. 

Mendon is a small though pretty little village of about five hundred 
population, situated in the eastern part of the town. Here it was that 
pioneer Ebenezer Barnard settled, and here also Jonas Allen purchased 
and built a pioneer saw mill on the creek. A. H. Rand also built a 
carding machine here at an early day, and Mendon was the first post- 
office established in the town. Timothy Beman was the first post- 
master. However, in the history of the town, Mendon never acquired 
the importance gained by its sister hamlet on the outlet, lacking, per- 
haps, the superior mill privileges possessed by the falls village. Still, 
Mendon has ever been a hamlet of considerable note in town annals, 
and in 1855 contained two churches, a steam flouring mill, a steam saw 
mill, a foundry and about 200 inhabitants. The present interests com- 
prise two good general stores, owned by Benjamin Dolby and Finucan 
& Taylor, and three hotels, known respectively as the " American," the 
" Cottage" and the " Mendon." 

The F"irst Baptist church of East Mendon has an interesting history, 
and one that dates back to the early years of the country, about 1807, 
when informal meetings were held in the dwellings. On December 21, 
1809, a society was formed, and found admission to the Palmyra asso- 
ciation in 1 8 12. A house of worship was soon provided, succeeded by 
others more modern in appearance, but about two years ago the edifice 
was destroyed by fire. Not dismayed by disaster, the society have 

40 



314 LANDMARKS OF xMONROE COUNTY. 

now in course of erection a new church home, suitable to the needs of 
the congregation. 

The Presbyterian church of Mendon was organized January 5, 181 5, 
as a Congregational society, and in 1819a church edifice was erected. 
During its early historj', this church experienced many vicissitudes, 
and maintained iiardly more than a doubtful and struggling existence. 
Hut at last a reorganization was effected and future prosperity became 
an assured fact. A new church home was first occupied in 1826. The 
present pastor is Rev. William Smith. 

Mendon Center is the name of a little hamlet in the north part of the 
town, established and built up as a trading center for the convenience 
of the inhabitants in this locality. The local population is about lOO. 
The business interests here are the general stores of Mrs. Senn, Mrs. 
Joseph Malone, the excellent cider mill of Melton Ford, and the grist 
mill of Eugene Kuntzer. 

The Friends' society and meeting house have an abiding place in 
this general locality. This primitive organization was made in 1829 
and 1830, and in 1832 the meeting house was built. The society now 
numbers about a dozen families. The speaker is J. J. Cornell. 

Sibleyville, at one time a hamlet of considerable note in local his- 
tory, and the place where Colonel Sibley built the saw mill and carding 
machine, and where he also manufactured agricultural implements, is 
now virtually a thing of the past, living only in history. In i 830 Hiram 
Sibley and D. A. Watson, partners, carried on a large business here, 
employing about eighty men during the year, and both became men of 
wealth and influence. However, the old interests were long ago dis- 
continued, and even the more recent ones now abandoned, and to-day 
the once thriving hamlet has neither mill nor shop 

The proper education of the youth of the town has ever engaged the 
earnest attention of the inhabitants and authorities of Mendon, but 
however important to local history this subject may be, the absence of 
reliable data precludes the possibility of furnishing more than the 
slightest allusion to the school system of the town, and then even in 
the most general way. Old records and documents disclose to us the 
information that a school was opened in or near the Norton settlement 
as early at least as the year 1800, and that Welcome Garfield was the 



THE TOWN OF MENDON. 315 

first teacher. This school was of course kept in a log building, as the 
luxury of a frame building for such a purpose in this locality was not 
known previous to 1810. In the latter, when erected, Mr. Skidder was 
an early pedagogue, and later ones were Levi Hovey and Abigail Met- 
calf. In the vicinity of Mendon Center and also Sibleyville, schools 
were opened very early, though we have no reliable data as to the year 
or exact location of either. 

in 1813 at the election of first town officers in Mendon, Cornelius 
Treat, Charles Day and Daniel Dunks, were chosen inspectors of com- 
mon schools, while Timothy Barnard and William Brown were elected 
commissioners of school funds for the town. In 1820 the school dis- 
tricts were ten in number, and the children in the town between the 
ages of five and fifteen years numbered 632. In 1835, by which time 
there had been a material growth in population, the districts were sev- 
enteen in number, and the number of children of school age was 1,015. 
Still later, in 1858, the districts numbered eighteen and the children 
913. According to the present disposition and management of school 
interests in Mendon, the town is divided into eighteen districts, each of 
which except Nos. 8 and 10 is provided with a good comfortable school 
house. Of these buildings twelve are of frame, two brick and two 
stone, and are estimated to have, with the lands on which they stand, 
an aggregate value of $20,375. The report of the school commis- 
sioner for the year ending July 31, 1894, discloses the fact that in that 
year the total amount of moneys available for school purposes and for 
'use in this town, was $15,684.61, of which amount $2,885.94 was 
public money apportioned to the town, and the sum of $4,858.52 was 
raised by town tax. There was received from the Regents $125.05, 
and from other sources $7,607.27. In 1894 the school census of the 
town was 898 children, for whose instruction twenty-two teachers were 
employed and paid wages to the amount of $6,804.79. In addition to 
this there was paid for libraries $154.18; for apparatus, $30.20; for 
additions and repairs $1,007.34, and for all other expenses, $1,127.54 



31G LANDMARKS ()F MUNROE COUNTY. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE TOWN OF OGDEN. 

On the 27th of January, 1 8 17, the Legislature passed an act by which 
the town of Parma, then one of the civil divisions of Genesee county, 
was divided, and the southern portion erected into a new town by the 
name of Ogden ; and so called in allusion to William Ogden, the son- 
in law of John Murray, and the latter an original proprietor of the lands. 
The town embraces a part of the " Mill Yard " or " Mill Scat " tract, 
which was pu' chased from the Seneca Indians by the Phelps and Gor- 
hani proprietary, and in which transaction the customary charge of 
fraud was made. In his treaty with the Indians, Mr. Phelps wished to 
obtain a tract of land west of the Genesee, but the natives were only 
willing to cede the lands east of the river A compromise was finally 
made by which a tract twelve miles wide and twenty- four miles long 
was granted to Phelps and Gorham for a mill yard, and the Indians 
were soon afterwards much astonished to learn how little land was 
really necessary for a mill and how much was required for the mill 
yard. Hence we have the name '* Mill Yard Tract," which included 
within its boundaries the present town of Ogden. 

Ogden is one of the interior towns of the county, lying west of the 
center. The surface is comparatively level or gently undulating with a 
slight indication toward the north. The stream.s are small brooks, 
forming head branches of Sandy, Salmon and Little Black creeks. The 
soil is a fine quality of calcareous and clayey loam, and possesses a 
changeable nature. In certain localities the lands were avoided by 
early settlers as being heavy and not very productive, while other sec- 
tions had light and easily cultivated areas, and were much sought by 
pioneers. In later years, however, the result of constant tillage changed 
the conditions and while the once heavy lands became much lighter 
the formerly light lands became heavier; but all, from first to last, have 



THE TOWN OF OGDEN 317 

been higlily productive, and among the agricultural towns of Monroe 
county Ogden holds a position in the front rank. It has also been 
noted as one of the best wheat and potato producing towns of Western 
New York, while in fruits it ranked well. All cereals yield abundantly 
in response to the efforts of the husbandman, yet many of these pro- 
ducts are now unprofitable, hence discontinued, and in their stead other 
corps are cultivated, to all of which reference will be made in another 
part of this chapter. 

Referring briefly to the subject of early ownership of the lands of 
Ogden, the statement may be made that New York ceded this entire 
region to Massachusetts, and the latter commonwealth sold the fee in 
the land to the Phelps and Gorham proprietary subject to the Indian 
title. However, the State of New York retained the right of sov- 
ereignty and jurisdiction over the ceded lands. After the Indian title 
had been extinguished, ihe region was surveyed into townships by 
Judge Fuller, who established an office at Canandaigua. Ogden, as at 
present constituted, comprises one township, divided originally into 230 
farm lots of about 1 00 acres each, and contains a little more than thirty- 
seven square tuiles of land. The lots were offered to settlers at two 
dollars per acre, an unlimited time being given for payment so long as 
improvements were being made and the annual interest paid. This 
was a most fortunate provision for the pioneers, as but few of them 
possessed sufficient means to pay for their lands when they came into 
town. They were chiefly New England Yankees with a sprinkling of 
Mohawk and New Jersey Dutch, and were attracted to the region of 
Western New York as settlers in a new and undeveloped country 
They came to make homes and none of them had money with which to 
buy luxuries. They were content to find a suitable abiding place, and 
here they built log houses, cleared the forest lands and laid a substan- 
tial foundation for future prosperity, both for themselves and their 
descendants. 

The disposition and settlement of the lands in this town was under 
the direction of James Wadsworth, the representative of the proprietor, 
and when the farm tracts were in constant demand pioneer John Gott 
was appointed local agent under Wadsworth, the latter being then 
located at Genesee, or " Big Tree." John Gott was brother of Samuel 
Gott, and father to Oscar F. Gott of Spencerport. In carrying out the 



318 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

purpose of his agency Mr. Wndsvvorth visited New l^ngland to induce 
settlement in the Genesee country, but then referred to as Fairfield in 
the town of Northampton. A public meeting was called at Haddam, 
Conn., after which Daniel Arnold, father of Elder Enoch Arnold, visited 
this region that the proposed settlers might fully and truthfully under- 
stand the conditions awaiting them in the West. Arnold's report was 
favorable and in i8o2 George W. Willey made the first settlement in 
what afterward became Ogden In August of that year he made an 
improvement on the west side of what is now called Union street, about 
half w.iy between Ogden Center and Spenceiport. Mr. Willey is 
accorded the honor of being the first permanent settler in Ogden, and 
he was, withal, an enterprising and worthy man in the locality. His 
wife died in April, 1804, and in the next year Mr. Willey married widow 
Brown, whose pioneer husband had died in the town in 1803. 

Daniel Arnold, the emissary of the Haddam contingent of colonists, 
first came to the town in i8oi,and became a resident in 1803. The 
next \'ear he brought his family here. He was the first resident sur- 
veyor in the region and his services were in constant demand. Mr, 
Arnold was born in Haddam, June 9, 1757, and in 1781 married Esther 
Fox. Their children were Daniel C, an early school teacher and also 
surveyor in the town, and Sally, Lydia, Aaron, Esther, David W.. 
F^paphroditus. Enoch, Sophia, Ebenezer and Mary many of whom 
were afterward prominently connected with loCrd histcMj-. The pioneer 
himself died during an epidemic of " black tongue "in 1813. 

In December, 1802, Abraham, Isaac, Timothy and l^phraim Colby 
came to the town and settled on what afterward became known as Colby 
street. This party of pioneers encountered many hardships in the 
course of their journey, one of them having his feet frozen, while an- 
other was severely cut with an axe while attempting to remove a fallen 
tree from the road. Each ot these brothers located and cleared a good 
farm, and some of them were associated with first events in town his- 
tory. John M. Colb}', son of Abraham Colby, was the first white male 
child born in the town, in 1803, while Betsey, daughter of Ephraim 
Colby, born in October of the same year, was the first white female 
child born in Ogden. She married John A. F"incher, father to Mrs. 
Joseph Parker of Ogden. In 1804 Ephraim Colby, sr.. and three other 



THE TOWN OF OGDEN. ■ 319 

sons, Zacheus, Eastman and Merrill, came to the town, but Zaclieus, 
who was a physician, settled on the Ridge. The others became heads 
of famih"es liere and added greatly to early local prosperity, for each 
was an industrious and energetic man. Ephraim, the pastor, died in 
1823 ; his wife in 1806. Eastman Colby was a colonel of militia in the 
war of 18 12-15. ^"d one of the foremost men of the town in his day. 
He died in 1859. Each of these seven pioneer brothers lived and died 
on the farm settled by him. 

In 1803 several new settlers came in, among them Josiah Mather and 
Mason Brockwa)', both of whom located south of the Center. Jonathan 
Brown settled north of the Center, and Henry Hahn, on the north town 
line. The Center church stands on the Brown farm. William Banning 
and Justin Worthington also located in the vicinity in 1 803, and the latter 
was quite prominent in local history ; was the last town clerk of the old 
town of Northampton, and the first in Parma, also the first school com- 
missioner of Ogden. Other settlers in this year were Judge William B. 
Brown, whose father, Daniel Brown, is said to have preached the first 
sermon in Ogden (at George VV. VVilley's house in 1805) and William 
H. Spencer, the latter the builder of the first saw mill in Ogden, and 
who brought the machinery and mill irons from Connecticut, driving an 
ox team the whole distance. 

Still greater numbers came in 1804 and made settlements in the town, 
among whom were Benajah Willey, Dr. John Webster, Daniel Spencer, 
Benjamin Freeman, John Gould, Isaac Nichols, Mr. Snow and Daniel 
Wandle, all from Connecticut. Spencer and Freeman came together, 
and both were were prominent in early history. Freeman was the first 
collector elected in Ogden, while Mr. Spencer was the founder in fact 
of the village of Spencerport. His purchase comprised 180 acres and 
included nearly the whole of the village. The canal was laid out through 
his lands and completed in 1825, and soon after Mr. Spencer began 
selling village lots. He also built a water power grist mill, though he 
died (1834) betore it was fully completed. Daniel Spencer married 
twice, his second wife being Polly Foster, by whom he had three chil- 
dren, Joseph A., John and Libbeus F. Spencer. Dr. John Webster 
was in the war of 1 81 2, and in town affairs was especially prominent. 
He was the first physician and a remarkably good man. His wife was 



320 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Susan B. Allen, and both were born in 1780. Their children were 
Stephen, Asa, Jeremiah, Sylvester, Alvin, Huldah, William, John, Will- 
iam (2d), Hiram and Susan. 

The pioneers of 1805 were few but amonjr them were John D. Web- 
ster and Samuel Flagg. both of whom were men of influence and worth. 
Mr. Webster came from Salisbury, N H., and located on Colby street, 
with his young wife. I lis children who were born in Ogden, were Persis 
E., John West and Clarissa M., and Samuel and Nathaniel, all of whom 
are now dead. Mr. Flagg also settled on Colby street, where many of 
his children were born. They were Hannah, Henry S , James. Thomas, 
Charles, Samina, Ely, Ann, Edwin and Samuel. In 1806 William Web- 
ster came to the town, and about the same time Norn)an Davison, 
Charles Freeman, James King and others, all New Englanders who 
sought to make homes in the new country. In 1808 Austin Spencer, 
Ezekiel Goodwin and Oliver Gates came to the town. Joseph A. 
Spencer now lives on the farm taken by his uncle Austin in 1808, and 
it has been in the family more than eighty five years Charles Church 
and Gustave Huntley were also settlers about this time. John P. Pat- 
terson, the first supervisor of the town, came here in 18 10, and Stephen 
Gridley. a well remembered pioneer, in 181 i. James Pettengill, Adol- 
phus Simons, Ira Nichols, Benjamin Simons and John Walton came 
about the same year. In 18 13 Samuel Kilbourne came from Broome 
county and located in the north part of the town. 

However, for several years following 181 i but few settlers came to 
the region, for at that time the second war with Great Britain was in 
progress and the whole territory of Western New York was threatened 
with invasion. The available men of Parma were among the enrolled 
militia and subject to call to the frontier, and on one or two occasions 
were ordered out on the lines. Colonel Eastman Colby was frequentl} 
on the frontier and the young men of Parma were quite anxious to 
serve under his leadership. However, the war passed without serious 
injury to local interests, other than to delay settlement for a time. 
Ansel Chapman may fairly be regarded as the pioneer of the south part 
of the town, though his settlement dated 1814. He came with his fam- 
ily from East Haddam, Conn., with a yoke of cattle and a span of 
horses and located where his son John now lives, and here he built a 





tu^ 




THE TOWN OF UGDEN. 321 

log house, and later a frame one. His wife was Abigail Chauncey, 
sister to Henry Chauncey, one of the builders of the Panama railroad. 
Mr. Chauncey took up fifty acres but increased his land to 220 acres. 
Edward Covell, a Vermonter, settled in the southwest part of the town 
in 18 1 5, and was the head of a large and respected family. About the 
same time came the Gotts, Samuel and John, who located nearer the 
center, Samuel where his son Fred. E. Gott now lives. Stephen Ross 
came from Salisbury, N. H., in 18 16, and settled one mile south of 
Adams Basin, where he had a farm and also a cabinet shop. His chil- 
dren were George, James, Bartlett, Arnold, Benjamin F., Ralph, Stephen 
and Frances. Josiah Rich came from Washington county in 181 8, and 
before going on a farm was tavern keeper and lumber merchant at the 
village. In his family were eight children. Joshua, Edmund and Reu- 
ben Whittier came from Raymond, N. H., soon after 18 12 and settled 
in Ogden, Joshua on Union street and the others on what was known 
as Whittier street. Reuben afterward moved to Wisconsin. Joshua's 
children were Richard, Samuel and Martha, and Reuben's, Sarah, Mary, 
Alvira and Lucinda. Edmund's children were Elisha, Julia, Asenath, 
Charles, Martha, Rufus and J, Newton. The last mentioned now owns 
his father's old home farm. Cornelius Voorhis settled where W. W. 
Nichols now lives in 1813 or '14. He died in 1872. He was a son of 
John Voorhis, a pioneer on the Buffalo road. The Tucker family were 
also among the pioneers of Ogden, though recollections of them are, 
meagre. The old Caleb Tucker farm was purchased by John A. Fin- 
cher in 1834, and is now occupied by Joseph Parker and family. Amos 
Clark Wilmot, a soldier and pensioner of the war of 1812-15, was an 
early settler of the Center road. He began chopping and eventually 
bought the Trowbridge farm. His wife was Elizabeth Hiscock, by whom 
he had six children : Louisa, Lucina. Servetus, George, Seymour and 
Amos. Pioneer Wilmot passed the last twenty-five years of his life in 
Rochester, and there he died in 1881. William Hiscock settled on the 
farm now occupied by Mr. Sias in 18 17, and died there in 1823. He 
had a large family. 

Among the other early settlers though perhaps not pioneers in Og- 
den, may be mentioned the names of Major Gillman and his sons Will- 
iam, Hiram and Amos, Nicholas Kelley, Charles Eber, James Cate and 

41 



322 LAXDMAHKS (>F MONROE OOT'NTY. 

his sons Enoch, Tlionias and Reuben, James and John Hill and Aaron 
Robinson, all of whom were in the east part of the town. In the same 
connection may also be named John Brigham, Timothy Kneeland, 
James Baldwin, Harry Patterson, Darius Clark, Zachariah Olmstead, 
Simeon Wheeler, Bezaleel Whitney, John Woodard, Aaron Arnold, 
Joseph Stanley, Windsor Trowbridge, Rufus Humphrey, Theodore 
Goodwin, Knos Pembroke, Joseph Webster, John Collister, John Evans, 
Thomas Lindsley, Jesse and Stephen Mason, Israel Osmon, Stephen 
Angel ; and also the Gilletts, Vanests, Walkers, Browers, Keelers, Crom- 
wells, Handys, Hodges, nearly all of whom were in the east part of 
Ogden and many of whom have descendants in the town. On the 
west side, besides those already mentioned were the families whose sur- 
names were Perry, Dart, Dewey, Oilman. Osborne, Hill, Richmond, 
Hall, Graves, True, Pettingill, Howard, Hubbell, Ross, Hicks, Rollin, 
Stone, Anderson, Boughton, Niles, Adams, Danforth, Parmele, Mc- 
Brown, Curtis, Doty. Goodrich. Rich, and others whose names have 
been lost and have no representatives in the locality. 

These early settlers in Ogden were chiefly farmers, yet some of them 
were mechanics and worked at their trades after coming to the tow n. 
They also established schools and organized churches that the educa- 
tional and spiritual welfare of the people might be promoted. The 
earliest trading point was established at the center of the town in 
accordance with New England custom, and for many years Ogden 
Center was a hamlet of some importance. It had its stores, shops and 
dwellings, the town house, school and churches, Congregational and 
Baptist. The first afterwara became Presbyterian and was the mother 
of churches in the town. The Baptists removed their seat of opera- 
tions to the western part of the town, while the completion of the Erie 
canal drew from the Center its principal interests and located them at 
Spencerport. 

As has been noted, this town was separated from Parma in 1817. At 
that time the population had become sufhcicnt to justify such action, 
the convenience of the inhabitants demanded it, and, accordingly, on 
the 27th of January of that year an act granting the division was 
passed. The first meeting of electors was held on the first of April 
following, at which time these officers were chosen : John P. Patterson, 



THE TOWN OF OGDEN. 32S 

supervisor ; Abraham Colby, town clerk ; Benjamin Simons, collector 
and constable ; George W. Willey, poundmaster ; George W Willey, 
John D. Webster and William B. Brown, assessors ; David Wandle, Ira 
Nichols, overseers of the poor ; Austin Spencer, Erastus Spencer, 
Samuel Kilbourne, road commissioners; Justin Worthington, Charles 
Freeman, Oliver Gates, school commissioners. 

Succession of supervisors: John B. Patterson, i8 17-18 ; Austin 
Spencer, 1819; James Baldwin, 1820-21; John P. Patterson, 1822; 
James Baldwin, 1823-24 ; Austin Spencer, 1825, 1829-33, 1839, ^^^ 
1846 ; Samuel Kilbourn, 1826-28 ; Amos C. Wilmot, 1834-37, ^ 844-45, 
1850-51 ; Charles Church, 1838; John Gott, 1840-41 ; Ezra B. True, 
1842-43, 1852-53, i860, 1862-63; James A. Pettingill, 1847-48; 
William B. Brown, 1849, 1854; Jesse S. Church, 1855; Selden 
O. Banning, 1856, 1858; Enoch Arnold, 1857 and 1859; John Borst, 
1 86 1, 1865-66; Edward Covel, 1864; Josiah Rich, 1867-74; William 
B. Arnold, 1875-77 ; L. F. Spencer, 1878-80; Leonard Burritt, 
1881-89; Lester S. Nichols, 1890-91 ; Frederick E. Gott, 1892-94. 

The present officers (1894) are Frederick E. Gott, supervisor; John 
Upton, town clerk (for the last ten years) ; Fred E. Gott, Albert M. 
Barker, Oscar P. Colby and Lewis W. Adams, justices of the peace ; 
George H. Comstock, Nicholas H. Hoy, Edward J. Rollin, assessors ; 
James B. Dresser, collector; Silas F. Smith, George E. Colby, Edward 
W. Arnold, highway commissioners; Orel T. Hubbell, overseer of the 
poor; Oscar E. Nichols, John Upton, Lewis P. Geering, J. Peter Fetter 
and John Riley, constables; Samuel H. Day and Bowker Hinckley, 
excise commissioners. 

Passing along the various thoroughfares of Ogden the spectator can- 
not but be impressed with the changes wrought by passing years. On 
almost every farm is an orchard of greater or less extent, indicating the 
fact that this town was once noted for its apple product. Less than 
thirty years ago Spencerport and Adams Basin were shipping points 
of much importance on the P>ie canal and also on the railroad, and 
while in later years the town has lost much of its importance in this 
respect, other products have replaced the apple crop to maintain at 
least a portion of the former reputation of the locality. Fifteen years 
ago the farmers raised cabbage sufficient only for home use, but by 



324 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

development this industry has grown to gigantic proportions, and it is 
estimated that in 1894 at least a thousand acres were planted with 
cabbage, while the output reached nearly ten thousand tons. Potatoes 
have also been a prolific crop in Ogden and the source of much profit 
to farmers. However, the husbandman has never been fully compen- 
sated for the loss of the apple crop, which with the least expenditure of 
money and muscle yielded for better results. But, notwithstanding the 
embarrassments which have operated against the farmer of Ogden, they 
are a thrifty and energetic people and the town to-day presents as 
many fine farms with excellent buildings as are to be found in this 
part of the country. The land, too, has maintained a uniform popula- 
tion through years of unprofitable labor, indicating a determination on 
the part of its people to remain on the old farms rather than seek 
and hazard the uncertainties of village and city life, and other pursuits. 

The chief centers of trade and population in Ogden are the village 
of Spencerport and the hamlet of Adams Basin, and both owe their 
existence and construction to the Erie canal, in 1825, while their 
respective interests were materially increased by the subsequent build- 
ing and operation of the railroad. Ogden Center and Town Pump de- 
rived no benefits from these improvements, and indeed their then 
existing interests were seriously impaired by them as trade points and 
the center of population was naturally drawn to the hamlets on the 
north. 

The locality commonly called Town Pump, or Ogden post-office, is 
in the southwest part of the town, in the region settled by the Pettingill, 
True, Oilman, Hill, Richmond and other prominent families. For 
mutual accommodation the settlers here dug a well in the center of the 
intersection of two principal thoroughfares, and from this the locality 
has ever been designated "Town Pump." 

Ogden Center, in the early history of the town, was a place of much 
importance, in fact was the central village of Ogden ; and it retained its 
prominence until the building of the canal, after which all local enter- 
prises were removed to Spencerport, leaving only the Presbyterian 
church, the, school and the town house and about a score of comfortable 
dwellings. 

Adams Basin is a post-office and station on the railroad, and in its 



THE TOWN OF OGDEN. 326 

history dates to 1825. Previous to the building of the road the volume 
of business done here was apparently larger than in recent years, for 
the old warehouses and other unused buildings are visible evidences of 
former greatness. However, this hamlet is in the center of a rich and 
fertile agricultural region and here large quantities of produce are 
annually shipped to market. The existing industries are the fruit 
evaporating and warehouses, two or three stores and shops, the Methodist 
Protestant church and the district school. 

Spencerport, the only incorporated village within the township, dates 
its history from the completion of the canal, although it was not until 
some ten years afterward that it began to take the form of a hamlet. 
Pioneer Daniel Spencer little thought that his original purchase here 
would be covered with a flourishing village, yet after the canal was put 
in operation he began developing a trading center. The principal 
north and south highway, the old Canawaugas road, led from the lake 
to the southern towns of the county, and along this the village lots 
were sold off. and in later years the whole tract was subdivided, streets 
and lots laid out, and now we have on the site an incorporated village 
of 1,000 inhabitants. Its volume of business was never greater than 
at present, though appearances would seem to indicate to the contrary. 
However, the work of shipping the produce is now much more easily 
and rapidly accomplished, and with far less demonstration, in these 
days of railroading, than was the case half a century and more ago. 
The canal carries its fair proportion of freight in season, but by far the 
greater quantity of products is shipped by rail. 

The first merchants of the village were West & Richards, whose store 
was north of the canal. The next store was started by Philander Kam, 
who carried a general stock of goods, and they also owned the site of 
the Lincoln House hotel property. The store was kept south of the 
canal. Charles Church came next, also south of the canal and on the 
west side of Union street. Daniel Spencer opened the first hotel, on 
the east side of the street and over on the creek he built the mill, before 
mentioned. Benjamin Cole was also an early merchant, and in the 
same connection may be mentioned the firm of Church, Ball & Co., also 
Mr. Woodbury, who built the stone block which stood on the Upton 
block site. Charles Churcli built the store now occupied by George 



326 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Cole, and lived where Mr. I'^owler resides. Mr. Crosby and William 
Andrews were other old merchants of the village. The Kam hotel was 
sold to Mr. Church, thence to Mr. Ball, and from him to Lincoln and 
burned during his ownership. He rebuilt the liouse and subsequently 
it passed through the hands of Mr. Trimmer, James Upton (who im- 
proved it), Mr. Lincoln, Lincoln & Wallace, Mr. Edwards, and from 
the latter to William Ackley the present proprietor. Benjamin Cole 
also kept hotel north of the canal, and the property later went to James 
Upton, thence to William Kinney and finally to John Leonard. 

From this small beginning Spencerport has grown to a desirable size 
and is a residence village as well as one of commercial importance In 
mercantile and manufacturing pursuits it has never attracted much 
attention, as its location is too near the city of Rochester to admit of 
such a possibility. However, all local demands are readily supplied 
and no branch of business is over represented. Spencerport became 
an incorporated village by an act of the Legislature passed April 22, 
1867, and its first charter election, held May 13 thereafter, resulted in 
the selection of these officers: President, Dr. William C. Slayton, and 
trustees, E. H. Davis, George K. Field, C. S. Cole, and Austin Reed ; 
clerk and treasurer, Cliarles Brigham ; collector and constable, Jesse H. 
Walker. The subsequent village presidents have been E. H. Davis. W. 
H. Crosby, W. C. Slayton, John Borst, Miles Upton, William C. Slay- 
ton, F. W. [Jncoln, William Brown. William C. Slayton, V. W. Lincoln. 
William C. Slayton, H. H. Brown, Thompson Hartwell, Samuel H. Day, 
Peter Helfrich, B. H. Gofif, Peter Helfrich and Daniel L. Walker. The 
present village officers are D. L. Walker, president; John B. McCabe, 
William Ballard and A. N. Barker, trustees ; W. W. Malay, clerk ; W. S. 
Millener, treasurer ; John Upton, collector. 

For a period of about fifteen years previous to 1889 village interests 
had been seriously injured by fires, one of the most disastrous of which 
was that of 1876. for by it several blocks of stores were burned, and in 
the Gofif warehouse a portion of the town records were consumed. This 
and subsequent fires compelled the villai^e authorities to adopt some 
means of protection, consequently a fire department was organized, 
and a hand engine, hose, hooks, ladders and other necessary apparatus 
were purchased. This department is under the charge of chief engi- 
neer G. W. Barker. 



THE TOWN OF OGDEN. 327 

At a fire which occured in Spencerport on the night of August 3, 
1894, three children of Cornelius Place were burned to death. They 
Willie, aged fourteen, Cornelius, aged fifteen, and C. Arthur, aged 
eleven. 

Another of the noteworthy institutions of the villaf^e and locality is 
the excellent school maintained in district number one. The building 
itself was erected about 1875, and is a large and well appointed school 
house. The school is of the graded character, wherein are taught the 
higher branches, quite beyond the average scope of district schools. 
The several boards of trustees have aimed to make this in all respects 
a model institution, and their efforts are aided by the people of the dis- 
trict. The present trustees are Eugene Hoy, Seymour H. Curtis and 
Charles C. Smith. 

Etolian Lodge, 479, F. & A. M., was granted a dispensation in 1859, 
and a charter June 9, i860. The charter members were William C. 
Slayton, first master; L. F. Spencer, B. F. Hancock, H. H. Goff, John 
Borst, H. C. Church, Cornelius S. Cole, Moses S. Cole, Charles Church, 
H. H. Garnsey, F. W. Lincoln. Samuel Weir, Abram Vandeventer, and 
Austin Spencer. The lodge has ever been prosperous and occupies 
large and well furnished rooms in the building next south of the canal 
on Union street. The present membership is ninety, and the officers 
are as follows : John Gallup, W. M.; Charles Woodmansee, S. W.; Fred 
E. GofT, J. W.; D. L Walker, treas.; William M. Clark, secy.; Albert 
P. Bush, chaplain; William R. Barrett, S. D.; Flagg G. Smith, J. D.; 
H. G. Spafford, sen. M.of C ; James Hawkins, jun. M. of C; E.E.Allen, 
tyler ; James H. Breese, marshal. 

John R. Martindale, Post No. 270, G. A. R., was organized May 17, 
1882, with twenty-two charter members, but is now enlarged so that it 
ranks among the best in the county. The meetings are held in Masonic 
Hall, in this village The ofificers for 1894 are Oreb T. Hubbard, Com.; 
William Linn, sen. V. C; Charles Hall, jun V. C; A. M. Barker, quar- 
termaster; W. S. Millener, surgeon; G. S. h^arwell, adjt.; A. M. Town, 
chaplain ; Robert Gundry, O. of D.; Edward Keeler, O. of G. 

Ogden Grange, No. 1 1 1, P. of H., was organized June i, 1874, and has 
since been regarded as one of the stable institutions of the town and 
village. At present the Ogden Grange numbers about seventy mem- 



328 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COrXTY 

beis, and the officers for 1894 are as follows: Christie Pierce, master; 
William Rose, overseer ; George W. Doty, lecturer ; George Hodges, 
steward; Jacob Fetter, assistant steward; Bowker Hinckley, chaplain; 
Leonard Burritt, treas.; William M. Clark, secy ; Frank G. Jewett, gate 
keeper; Mrs. Christie Pierce, Pomona; Mrs. William Ross, Flora ; Mrs. 
James H. Breeze, Ceres; Mrs. Bowker Hinckley, lady asst. steward. 

The first newspaper publication printed and issued at Spencerport 
was the Journal, founded in 1883 by Frank Cole, who, after about a 
year and a half sold out. The paper was soon afterward discontinued. 
However, in 1889 Mr. Cole again made a newspaper venture and issued 
the first number of the Star, which has been continued with gratifying 
success to the present day. Independent in politics in general, the 
Star is firm in the advocacy of protection principles, hence is thor- 
oughly American in all respects. It is a desirable family paper adapted 
especially to home reading, and circulates chiefly in the third Monroe 
Assembly district. Mr. Cole issued the paper about three months and 
then sold to William W. Malay who has since been its editor and pro- 
prietor. The Star has a good circulation and enjoys a liberal advertis- 
ing patronage. 

The present business interests of Spencerport are as follows : Henry 
H. Goff, warehouseman ; James T. Truesdale, C. Fossmire and Frank 
N. Webster, produce dealers; Cole & Freeman, general merchants; F. 
W. Nichols and John Leonard, grocers; F. W, Spencer, H. H. Brown, 
Cyrus Covert and William Covert, hardware dealers; Dr. W. S. Mill- 
ener, druggist; General Green and John Upton, shoe dealers; William 
W. Hart, harnesses, etc.; Hugh Haslip, wagonmaker ; Eugene Hoy, R. 
W. Haynor, James T. Truesdale, coal dealers; Henry Rogers, florist; 
William Boylan, miller ; James C. Ross, creamery ; John McCabe, plan- 
ning mill; Seymour Curtis, pop corn manufacturer; L. L. Allen, cooper; 
Fred E. Gofif. box factory ; D. L. Walker, undertaker ; R. K. Davis, jew- 
eler ; W. R. Barrett, dentist and baker; William Ackley, Smith & Bab- 
cock and John Leonard, hotel keepers. 

The Methodist F2piscopal church of Ogden, at Spencerport, was or- 
ganized in 1838, and was the outgrowth of still older M. E societies in 
the town, some of them dating back to the early years of the century. 
The first class leader was David Dowling, and the first organizer. Loring 



THE TOWN OF OGDEN. 329 

Grant who formed a society at Webster's Basin, one mile westof Spen- 
cerport. Another class in 1821 in the Whittier neighborhood, but in 
1828 both organizations lost their identity in the absorbing Methodist 
Protestant movement of that year, and it was not until 1838 that the 
scattered members of the old societies united and formed a church, un- 
der the leadership of Rev. Salmon Judd. A small meeting house was 
built at Spenceport, which was replaced with the present large brick 
edifice in 1870 and '71, being dedicated January 12, 1871. The present 
membership is about 130, with 134 pupils in the Sunday school. The 
trustees are J. Newton Whittier, John Killip and Joseph Rogers. From 
the time of the earliest Methodist meetings in Ogden. preachers and 
pastors of its societies and churches have been as follows : Peter Vanest, 
1807; George Lane, 1808; James Mitchell, 1809; John Kimberlin, 
1 8 10; Loring Grant, 181 1 ; R. M. Everts, 181 2; E King, 1813; W. 
Brown, 1814; James H. Harris, 1S15; R. Marshall, 1816; William 
Jones, 1817 ; Cyrus Story and Michael Saeger, 1818; C.Story, 1819; 
N. B. Dodson, James S. Lent, John Cosart, B. Williams, P. Buell, E. 
Boardman, J. Copeland, C. V. Adgate, M. Tooker, Richard Wright, 
John Cosart, R. M. Everts, S. Judd, N. Fellows, D. Fellows, James 
Hall, Hiram May, R C. Foot, Michael Saeger, ]. B. Lankton, Loren 
Stiles, H M Ripley, Joseph McCreary, A. L Backus, H. W. Annis. 
E. S. Furman, S. C. Church, George W. Cowe, H. R. Smith, C. C. 
Wilbur, G. W. Cowe, J B. Atchinson, J. W. Sanborn, G. Stratton, 
L. D. Watson, J. L. Humphreys, Mr. Hodgson, A. F. Colburn, James 
Hill. I. B Hudnut and R. L. Robinson. 

The first Congregational church of Spencerport was organized Oc- 
tober 8, 1850, by thirty- five withdrawing members of the old Ogden 
Center society. The organization was perfected by incorporation Jan- 
uary 6, 185 I, and on the first of February 185 i, the church edifice at 
Spencerport was completed. The first pastor was Rev. J. H. Dill, who 
was in charge some years, and followed in succession by Revs. S. T. 
Richards, D. H. Blake, F. W. Adams, W. B. Stewart, Charles M. 
Whittlesee, John Merz (supply), Joseph S. Bennett, Bennett T. Stafford, 
Charles W. Fitch and Edward E. Furbish, the latter being the present 
pastor, who was installed December 10, 1890. This church has a mem- 
bership of 271 persons, with an average Sunday school attendance of 

42 



330 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

130 pupils, under the superintendence of James- Castle. The trustees 
are Henry H. Brown, George Code, James Castle, Milton Brigham, 
Seymour Curtis and James T. Treusdale. Deacons, Samuel D Day, 
Aaron J. Arnold and Milton Brigham. 

The church of St John the Evangelist, Roman Catholic, was dedi- 
cated November 22, 1868, but Catliolic masses were said in the town, 
at Ogden Center, as early as 185 1 by Father Welch, succeeded by 
Fathers Fitz Patrick, Welch, Donnelly, O'Loughlin, McGowan. Creedon, 
Keenan and Story. Feather McGowan built the little chapel on the hill 
east of Spencerport, but this proved too small and inconveniently located, 
hence P^ather Storey purchased a lot and began the erection of the 
present edifice. The corner stone was laid October 7, 1867, but in 
December following, during a severe wind storm, the frame of the 
building was blown down. However, it was rebuilt and dedicated No- 
vember 22, 1868 Following Father Storey, the priests in charge of 
this parish have been Fathers James Connelly, James E. Hantey, Father 
Hickcy, Joseph Magin and Patrick J. Clune, the latter coming to the 
parish in March, 1893. St. John's has about 250 communicating mem- 
bers, and about seventy-five families in the parish. 

The Presbyterian church of Ogden, the mother of the various relig- 
ious societies of the town in its early history, was organized as a Con- 
gregational church and society, November 4, 181 i, and numbered as 
original members Samuel Davis, David Arnold, James F'errington, 
Josiah Mather, Jabez Busley, Benjamin Freeman, Abigail Busley, Phebe 
Finch, Lydia Mitchell, Betsey Nichols and Justus Brown. In 1813 
seven more were added to the church; eight in 1815 ; sixteen in 18 16; 
five in 181 7; eleven in 1818; and the number continued to increase 
and included nearly all the Congregational and Presbyterian element of 
the town, who were in a majority among the settlers. The first deacons 
were Samuel Davis and Josiah Mather, with Daniel Arnold added soon 
afterward. The first regular pastor was Rev. Ebenezer Everett, in- 
stalled in 1S79, though earlier services were conducted by "Father" 
Allen, and Revs. Barrett, Townscnd, Davis and Smith In 1813 the 
society was divided, twenty-five of its members withdrawing to form 
another church at Adams Basin; and still later, in 1850, thirty-five 
other members withdrew and organized the Congregational church and 



THE TOWN OF OGDEN, 33i 

society at Spencerport. March 24, 1835, ^^''^ church at the Center became 
Presbyterian and was attached to the Rochester presbytery, and under 
this change a virtual reorganization was effected. The elders were Syl- 
vanus C. Willey, Diodate Lord, Charles Church, Alfred Norton, Austin 
Spencer and Hendrick D. Vroom ; the deacons were Alfred Norton, 
William A. Chapman and John Brigham. The first church edifice was 
erected in 1823, and was replaced with the present structure in 1850-51. 
The succession of pastors of this historic church has been as follows : 
Rev, Ebenezer Everett, 1810-22 ; Avelyn Sedgwick, 1824-33 and 1838 
-49; Conway P. King, 1835-38; William A. Fox, 1851-65; Alex- 
ander McA. Therburn, 1865-82 ; Alexander S. Hoyt, 1883-88 ; Glen- 
roie McQueen, 1888-90 ; John H. Williams, 1890. Mr. Williams is the 
present pastor of the church. The membership numbers 216, with 
about 125 children in the Sunday school. The latter was under the 
superintendence of John Kincaid for a period of seventeen years. The 
elders of the church are George H. Comstock, Horace Rann, John Kin- 
caid, Marquis H. French and Hugh A. Smith. Tlie trustees of the so- 
ciety are Bowker Hinckley, William Ross, Charles C. Smith, Henry D. 
Scribner, Henry S. Dyer and George Irish. 

The Methodist Protestant church at Adams Basin was organized in 
1828 at the house of Dr. John Webster, and its membership comprised 
chiefly several families who were formerly connected with the Episcopal 
Methodist church of the town. Among the early members of the church 
were Joseph Woodmansee and wife. Perry Woodmansee and wife, 
Stephen, Asa and Jeremiah Webster and their wives, and Edmund 
Wansey and wife. Previous to 1854 meetings were held in the school 
house at Adams Basin and Dr. Webster's dwelling, but in 1854 the so 
ciety occupied the edifice erected by the Presbyterian organization 
which disbanded after that time. The new church was completed and 
dedicated in March, 1891. In 1855 the M. P, society purchased the 
property. The succession of pastors of this society and church have 
been as follows: Revs. Isaac Fistler, N. Palmer, William Williams, E. 
A. Wheat, William Emmons, L. Sweetland, L. Parmater, A. G. Wilcox, 
J. W. Davis, S. M. Short, C. C. Gary, W. W. Woodward, N. S. Clark, 
J. H Richards, S. D. Kingsley, A. M. Town, A. H. Kinney, O. P. 
Wildey, A. M. Woodward, the latter the present pastor, whose labors 



332 LANDMARK'S OF MONROE CoUNTY. 

begun here in 1891. The chtirch has about eiglitx' members and about 
120 attendants at Sunday school. The trustees are George W. Doty. 
Peter Lourette and Freeman Webster. Superintendent of Sunday 
school, John Shafer. 

The Baptist church of Ogden was organized May 21, 1819, by dele- 
gates from five churches in the region, at a meeting held in the school 
on Union street. The thirteen c<jnstituent members of the church were 
David Wendall, Enos Jewell, Stephen Ross, Samuel W. Brown. John 

B. Meserva, Eliakim Thatcher, Lydia Wendall. Aima Willey, Betsey 
Burnett, Hannah Pettengill, Abigail Jewett, Sarah Ross, and Mary 
Meserva. For a period of about six \ears this church had no pastor, 
and its early meetings were held in dwellings, school houses and barns. 
In 1824 Rev. Henry Blood was settled as pastor. The first house of 
worship was built at the Center, but in 1 832 and '33 the more commo- 
dious edifice in the western part of the town was erected, being dedi- 
cated in May, 1833. The pastors and stated supplies of this church 
have been as follows- Ely Stone, 1819-24; Henry Blood, 1824-26; 
Jirah D. Cole, D. D , 1827-31 ; Zenas Case, 1832-56; Harvey Silli- 
man, 1856-58; Zenas Case, 1858-60; John B. Jackson, D. D., 1860-61 ; 
Benjamin R. Swick, 1861-66; Almon B. Barrell, 1866-72; Lewis 
Halsey, 1871-74; David Morse, 1874, June to October; Walter Holt, 
1875-79; Edward Royce, 1879-82; L. D. Lamkin, 1882-85; William 

C. Phillips, jr., 1885; John M. Davis, 1886; Edgar W. Watson, 1886, 
the present pastor. The present membership is 140; in Sunday 
school, 138. Trustees, E. H. Colby, E. J. Rollin, H. D. New, William 
Trowell, Charles Boughton, George G. True. Deacons, A. M. Colby, 
E. J. Rollin, Frank Gridley. 

The Christian church of Ogden, commonly called the stone church, 
was erected about 1835 through the eftbrts of Levi True, H. C. Gilman, 
David and L. D. Bangs, Edward Covell, James Hill, and others repre- 
senting a pioneer element in the southwest part of the town. The so- 
ciety prospered for a time, but with the removal or death of its leading 
supporters and founders interest declined and the society gradually 
passed out of existence. 

In closing this chapter we may briefly allude to the schools of the 
town at large, although the almost entire absence of reliable records 



THE TOWN OF PARMA. 333 

precludes the possibility of recordin^j^ much that is worthy of note con- 
cerning them. Tradition has it that the first school in Ogden was 
taught in 1804 by Esther Clark in a log house south of Ogden Center, 
while other authorities contend that the first school was opened in 1 807 
and taught by the daughter of pioneer George W. Willey. Other 
schools in the town at an early day were those conducted by Filura 
Church. Rachel Willey and Mrs. Edward Covell. the latter in 18 16 in 
the southeast part of the town, in the Oilman settlement. However, 
from these humble beginnin<4S there has grown and developed the pres- 
ent admirable school s}stem, more perfect and useful than at any time 
in its histor\'. As at present constituted the town has fourteen school 
districts, each under direction of a competent board of trustees, and 
each provided with a good teacher; some districts have more than one 
teacher. All receive of the public moneys, while by district taxation 
an amount is annually raised to properly maintain good schools as con- 
templated by the State laws. 



CHAPTER XI. 
THE TOWN OF PARMA. 

This town was formed directly from Fairfield, April 8, 1 808, and 
then included all that is now Parma and Ogden. The latter was separ- 
ated from the mother town January 27, 181 7. However, in the original 
division of the territory of Western New York into towns of the origi- 
nal county of Ontario, this region was included with all west of the 
Genesee in the town of Northampton, formed April 4, 1797. This 
great town itself was divided, December 8, 1807, and out of it four 
large jurisdictions were created, and called, respectively, Pulteney, Bay- 
ard, Fairfield and Northampton. Fairfield included Parma and Ogden, 
and very soon after its organization the name Fairfield was dropped and 
Parma adopted in its stead. 

The original dividing line between this town and Ogden was the cen- 
ter of the once famous Ridge road, but a subsequent change established 



334 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

the line one mile further south, including the gore within Parma. As 
at present constituted this town contains 25,288 acres of land and in 
area ranks third in the county, being exceeded onl\- by Hamlin and 
Greece Among the civil divisions of the county Parma occupies a 
position on the northern boundary and in the northwest general local- 
ity. It is also the northwest corner town of the historic " Mill Seat 
Tract," a portion of the vast area obtained from the Indians through 
jepresentations on the part of the Phelps and Gorham proprietary that 
a tract twelve miles wide and twenty- four miles long was necessary for 
a mill )ard. The tract was bounded east by the Genesee and west by 
a line twelve miles distant from it, and extended south from the lake 
twenty four miles, and included within it some of the best timber lands 
of the purchase and as well a number of valuable streams The land 
surface in Parma is generally level in the north, slightly rolling in the 
south with small elevations in the extreme southwest. The chief 
streams are Salmon, Little Salmon, Huttonwood and Long Pond, and 
West creeks, all of which have their courses north and east and dis- 
charge into Lake Ontario in the adjoining town of Greece. The soil is 
chiefly gravelly loam, intermixed in places with sand and clay. The 
northern section contains some of the best and most productive agricul- 
tural lands in the county, while the lighter and less fertile areas are 
scattered along the north of the Ridge. However, as a whole, Parma 
occupies a front rank among the producing towns of Monroe county, 
and at one time, during the war of 186 1-5, with Henrietta, paid the 
greatest income tax of any town in the shire. 

But thirty years have witnessed many changes, both in resources and, 
character of population, and while the town has not lost all its old time 
prestige, its more recent inhabitants have not materially added to its 
general worth. Internal improvements in other towns have given them 
an advantage, and Parma has been compelled to depend largely on 
natural rather than acquired resources. To be sure a railroad has been 
constructed through the northern part of the town, a material benefit 
to the immediate locality, and in a way to the whole jurisdiction, yet 
the old traffic on the Canawaugus and Ridge roads arc not yet forgotten, 
for it was iti those days that Parma was at the zenith of her glory and 
wealth. 



THE TOWN OF PARMA. 335 

Pioneer and Early Settlement. — All authorities agree that the honor 
of having been the pioneer of Parma fell to the lot of Bezaleel, Stephen 
and John Atchinson, brothers, who, with the family of the first men- 
tioned, came to the town early in the year 1796 and established for 
themselves a home in this then wilderness region, their cabin being 
erected one and one- half miles northwest of the present hamlet of 
Parma Center. The Atchinsons came from Tolland, Connecticut, in- 
tending to settle near Canandaigua, but in some manner they became 
dissatisfied uith the locality and were therefore easily persuaded by the 
land agents to move further west and establish a home beyond the 
Genesee. Accordingly they came on to the site of Rochester, where 
then stood a battered and worn hunter's cabin, the only structure built 
by man where now stands a large commercial city. Here the party 
rested a short time and then, with their cattle and effects crossed the 
river on the ice and for the next three days labored in cutting a road 
through the woods to surve)ed lot number 3, about on the line between 
ranges 6 and 7. Here a cabin was built and it was made comfortable 
by the doughty pioneer of Parma. They were accompanied to the place 
by John Parks, a noted trapper and hunter of the Genesee country. 
Besides those already named were Polly, the wife, and four small children 
of Bezaleel Atchinson. They brought with them a reasonable quantity 
of food, but after that was exhausted the future supply was obtained at 
Peter Shaffer's primitive mill where Scottsville now stands, nearly twenty 
miles distant from Atchinson cabin. On the journey through the woods 
from the Genesee, three of their four oxen died, and the remaining one 
was compelled to do all the work in breaking ground for the season's 
crops, a crooked root serving as a plow. 

The descendants of this intrepid pioneer family still live in the region, 
and one of them, Austin Atchinson, recently died in Spencerport at the 
remarkable age of 103 years Another, Roswell Atchinson, also at- 
tained a good old age and died but a few years ago. Both were sons 
of Bezaleel Atchinson, the pioneer. Jacob and Dr. Sylvester Atchin- 
son, other brothers of the pioneer, also became residents in Parma, 
settling here soon after the year 1800. 

The second pioneer family in this town is somewhat uncertain, some 
writers contending that the families of Michael Beach and Silas Leonard 



336 'V LAN DM ARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 



botli came in 1708, while Gilbert Leonard is authority for the state- 
ment that his family were here and made a permanent settlement on 
the iith of April, 1797 Among them were three brothers, Silas, 
Lewis and Jonathan, all of whom came from Caanan, Connecticut. 
Their father intended to settle in the town but was killed just previous 
to setting out on the journey, whereupon Jonathan returned to the east 
and brought his widowed mother and two sisters, Lucy and Thankful, 
to the new settlement. Lucy afterward married Daniel Holton, and 
Thankful became the wife of Jonathan Roberts. Jonathan raised a 
family of seven boys and one girl ; Lewis spent his life in the town and 
died in 185 i, and Silas raised a familj- of nine children and died in 
Parma in 1864. On the Leonard farm was a salt spring and in the 
early history of the town much salt was manufactured here for the 
townspeople. Descendants of the Leonard family still live in the town. 

In 1708 Michael Beach settled and made an improvement on lot 7, 
range 4, and in the same year George Goodhue came, but soon after- 
ward moved to Wheatland Timothy Madden came about the same 
time and located about half a mile west of the Center. Moses Schofield 
came to the Atchinson neighborhood in 1800 and in the next year, 
according to the best information obtainable, Samuel Hicks located on 
lot 7 of range 2. Hicks was famed as a hunter and trapper and is said 
to have come to the Genesee country as early as 1791, and traversed 
the entire region in pursuit of game and pelts His settlement in the 
town was very opportune for the other pioneers, for while they cul- 
tivated the land Hicks supplied them with meat Other early settlers, 
coming soon after 1800, were Abner Brockway, Gibbons Jewett. George 
Huntley, and Daniel Arnold. In 1805 Jonathan Leonard brought his 
mother and sisters to the town. 

Referring still further to the subject of early settlement, mention may 
be made of the families of Hope and Elisha Davis, and Jonathan Un- 
derwood, who came in 1 805, the latter on lot i, range 4. while the 
brothers Davis were the pioneers at Parma Corners, where they in 1809 
built the first public house in the town, and in fact established the 
settlement at that place. They were earnest and industrious pioneers 
and added much to the early development of the region then about the 
line between Parma and Ogden. Their first hotel was a famous resort 



THE TOWN OF PARMA. 337 

on the Ridge road, and the close proximity to the Canawaglis or north 
and south thoroughfare through the town made it a resort of unusual 
importance. The descendants of the Davis pioneers are still in the 
town and are among its most respected families. Lewis Davis, brother 
to Hope and Elisha, came to the Corners in 1808 and lived to be one of 
the oldest men of the locality. James Egbert also came in 1805. Cor- 
nelius Bennett settled at Burritt's Corners, one mile south of Unionville, 
in 1807; Levi Talmadge and Kennicone Roberts came to Parma in 
1809, while the settlers of 18 10 were Augustus, Samuel and Isaac 
Mather, and Augustus Mather, jr., also Isaac Castle, and all on lots 3, 
4, and 5, of range 7. Of these families the Castles became prominent 
and quite numerous in town. The brothers were Isaac, Samuel, Abram 
and Jehial, the latter coming in 18 12. Isaac built in 1833 the "cobble " 
stone house now occupied by his son, Darwin S. Castle. Abram Castle 
died in 18 12, and his wife in 181 7, and both were buried in the Castle 
burying ground. 

Elihu Cross came from Massachusetts in 181 1 and settled in the north 
part of Parma, being one of the first settlers in that locality. He 
reared to maturity a large family of sons and daughters, among them 
Leonard, Elihu. Linas, Saxton, Luman, Anna, Clarissa and Julia. 
Most of the sons went west many years ago, but the girls all married 
and afterward lived in this town. Elihu, the pioneer, died about 1843. 

Among the Other early and worthy settlers in Parma, there may be- 
recalled the names of Fulton, Markham, Curtis, on range 5 ; the 
Stevens brothers and Peter Hiller in the northern locality; John Cheney 
at Bartlett's Corners, so called. There were also Jesse Stowell, Jonathan 
Cary, R. Wincheil, Joel Bagley, the latter from New Hampshire, and a 
pioneer in Henrietta, where he located in 1813. Jeremiah, Gad. Barber 
and Nathan Wright founded the so called Wright settlement in 18 10, 
while still other settlers of 181 1 were Jason, Baldwin and Esra Tyler, 
on the site of North Parma village ; J. Thompson located at the Corners 
and the Warners and Whitneys in the same vicinity. About the same 
time, too, came others, the dates being now unknown, but among whom 
were the Thayers, Schofields, Curtises, Beaches, Jonathan Henry, John- 
son Gilmore. Caleb Peck ; and still later came Gilbert Bush, William 

Berridge, the Smiths, Tenneys, Demarests, Millers, Cosmans, Van 

43 



338 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Voorhises, Waldocks, Garlocks, Bennetts, llaslips, Wilders, Goodells, 
Browns, Lowdens, Cochrans, Wheelers, Collamers. Randalls, Tabers, 
Burritts, Newtons, Baxters, Tompkinses, all of them old names in the 
town and .many of whose descendants still live here. These were 
dwellers chiefly in the north part, where the family names are still well 
represented, though many are gone and their farms taken up and occu- 
pied by a new race of people. The later comers are of German 
descent, and are thrifty, persevering and forehanded husbandmen. 
Nearly all of them came here, as did the pioneers, poor men with 
families, seeking to better their condition, and almost without exception 
they have succeeded. However, unlike the pioneers, these late comers 
had neither privations nor hardships to contend against, for they found 
cleared and well tilled lands and good dwellings for their families. 

One of the most interesting and historic localities of the town is that 
commonly called the "Ridge" and the old "Ridge Road." This 
famous thoroughfare of traffic and travel was opened in 1816, and 
almost at once became prominent in Genesee country annals. A dailx- 
stage line was immediately put in operation, and being successful, other 
lines were established, and the Ridge was thenceforth and for many 
years the most popular highway in the country. All travelers seek- 
ing homes in Western New York, and as well all emigrants journeying 
further west, followed the Ridge road, and the result was the establish- 
ing of public houses along the route until they were said to average 
one for each two miles; and what is more, each did a thriving busi- 
ness, and nearly every one was provided with a private distillery. Even 
at this late day the observing traveler, riding along this one great 
thoroughfare, cannot but be struck with the appearance of the buildings, 
for, while more recent comers have replaced many of the old structures 
with more modern ones, there still remains abundant proof of the early 
occupation and the omnipresent public house. However, where once 
prospered half a dozen taverns three quarters of a century ago, there 
remains but one now in operation, and that of minor importance to the 
traveling public. 

The Ridge road through Parma resulted in forming an almost contin- 
uous village, and to-day the farms along it are small, averaging perhaps 
less than fifty acres. The distilleries of old times are all gone off the 



THE TOWN OF PARMA. 33d 

Ridge and with one exception out of the town, and for twenty and 
more years Parma has been a no- license district. Still, the Ridge 
abounds in good farms and excellent buildings, though its industries 
are few. A grist mill is still in operation about a mile west of the 
Greece line, and owned by Hezekiah Peck. Another, still older is 
located near the west line, and known as the old grist mill, for a long 
time owned by the Fowlers, formerly Vincent and now Chauncey 
Fowler. Among the prominent places along the Ridge, between the 
Corners and the Greece line, maybe mentioned those of the late Henry 
Osgood, J. Herbert Tracy, son of Allan D. Tracy, on the old Thrall 
farm. Still farther east is the old Lankton farm ; the Peck house and 
mill ; Richard Homing's fine place ; George H. Losey's garden farm ; 
the Pease place, the William Gorton farm, and next the old and aban- 
doned Congregational church. Going west on the north side of the 
road is the house of James Davy, followed in order by those of H. D. 
Wheeler, Nathan Meserve, esq , Thomas and James H. Breeze, the old 
Davis stone house and others of lesser note toward the Corners. To 
the westward the best appointed farms are those of the late J. M. Web- 
ster, Henry Goodell, B. J. Collins, Frank Hnber, George Smith, Aaron 
Arnold, the Clark farm, and Samuel W. Wadhams. However, during, 
the last forty years the character of occupancy along the Ridge has 
materially changed and a strong element of Irish population has suc- 
ceeded former owners. But the more recent comers are thrifty and pro- 
gressive and have built up many farms along this old highway, and as 
well in other parts of the town further north. 

The one great cause which more than all others contributed to the 
decline in interests and traffic on the Ridge was the construction and 
operation of the Erie canal, for by it wagon travel was succeeded by 
boat transportation. Still later the building of the railroad through the 
north part of Ogden and across the central part of the county was an~ 
other element that worked adversely to local interests and importance. 
However, as an agricultural producing town, Parma has retained its 
standing, as in i860 its inhabitants made 150,000 pounds of butter, and 
its orchards yielded more than 42,000 bushels of apples, in which pro- 
ductions the town was exceeded in the county alone by Greece, the 
latter having 5,000 more acres of land. 



340 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Before leaving the subject of early history it is proper that a brief 
review be made of some of the notable " first events " in Parma. The 
first marriage was that of Capt. Jonathan Leonard and the daughter of 
William Hincher; Alpheus Madden opened and taught the first school 
in 1804; J. Thompson kept the first store; Hope and Elisha Davis 
built the first tavern in the town ; Jonathan Whitney built the first grist 
mill, and it is claimed that the first saw mill was that of E. W. Thayer 
on Long Pond creek, built in 1806 or 1807. Bezaleel Atchinson con- 
structed a grist mill on Salmon creek in 1809, and a few years later 
added a saw mill lo it. The Gulf mills, or, as otherwise known, the 
F'owler mills were built on the Ridge about 181 2 by Whitney & Mark- 
ham. The first saw mill in the north part of the town was built in 
1820, on West creek, by Mr. Winchell. Philander Curtis built the sec- 
ond, and the Buells, Joseph and George, the third. The Sperry mills 
were built about 1840, as was also the carding and planing mill of Mr. 
Trimmer. 

Organization. — As has been stated, Parma, under the original name 
of Fairfield, was separated from Northampton and given an organiza- 
tion. The first officers elected were Gibbons Jewett, supervisor; Justin 
Worthington, town clerk; Daniel Spencer, collector ; Abel Howe, O. 
F. Rice, A. Webb, J. Howell and George Huntley, assessors; Nehe- 
miah Treat and Nathaniel Tibbct, overseers of poor ; Alexander White, 
Samuel Latta and Sanuel Baldwin, school commissioners; Fred Howe, 
Israel Douglass, John Landon, Sanford Briggs and J. Wing, constables. 
Thus the organization of the town was made complete, though during 
the next few years there grew into existence a feeling of rivalry be- 
tween the north and south sections of the town that for several years 
seriously disturbed the peace and well being of the entire community. 
At that time Parma extended south to the Chili line and was a quite 
well settled region. The feeling referred to was occasioned by inhabit- 
ants of the north and south sections each striving to secure and retain 
for their respective localities the chief town office, and consequently the 
improvements which would naturally follow, for a town officer would 
be expected to add to the value of his own locality rather than seek to 
promote the advantage of sections away from his abode. This was but 
practical politics notwithstanding its manifest injustice, and even to this 



THE TOWN OF PARMA. 341 

day sectional feeling is a factor in Parma political life, and many a 
worthy candidate has been defeated for town office on account of the 
locality of his residence, and a less deserving nominee elected over 
him. It was this feeling which resulted in a great measure in the divis- 
ion of the town in 1817, and by it local animosities were buried for a 
long time The Ridge road was the original dividing line, but soon 
afterward the gore south of the Ridge was annexed to Parma and the 
present dividing line established. After the division the town was 
practically reorganized and all officers chosen from the town as thus 
constituted, and as follows : Gibbons Jewett, supervisor ; Zolved 
Stevens, town clerk; Roswell Atchinson, collector; Jonathan Under- 
wood, W. Warner and Arnold Markham, assessors ; Asa Atchinson 
and Samuel Castle, overseers of the poor; Stephen Atchinson, Elisha 
Fulton and Jason Tyler, commissioners of highways ; Roswell Atchin- 
son and Augustus Mather, constables. 

Succession of Supervisors. — Gibbons Jewett, 1 807-11 ; Silas Leon- 
ard, 1812; Gibbons Jewett, 1813; George W. Willey, 1814; John C. 
Patterson, 1815; Gibbons Jewett, 1816-18; Zolved Stevens, 1819-20; 
Gibbons Jewett, 1821; Samuel Castle, 1822-25; Roswell Atchinson, 
1826-28; Simeon Smith, 1829; Zolved Stevens, 1830; Jason Tyler, 
1831 ; Isaac M. Hiscock, 1832; J. E. Patterson, 1833-36; Jonathan 
Wadhams, 1837; Isaac Chase, jr., 1838-41; Harris Clement, 1842; 
Isaac Chase, jr., 1843-44; Harris Clement, 1845-47; Joshua Tripp, 
1848; Isaac Chase, jr., 1849-50; James C. Austin, 1851-52; J. E. 
Patterson, 1853; Jonas Tripp, 1854; S. D. Webster, 1855; J. E. Patter- 
son, 1856; Isaac Chase, jr., 1857; Arthur J. Wood, 1858-60; J. W. 
Hiscock, 1861 ; Harris Clement, 1862; J. E. Patterson, 1863-64; A. 
J. Wood, 1865; Charles Efner, 1866; Eroy D. Hillman, 1867-69; 
Russell C. Bates, 1870-74; Stephen Burritt, 1875; Rodney P. Odell, 
1876-78; Russell C. Bates, 1879; Elam A. Cross, 1880-82; James T. 
Truesdale, 1883-84; William H. Denniston, 1885-88; Elam A. Cross, 
1889-90; Aver)' L. Foote, 1891 ; Albert P. Beebe, 1892-95. 

Preseut Town O^lcers, (1894). — Albert P. Beebe, supervisor; Henry 
Bufton, town clerk ; Eroy D. Hillman, James H. Breeze, Rollin B. 
Wood and Willard H. Hawkins, justices of the peace ; Edward D. 
Webster, Thomas Burritt and Belden Wilder, assessors ; Ira L. Cross, 



342 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Martin Lynn and S. S. Buell, excise commissioners ; Alton Dimmock, 
Robert R. Wayne, Charles B. Hill, William B. Wilkinson and Oscar M. 
Dunbar, constables. 

Municipal History. — The villages and hamlets lying within the town 
of Parma are ten in nmiiber, and are located with apparent reference 
to the convenience of the inhabitants, and at the same time without 
conflict of interests In the northern central part of Parma is the in- 
corporated village of North Parma, otherwise known for many years as 
Unionville. This is the largest of the villages of the town, and of the 
greatest commercial importance, yet its standing has been attained dur- 
ing the last twenty years and due in a great measure to the building of 
the Ogdcnsburg, Watertown and Oswego railroad, commonly called 
the " R. W. & O." The first settler in the vicinity of the village site 
was Jonathan Underwood, who came here in 1805, while in 181 1 Jason 
Tyler built the first dwelling house here. The Garlocks and Berridges 
were also early and prominent residents in this locality. Tyler was a 
blacksmith and opened his shop for business in 1815. However, the 
village did not gain any prominence as a trading center until the lay- 
ing out and opening of the Canawaugus road, leading from the lake 
south through the Center, Parma Corners, Spencerport, Ogden Center, 
and thence into Chili where it intersected another chief highway lead- 
ing east and west. Samuel Smith opened a public house at North 
Parma in 1820 and at least one has ever since been maintained. The 
second hotel was built by Charles Darling. The first regular store was 
opened in 1836 by William F'ournire, and remained the only store in 
the north part of the town for many years. A drug store was opened 
in 1876 and one has ever since been maintained. In 1845 Salmon 
Creek post-office was established at Unionville, and in 1847 the North 
Parma office was likewise opened at Bartlett's Corners. In 1849 the 
Salmon Creek office was discontinued, and soon afterward postmaster 
William Berridge moved his office from the north location to the 
"ville," still retaining, however, the original name of North Parma, 
which has ever since been continued. The office is of greater impor- 
tance at this time than ever in its history. A stage line was established 
between North Parma and Spencerport in i860, carrjing daily mail 
and accommodatino at the same time the offices at Parma Center and 



THE TOWN OF PARMA. 343 

Parma Corners. This line is still continued with mails carried over the 
route twice daily. On August lO, 1876, the newly built railroad began 
carrying mail, thus affording abundant service to the business interests 
of the locality. 

In the course of events the little hamlet became a village of commer- 
cial and industrial importance, and its more enterprising and public 
spirited citizens felt the necessity of local improvements such as were 
not obtainable at the general expense and not advisable on the part of 
the few for the benefit of many. Accordingly, a meeting was held and 
the result was the incorporation of the village of North Parma, creating 
it a body corporate and politic. The first village election was held 
July 28, 1885, and Elam A. Cross was chosen president; Gilbert 
Leonard, C. F". Curtis and Gilbert C. Childs, trustees; Allen B. Eraser, 
treasurer; Hanford Bass, clerk ; James H, Goodno, collector. Mr. 
Curtis refused to qualify as trustee and RolHn B. Wood was elected to 
the vacancy. The present village officers (1894 5) are Hanford Bass, 
president ; Thomas Stoddard, Edson Taber and John B. Miller, trustees ; 
Olin C. Curtis, clerk ; Willard E. Wilder, treasurer ; and Daniel Meach, 
collector. 

The school building of district 4 was taken for a village hall, and the 
enterprising inhabitants have erected within the village limits one of 
the most attractive and convenient school buildings in any of the out- 
lying districts of the county. There has also been provided an ample 
supply of hooks, ladders and hose, together with two small but service- 
able hand engines. 

North Parma is regarded as one of the most desirable residence vil- 
lages in the county, and its population of about 600 is made up largely 
of retired farmers ; men of fair means, many of whom still own farms, 
but prefer village to rural life. The village interests have never been 
large or extensive, yet all mercantile branches are well represented. 
The Eraser store is one of the largest country establishments in Western 
New York. Its proprietor is Allen B Eraser, assisted by his brother, 
E. E. Eraser. The firm of Cross & Eraser started this business in De- 
cember, 1875, and Mr. Eraser succeeded in 1878. The other business 
men of the village are Ered Horton & Co., general store ; Henry Op 
perman, general store ; Wood & Iveson, grocers ; Newcomb & Taber, 



344 LANDMARKS OF MONROE (JOl'NTY 

and Ingham & Warboys, hardware ; RoHin B. Wood, flour and feed ; 
Orange A. Green, druggist ; Stewart & Conkh'n and K. B. Curtis, meat 
markets. Klani A. Cross is an extensive dealer in beans, and is 
also engaged in the manufacture of an excellent quality of fer- 
tilizer. Hanford Bass is a lumber and coal dealer and also handles 
sewer and drain pipe. Gilbert C. Childs built a carriage factory in 
1889 and is still engaged in successful business. The large roller flour 
mills of E. M. Upton & Co. are located in the eastern part of the vil- 
lage. The capacity of the mills is lOO barrels of flour per da}'. Hol- 
brook & Bennett are proprietors of a large fruit evaporator. Bartlett 
& Hawkins have a carriage factory and blacksmith shop about a mile 
north of the village. The other proprietors of local business interests 
are William Iveson and J. H. Goodno, harness-makers ; Ella Coleman, 
millinery; Daniel Altpeter, confectioner; W. J. Reed, photographer; 
V. A. Hovey, undertaker. The village has two hotels, the Commercial 
House and North Parma Hotel. 

The dwellers of North Parma feel just pride in their public build 
ings — the school and four fine church edifices, the latter being the 
respective houses of worship of the Baptist, Freewill Baptist, Methodist 
Plpiscopal and Roman Catholic. The oldest of these institutions is the 
First Baptist Church of Parma, the organization of which was effected 
May 27, 1809, by I'^lder Moses Clark, and with these members: Moses 
Clarke, Samuel Gregory, Timothy Lane, Joshua Wickson, Amos Hicks^ 
Asa Adams, Richard Clark, G. Wilkerson, Samuel Hicks, Esther Hicks, 
Lucy and Anna Wilkerson, Clarissa Cross, Rachel Corbett, Sophia 
Tenney, Phebe Hickox, Polly Adams and Susanna Gregory. Elder 
Clark was the first pastor, and Timothy Lane first deacon. The first 
church edifice was built in 1830, and stood half a mile south of the vil- 
lage, but was removed to the settlement in 1842. Substantially rebuilt 
and enlarged, it compares favorably with the other churches of the 
place. The present membership numbers about i 50, with a Simday 
school of about seventy-five attendants The present pastor is Rev. 
William L. Ferguson, who came to the pastorate in December, 1892, 
succeeding Rev. C. C. Maxfield. The board of trustees comprises 
Elam A. Cross, Dennis Taber and Hanford Bass. 

The Freewill Baptist Church of Parma dates its organization in the 



THE TOWN OF TARMA. 345 

town as far back as September 29, 1831, at which time Elder Samuel 
Whitcomb formed the society at a meeting held at Wright's school 
house. The original membersiiip was large and included many of the 
most substantial families in the northern part of the town. The first 
deacons were George Limbocker and James Henry ; clerk, Jason Tyler. 
The first settled minister was Elder S. Bathericke. The original mem- 
bers numbered twenty, and from its earliest history this has been one 
of the strongest and most influential church societies in Parma. Previous 
to 1838 the society held its meetings in school houses, but in the year 
mentioned a plain frame edifice was erected at Unionville. In 1884 the 
old building was removed and put to use for mercantile occupancy, and 
in its stead was built the present large and attractive church edifice, 
costing about $8,000, one of the best in all respects in the northern 
part of the county. The edifice was dedicated January i, 1885. The 
present membership numbers about 200 persons, and the congregations 
are drawn from Parma, Greece, Hamlin and Clarkson. The Sunday 
school has about 140 in average attendance. The present pastor. Rev, 
George R. Holt, came to the church in April, 1888, succeeding Rev. 
G R. Foster. The trustees of the society are Ira L. Cross, Peter E. 
Smith, Irving Hincher, William Smith, James Smith, Rollin B. Wood 
and Warren Amidon. Deacons, Charles E. Miller, James Smith, 
Lodisca Hiscock, Warren Amidon. 

The First Methodist Episcopal church of North Parma was the result 
of a consolidation of older societies of the same denomination, and was 
formed in 1883 and '84, the new edifice at the village being dedicated 
on Thanksgiving day of the latter year. This being accomplished the 
former separate societies having their respective plans of meeting at 
North Parma, north of the village, and at Parma Center, were dissolved. 
The new edifice was built at a cost of about $8,000. The membership 
numbers about eighty, under the present pastorate of Rev John Milton 
Dodson, successor to Rev. Joseph Criswell. The trustees are Joseph 
E Anderson, Albert D. Cosman, Thomas Bartlett, Isaac H. Curtis, 
Chauncey M. Chattin, W. B. Newton, Franklin Smith, James Wheeler, 
and Wesley Garlock. 

The Methodist Episcopal church of North Parma, which was dissolved 

on the formation of the consolidated societ}' at the villuge, was organ- 
44 



346 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

ized in 1826, the first class having but five mtiiibers, and met with the 
Center society until 1846, when a separation was made. About this 
time the stone church was built, and located one and one half miles 
north of the village. The first trustees were Philander Curtis, J. M. 
Hiscock, John Smith and J. Hartwell. 

The )'Oungest of the religious societies of North Parma is the Roman 
Catholic church, the parish being furnished with a church house about 
1885, and including in its membership the Catholic families of Northern 
Parma, and also part of Hamlin and Greece. The pastorate is an out 
mission from Spencerport. The church edifice, a neat and comfortable 
structure, stands in the north part of the village. 

In a convenient location and about two miles northeast from North 
Parma village is the church house of the members of the Free Metho- 
dist church of North Parma, the organization of which was perfected Jan- 
uary 7, 1863, at a meeting held at the Bartlett's Corners school house. 
The house of worship was erected in 1867, at a cost of about $3,000. 
This church lorms a part of a circuit composed of the stations of North 
Chili, West Greece, Parma Center and North Parma. The last pastor 
Rev. Lysander Day Southworth, who died January 7, 1895. The circuit 
membership is about 150. 

Parma Center is a hamlet situated near the geographical center of the 
town and on the lands settled by pioneers Austin and Roswell Atchin- 
son, the former having built the first house in the vicinity. It stood 
where Mr. Odell's house is. Asa Peck set up a blacksmith shop at the 
Corners in 1829, and in i83oChauncey A. Knox, who came from I'^aton, 
Madison county, opened a store here. He was in business thirty- six 
years and was succeeded by Rodney P. Odell. In 1865 -^sa Leonard 
followed Odell, and was in turn succeeded by Mill & Campbell, and the 
latter in 1 870 by William H. Denniston, who still continues in business, 
and is regarded as one of the most active men of the town. In 1862 
and '68 other stores were opened at the Corners, but of all, that now 
owned by Mr. Denniston alone survives. 

The regularly organized church societies have had houses of worship 
at the Center, the Presbyterian, the Free Methodist and the Methodist 
Episcopal, the latter now having been consolidated with the North 
church and its seat of operations transferred to North Parma. In the 



THE TOWN OF PARMA. 347 

Center region Methodist services were held as early as about 1 804, but 
not until about 181 i was a class organization effected, and not until 
January 29, 1827, was the church fully formed. The first trustees were 
Asa Atchinson, Austin Atchinson, Philander Curtis, Leonard Bragg 
and John Potter ; first pastor, N. B. Dodson. The church edifice on 
the southeast corner was built in I 830, of brick construction and a sub- 
stantial structure. The society held its organization until a union with 
the church was deemed advisable, after which the building passed into 
other hands. It is now owned by Mr. Denniston and occupied as a 
storehouse. 

The Presb}terian church of Parma Center was organized March 29, 
1829, and Roswell Atchinson donated the society a parcel of land for a 
church edifice. The original members were Daniel Clark, sr., Daniel 
Clark, jr., Emelia and Orpha Clark, Clarissa Patterson, Harriet Vansise, 
Nicholas Kipp, Jane Post, Isabel Van Tuyl, Hannah Pulitt, Phebe 
Gager, Lucius and Abby Peck. In 1831 the church edifice was erected, 
the town contributing to the building fund with the understanding that 
the building should be used for necessary town purposes; for it must 
be understood that tlie Center was for many years the seat of opera- 
tions of all town business and the clerk for a long time kept the records 
there. However, in 1842 doctrinal dissensions found their way into the 
society and the result was a dissension in the church, the withdrawal of 
sixty members and the formation of a Congregational society with Rev. 
Shubael Carver at its head. The Carver society retained possession of 
the church building, but after he left town his followers lost their foot- 
hold and their organization ceased. Soon afterward the building was 
sold and torn down. Throughout this period the original societj' pre- 
served its organization, holding services in various localities in the town 
until 1844, when the present church edifice was built at the Center. 
The membership numbers about seventy persons at the present time. 
The last pastor was Rev. G. L. Hamilton. The trustees are Andrew 
Warren, Isaac M. Castle and James H. Breeze. Deacons, Andrew 
Warren, Thomas Jackling, Thomas Breeze, Hugh Johnson and Isaac M. 
Castle. 

Parma Corners, situated at the intersection of the Canawaugus and 
Ridge roads, is perhaps the most historic of the villages of the town, 



348 LANDMARKS oF MONROK CuUiN'TY. 

altliougli from a business standpoint the hamlet has never attained any 
Considerable importance. liere settled pioneers Hope and Elisha Davis 
in 1805, and in 1809 these worthy brothers built and opened the first 
public hmise in the town. Tiiis building at once gave the Corners an 
unusual local importance and during the early history of the Ridge road 
the hotel was a famous resort ; and notwithstanding the fact that other 
taverns were soon afterward built, that of Davis brothers for along time 
maintained a supremac}'. It was a log building and near it was a large 
framed barn, both standing near the site afterward used for the Insti- 
tute building. Levi Talmadge became its proprietor in 181 1 and dur- 
ing his regime the house became famous. Still later proprietors were 
landU)rds Rochester, Montgomery and McKnight. A second public house 
was built here about 1816 by one Bentley, while the Tillotson House 
was third. In 1 81 8 Davis Goodell succeeded landlord Bentley and 
named his hotel " Goodell House," and in this house it is claimed that 
Morgan, the recalcitrant Mason, was last seen. However, so many hotels 
and localities are liistoric for the same cause the reader may accept the 
above statement with proper allowance. On the northwest corner in 
1820 LeviTalmadgebuilt alarge hotel. A littletothewestwasbuiltin 1816 
Zolved Stevens's distillery, that indispensable requisite to the success of 
the Ridge at that time. Mr. S. also built a hotel near his " still " and 
did a good business on the road. In fact the early histor}' of the Cor- 
ners was by far the richest, and the same is also true of the whole 
Ridge road region. At one time there were in operation in the imme- 
diate vicinity of Parma Corners no less than four or five hotels, at least 
one distillery and three stores. There was also projected a race course 
in which Rochester capital was to be largely interested, and this mere 
suggestion resulted in the building of another large hotel west of 
the distillery and on the farm now owned by the Webster family. In 
1825 Randall Curtis built a tannery near the distillery, and about 1830 
Henry Stevens put up another hotel. Now, after a lapse of seventy 
years, the Corners, and in fact the Ridge in Parma, has but one hotel, 
neither distillery or tannery, and but two stores. 

The Parma Institute was one -of the most praiseworthy enterprises 
ever in operation in the town, and productive of great good during its 
brief career. The school was organized September 14, 1858, at a meet- 



THE TOWN OF PARMA. 349 

iiig ill the Baptist church, at which time a board of fourteen trustees 
was chosen. J. Tripp was elected president. James GorsHne, secretary, 
and J. M. Webster, treasurer. Under favorable conditions the school 
was opened, the old hotel building at the northwest of the four corners 
being utilized for the purpose. Later on it was moved across the street 
and attached to tlie new building erected for the school. The Institute 
was maintained with varying success until 1863, and then sold at forced 
sale. It was purchased by seven of the old trustees, and by them leased 
to Prof. Williams for one year. The i)revious principals were Profs. 
Robinson, Blennerhassett and Palmer. However, as an investment the 
Parma Institute proved unfortunate for its worthy corporators, and all 
efforts to sustain it properly were unavailing In 1 870 Prof. S. W. 
Clark, an educator and manager of excellent repute, came to the relief 
of the stockholders and undertook to establish the school on a secure 
footing. A virtual reorganization was effected in the directory and a 
capable corps of instructors was engaged, but notwithstanding this 
determined effort five years of vicissitudes proved clearly that the school 
could not be profitably operated ; hence it was closed and the building 
sold to the third school district. It is now used in part as a fruit house. 

The present business interests of Parma Corners comprise the stores 
of Judson Knickerbocker and Francis A. Castle, and a few small shops 
such as are incident to similar hamlets. There is also a hotel and an 
Odd Fellows' hall. 

Parma Lodge No. 199 was instituted in 1868, and after about seven 
years of successful life was provided with a good hall, which it now 
occupies. More than this, the lodge has a good invested fund of avail- 
able moneys The members number about fifty. The officers are Charles 
Collins. N. G. ; William Behler, V. G. ; Miles Upton, rec. sec'y ; D. M. 
Farrier, perm, sec'y ; Frank Huber, treas. 

The Baptist church of Parma Corners was organized January 10, 
1832, by Rev. C. Hartshorn, with twenty- four members. The church 
edifice was built in 1837 ^^^ 's located east of the Corners a few rods. 
This society has ever been one of the permanent institutions of the 
town, and the church edifice has been kept in remarkably good repair. 
The present members numbers 129, and in the Sunday school are 120 
regular attendants. The trustees of the society are Eroy D. Hillman, 



350 LANDMAN K:=^ OF MONROE COUNTY. 

G. A. Smith, Nathan Meserve and Joliti M. Sweeting. Tlie present 
pastor is Rev. A. F. Groesheck, settled September 20, 1894 

In the eastern part of the town, on the Hnc between Parma and 
Greece are two other cluirch edifices, and kncnvn, respectively, as the 
First Congregational church of Parma and Greece, and the Church of 
Christ of Parma and Greece. The first mentioned of these churches 
was organized at Parma Corners. December 2. 18 19, and included in its 
membership a large number of the best families of both towns The 
first pastor was Rev. SoUniion Allen. The church edifice was erected 
during the \ears 1824 and '25 and is located on the town line, a portion 
of the structure being in each town. This society enjoyed a life of 
prosperity and success from its formation until within the last half score 
of years, when declining interest compelled the suspension of its pas- 
torate. 

The Church of Christ, located two miles further north, although 
smaller in number of members from first to last, has ever maintained 
its organization and is now in good condition. It was formed in 1830 
and drew its membership from both towns The society was legally 
incorporated in 1843, and in the next year the church edifice was built. 
The membership numbers about seventy-five persons, and in connec- 
tion with the regular worship services is a good Sunday school. 

The proper education of the youth of the town has ever been held an 
important object among the people of Parma, and since the earliest his- 
tory of the town ample provision lias been made to accomplish this end. 
Well authenticated tradition informs us that Daniel Arnold taught the 
first school in a log house owned by Bezaleel Atchinson and standing 
near his residence, while the first regular school was taught by Alpheus 
Madden, beginning in 1804, also located near the Center. At Hunt's 
Corners Michael Beach was the first pedagogue. In 181 5 Unionville 
was provided with a school and about three years later the Cross dis- 
trict was likewise organized. The work of districting the town began 
in April, i8i3,and Norman Dawson, Oliver Gates, Josiah Fish, Enos 
Pembrooke and Elisha Cross comprised the committee to make the 
division. 

From this humble beginning the present school system has grown, 
and now, more complete, thorough and comprehensive than ever before 



THE TOWN OF PENFIELD. 351 

in its history. According to the present arrangement, the town com- 
prises fifteen districts, and each has its school house. Seventeen teach- 
ers are employed. The assessed value of the town is $1,972,674, and 
the value of school property is $16,625. The number of children of 
school age is 892 and the average daily attendance is 432. As shown 
by Commissioner Brainard's last report, the amount of public moneys 
received for school purposes in the town was $2,323.35, while the town 
raised by tax $5,537.84. There was paid to the teachers during the 
last year $5,420.41 and all other expenses amounted to $2,617.13. 



CHAPTER XII. 
THE TOWN OF PENFIELD. 

An early writer of local history in describing the town of Penfield as 
it was previous to the year 1824, said : " A post township in the north- 
east corner of Monroe county, ten miles east of Rochester. On the 
west it embraces a part of ' Teoronto Bay,' the boundary towards 
Brighton, and it has some streamlets that run into the lake, and one, 
the largest, into the head of the bay. The area of this town (which 
then included Webster) is about sixty- seven square miles, and it has th5 
greatest aggregate population of any one in the county (population in 
1820 was 3,224). The land all descends northward and is inferior in 
quality to many other towns, in soil and other advantages." 

Such was a reasonable and fair description of Penfield as constituted 
in 1824, and from other records and known events in connection with 
the early times of the town, we may infer that the writer was in no 
manner prejudiced in his statements. The town indeed was an unde- 
sirable region during the first twenty-five years of the century, and 
more than one speculative land proprietor gladly released himself from 
his investments here. Phelps and Gorham of course acquired title from 
Massachusetts, and the Indians of this State, but about 1790 sold the 
township to General Jonathan F'assett, a Vermont Yankee. This ad- 
venturous pioneer visited his purchase and made some small improve- 



352 LANDMARK.^ OF MONROK COUNTY. 

ments, but the situation of the town and its malarial districts were 
rather too much for even his Yankee determination, and the result was 
in his abandoning the purchase and its subsequent sale to Mr. Ham, of 
New Jersey, the consideration being, it is said, somewhat less than was 
paid for the town by the general. 

Proprietor Ham sold the town to General Silas Pt-poon, reserving to 
himself a two hundred acre tract iibout a mile north of Penfield vil- 
lage. Pepooii in turn sold to Samuel P. Lloyd, and the latter, in i8iO, 
disposed of all that then remained unsold, to Daniel Penfield. In this 
year the town was separated from the motlier district of Boyle, and, in- 
clusive of Webster, was given a distinct organization under the name of 
" Penfield," and so called in honor of Daniel Penfield, the final proprie- 
tor. Webster was set off from Penfield February 6, 1840, thus reduc- 
ing the area of this town to 22,004 acres, as now constituted. 

General Jonathan Fassett is perhaps entitled to be named as the pio- 
neer of this town, although he gave up the attempt to make even for 
himself a permanent home here. He came soon after his purchase, 
in 1 791, and at the same time also came Jonathan Fassett, jr., his son, 
and Mr. Maybee, all locating near the old Indian landing place, about 
three miles below the village. However, previous to this time Asa 
Carpenter had dwelt in the town, and in fact the whole region, but was 
hardly regarded as a settler or pioneer. Others like him had also been 
here, for the region was indeed one of the most desirable hunting 
grounds of the State, and trappers, fishers and hunters had their huts 
and cabins in plenty. 

In 1 791 Caleb Hopkins made a permanent settlement near Ironde- 
quoit Falls, and was regarded as the pioneer in fact of the town. Dur- 
ing the next ten years, very little was done in the way of settlement, 
the proprietors giving more attention to getting out of what they con- 
sidered a bad bargain rather than developing the latent resources of the 
town. But be it said to the praise of Penfield, that although its lands 
were originally much depressed, marshy and exceedingly unhealthy, 
when once cleared and drained proved to be one of the most fertile dis- 
tricts of Monroe county; and in 1820 was more populous than any 
town in the region. If the inhabitant of the three-quarters of a cen- 
tury ago could now visit Penfield and note the fertility and general 





ULS^ 



^^/^ 



;^t*/^ 



THE TOWN OF PENFIELD. • 353 

agricultural worth of the town, he would indeed be surprised to think 
that Mr. Wadsworth *' would not take it as a gift," as he is charged 
with having said when seeking purchases in the Genesee country. 

However, returning to the subject of early settlement, we may note 
the arrival in i8oi of Libbeus Ross and Calvin Clark and their families, 
and in 1804 of John Hipp and his family from New Jersey, among the 
latter six children, Margaret, James, Leonard, John, Mary and Betsey, 
who in later years became associated prominently in local events. 
Other settlers in 1 804 were Josiah J. Kellogg, Daniel Stilwell, Benjamin 
Minor, Henry Paddock, Herrington Baker and the three sons of the 
latter, David, Jonathan and Elisha Joseph and John Fuller, Deacon 
Peter Marlett and the Monroe and Southwick families were settlers of 
about the same period. Later comers, yet all pioneers, were Abner 
Coles, Samuel Rich, Mr. Bronson, John Shoecraft and his sons William, 
James, John and Peter, also William Harris, John Stroger, Jacob Perrin 
(for whom Perinton was named), Elijah Case. William McKinstry, 
Brooks Mason, Solomon and Alexander Case, Seth Crowell, Ebenezer 
Peet, Nathaniel Case, Alpheus Clark, Gerdon Lewis, C. Prentice, and 
the families Tuttle, Fiske, Amsden and Smith, whose christian names 
are forgotten. There were also Dr. Daniel Armes, Jacob Bryant, Dr. 
Dake, all at Penfield village, and Henry Fuller, Oliver Kingsbury, Ja- 
bez Matthews, Joseph Hatch, Daniel Penfield, Benjamin Weeks, and 
others, all of whom did their share in the early development of the town, 
which, when they came here, was at best an uninviting region. 

Nothwithstanding all the discouragements which attended early set- 
tlement in Penfield, the town increased rapidly in population and pro- 
ductiveness, and here lands were much more reasonable in price than 
elsewhere. As a result of this we find the number of inhabitants in 18 14 
to be 1,874. It is small wonder, therefore, that an early division of 
Boyle, became necessary to suit the convenience of the people in this 
vicinity. This was accomplished March 30, 18 10, and the jurisdiction 
then created included all that is now Penfield and Webster. 

The first town meeting was held the school house near William Mc- 
Kinstry's, on April 20, 181 1, at which time officers were elected as fol- 
lows: William McKinstry. supervisor; Brooks Mason, town clerk; 

Nathaniel Case, Charles P. Moore, Josiah J. Kellogg, assessors ; Caleb 
45 



354 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Lyon, John Shoecraft and David Lee, road commissioners ; Benjamin 
Tripp and W. Spears, overseers of the poor; Daniel Wilson, collector; 
Daniel Wilson, Joseph J. Shew and Reuben Bailey, constables. 

In this connection it is interesting to note the succession of supervi- 
sors of Penfield from the organization of the town to 1895, excepting 
the years between iSi/and 1822, the records of which are not be found. 
The list is as follows : Wm. McKinstry, 1811; William Spears, 1812-16; 
Henry Fellows, 1817, and 1821-29; Byron Woodhull, 1829-30; Al- 
pheus Crocker, 1831-32; B. Woodhull, 1833-35 > A. Crocker, 1836-37; 
Anson Beardslee, 1838 ; Joseph Patterson, 1839 ; Daniel E. Lewis, 1840- 
41 ; Ebenezer L. Gage, 1842; Isaac T. Raymond, 1843-44; Daniel E. 
Lewis, 1845; I- T. Raymond, 1846; D. E. Lewis, 1847-51; Elias 
Beach, 1852; James Harris, 1853; Alanson Higbie, 1854; James 
Harris,' 1855-56; Albert H. King, 1857; Oliver C. Ross, 1858; James 
Harris, 1859; Daniel Fuller, i860; Fairchild Andrus, 1861-63 ; James 
Harris, 1864-65 ; Orestes Case, 1866; James Harris, 1867-75 J Alan- 
son Higbie, 1876-78; Charles N. Leonard, 1879-80; George W. 
Clark, 1881-83 ; Irving B. Eldridge, 1884-85 ; George A. Raymond, 
1886-87 ; Charles N. Leonard, 1888-89; George W. Clark, 1890-93 ; 
Charles C. Raymond, 1894-95. 

The town officers for the year 1895 are Charles C. Raymond, super- 
visor; G. C. Schemerhorn, town clerk; Guy McGowan, H. C. Fuller, 
James K. Kennedy and George I. Eldridge, justices of the peace ; J. H. 
Gaston, A. F. Church and Thomas Blood, assessors ; Burr F. Northrup, 
overseer of the poor ; C. E. Schutt, collector ; William Fellows, road 
commissioner ; J. G. Haskell, W. H. Brewer, Jerome Rundel, excise 
commissioners ; J. G. Fisk, W. G. Eldridge, Perry Howe, Leonard 
Smith and Fred B. Thompson, constables. 

As evidence of substantial growth in Penfield we have but to refer to 
the census reports. As has been stated the town in 1814 had a popu- 
lation of 1,874, and in 1820 the number of inhabitants had increased to 
3,224, then being the largest town in the county. Ten years later, or 
in 1830, the population was 4,474 but the erection of Webster in 1840, 
taking from the mother town 20,241 acres of land, also reduced the lo- 
cal population to 2,842. During the next ten years a slight increase 
was made, the number in 1850 being 3,185. In i860 it was 3,210; in 



TfiE TOWN OF PENFIELD. 355 

1870 was 2,928 ; in 1880 was 2,955 '■> ^"d in 1890 was 2,845 > o*" about 
the same as in 1840. 

Irondequoit creek has for many years been noted for the excellence 
of its water power ; in truth much of the prosperity of the town, and 
particularly of the village, during more recent years, may be attributed 
to this fact. In 1820 the industries of the town comprised two grist 
mills, four saw mills, one fulling mill, one carding machine, one distillery, 
three asheries and two tanneries. The first manufacturing establishment 
in the town was probably the old trip-hammer started in 1800 by Mr. 
Bronson. The first distillery was that of William McKinstry, built in 
1810, and the second was John Hipp's. Daniel Penfield, Alpheus 
Clark, Josiah J. Clark and Josiah J. Kellogg were later distillers in the 
town ; the last was that of Henry Fellows, about 1835. In 1806 Mr. 
Penfield built a saw mill in the Hollow, and afterward a grist mill. In 
18 15 Nathaniel Case built a grist mill on Irondequoit creek, and about 
two years later Nelson Fullam also had a grist mill. About 1805 Capt. 
Benjamin Minor built a fulling mill on the creek, and in 18 15 a cloth 
factory was also erected. The first tannery was built about 18 12, by 
Henry Fellows. Other kindred industries were started at various times, 
but to recall them all would be difficult and not specially interesting. 

Penfield Village. — This pretty and progressive little hamlet had its 
origin in the establishment of these milling enterprises on Irondequoit 
creek, and they led to the starting of several stores in the village proper. 
Among the early business men here were McKinstry & Adams, Gilson 
& Penfield, Penfield & Clark, Rich & Ward, Bryant & Ely, Orange 
Owen, S H. Scoville, Carpenter & Matthews, Griffin & Randall, Kil- 
mer & Skidder, Kellogg & Minor and Joseph Vanness. Henry 
Amsden was an early hotel keeper, as were also Robert Staring, Jona- 
than Baker, and others. A post-office was established here about iSlO, 
and Oliver Kingsbury was the first postmaster ; the second was Jacob 
B. Bryant. 

In 1827 the Penfield Academy was established and the building con- 
structed with money raised by subscription. It was granted a pro- 
visional charter by the regents, and was incorporated October 8, 1857, 
and then called Penfield Seminary. In later years this old institution 
lost its corporate character but to the present time has been supported 



356 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

liberally. It is now a first-class graded school, eniplo)'ing four teach- 
ers, and in it are taught about 175 pupils The present trustees are 
James Haskell, M. C Ryan and George Leonard. 

The fire department apparatus of the village comprises one good hand- 
engine, 300 feet of hose and other necessary equipment 

The present manufacturing interests of the locality are the Lincoln 
flour mills, water power, stone building, operated by March, Austin & 
Co., the Penfield flour mills, water-power, stone building, operated by 
John Webb ; the Lawless Paper Company, water power, stone building ; 
the frame saw mill of George Westerman. Mercantile and business in- 
terests are represented by the general stores of Ockenden & Unglish, 
W. J. Hipp, E. J. Hawkins, and the customary repair shops found in 
hamlets of like condition and population. There are also two hotels, 
the Penfield House and the Sherman House. The village has a popu- 
lation of about 300, and is situate one and one-half miles from the 
Central railroad. 

Penfield Center and East Penfield are hamlets which in the early his- 
tory of the town, were of some importance, but now are mere trading 
or visiting points. Local interests in all such settlements have suffered 
seriously during the past thirty or forty years, those of Penfield in com- 
mon with the majority. However, each of these hamlets is in the cen- 
ter of a fertile agricultural region, peopled with a thrifty and industrious 
class. 

Like Webster, Penfield is noted for the number and substantial 
quality of its church and religious organizations. Indeed, one of the 
first religious societies of the whole region was formed and had an abid- 
ing place within what is now the town. This was the First Presbyte- 
rian church of Penfield, organized February 7, 1806, in the locality now 
called the village. Even previous to this, however, and as early as 
1804, a Congregational society had been formed in the town, the latter 
organization on the 7th of February, 1806, resolving itself into the society 
first noted. The first members were Elisha and Sarah Sheldon, Sam- 
uel Stone, Abraham and Mary Barnum, Thomas and Esther Brooks, 
William and Love Spear, Huldah White, Daniel and Esther Wilson, 
Josiah Kellogg, Rachel Perrin and John Stroger. The earliest pastors 
are unknown, the records being lost, but in 18 16, Asa Carpenter offici- 




^ jL-i^^h<^.^^^/^Z^%^^^^€a^ 



THE TOWN OF PENFIELD. 357 

ated in that capacit}', followed by Gerritt Hollenbeck, Eber Childs, 
Lemuel Brooks, Elijah Buck, Simeon Peck, Conrad Ten Eyck, Moses 
Ordway and others. In 1825 the first church edifice was built, on a 
lot donated by Daniel Penfield. It was a fine brick structure, having a 
capacity for seating four hundred persons. At one time in its history, 
about 1840, the membership in this church aggregated one hundred 
and forty persons, but in later years the number became materially 
reduced, and a struggling and feeble existence only was maintained. 
The society of the German Methodist church purchased the Presbyte- 
rian edifice and now occupies the building. The last mentioned church 
is a comparatively recent organization, but since its formation has had 
a progressive record. It is at present under tiie pastoral care of Rev. 
A. Schlenck. 

The Baptist church of Penfield has a history equally important with 
that of the old Presbyterian society, and, unlike the latter, has been 
perpetual in its record and existence. It was the direct outgrowth of 
the Baptist church of Northfield, which was granted letters by the Pal- 
myra church as early as 1803, but the local church dates its organiza- 
tion from the following year. In 1813 the membership was about 
seventy- five. Among the earliest ministers here were Elders Joseph 
Case, Bartlett Dake, Benjamin Calkins, Nehemiah Lamb, Thomas Tut- 
tle, Joseph Monroe, Joseph Maltby, Jason Corwin, Norman Bentley and 
others. In 1822 the Northfield and Penfield societies became united 
and together erected a little frame edifice about three-fourths of a mile 
east of Penfield village. In 1847 ^ little chapel known as " Bethel," was 
built at Lovett's Corners, and here was maintained an out post from 
the mother church. Other offshoots of this church have been those at 
Pittsford, Perinton, Walworth and Webster. The present active 
members of the Penfield church number one hundred, although the 
rolls show a total membership since organization of more than one 
thousand persons. The present pastor is Rev. M V. Wilson. 

Methodism in Penfield dates its beginning from the little informal 
meetings held as early as the year 1 806. at the dwelling of pioneer John 
Hipp, under the class leadership of Stephen Graves of Lima. The mem- 
bers of the first-class were Lucy Owen, Phebe Chase, Phebe Hill, Sarah 
Barrett, Lucy Williams and Lois Mann. John Tillotson was also an 



358 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

early class leader. The Methodist Episcopal church of Penfield had its 
origin in the primitive meetings mentioned, although the society 
organization was not perfected until about 1830. Four years later a 
building was purchased and fitted up for purposes of pubHc worship by 
the society, and still later modifications remodeled the building entirely, 
the result being a suitable church edifice. This church has been con- 
tinued, both in history and progress, and now has 150 members. The 
pastor is Rev. L. T. Foot 

The Freewill Baptist church of Penfield, otherwise known as the 
East Penfield brick church, was organized in 1829, though early meet- 
ings of this denomination were frequently held in the town at a previ- 
ous date. The brick church edifice was erected in 1830. and was 
located on the old stage road, about a mile east of East Penfield. The 
present pastor of this church is Rev. R. W. Pickett. 

St. Joseph's church, German Roman Catholic, was organized in 1872 
as an out post of St. Joseph's church in Rochester, and by the pastor 
of the latter church, Father Pingel. The church edifice was also built 
in 1872. This church and parish are in charge of Rev. Father Preeble. 

The other church organizations and societies of Penfield are the Ger- 
man church whose edifice is located in the eastern part of the town, 
under the pastorate of Rev. F. Feegen, and the Advent church, also 
regularly organized but having no present pastor. The edifice of the 
"Tract" church, as the first mentioned is called, is a plain yet sub- 
stantial frame building; that of the Advent society is of brick con- 
struction. 

The old town records furnish but little information concerning the 
first or even any of the early schools of the town. It is understood, 
however, that the first school was that opened in the village and taught 
by Joseph Hatch, and that later the town was divided into districts and 
schools established in each as fast as settlement justified such action. 
In 1820, while Webster formed a part of Penfield, the distriets num- 
bered nineteen, and the whole number of children in the town between 
the ages of five and fifteen years was 1,067. In 1835 the districts num- 
bered twenty-five, and children of school age, 1,627. In 1858 the dis- 
tricts numbered twelve, and children 1,111. At the present time the 
town contains fourteen school districts, while the number of children of 



THE TOWN OF PBRINTON. 359 

school age is 728. For their instruction fourteen teachers are annually 
employed, and, in 1894, were paid in wages the sum of $4,038.16. In 
that year there was apportioned to Penfield public moneys amounting 
to $1,872.78, added to which the town raised by tax $2,905.09, and 
received from other sources $173.45. The total amount of money 
available for school purposes for the year ending July 31, 1894, was 
$5,168.72. Districts No. 4 and 12 have no school house, and of the 
twelve school buildings in the town six are of frame, five of brick, and 
one of stone. The total value of school property in Penfield is esti- 
mated at $12,325. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE TOWN OP PERINTON. 

When the county of Ontario was formed in 1789 it extended north- 
ward to Lake Ontario and in other directions far enough to include 
within its boundaries several of the present counties of western New 
York. The present towns of Monroe county east of the Genesee River 
and north of Rush and Mendon, were, in 1794 organinzed into a town- 
ship named Northfield. In 1796 a town meeting was held and Silas 
Nye elected supervisor and Dr. John Ray town clerk, which office he 
held continuously until 18 13. A little later, probably in 1798, the name 
of tlie township was changed to Boyle. Other supervisors of North- 
field and Boyle were Noah Norton, Ezra Patterson. Augustus Gris- 
wold, William McKinstry. Caleb Hopkins, Stephen Lusk and Samuel 
SpafTord. At subsequent dates the territory of Boyle was divided into 
the several towns now forming the northeastern part of Monroe county. 
Perinton was erected into a town May 26, 18 12. Its first town meet- 
ing was held April 6, the following year, in Egypt and the officials 
elected were : supervisor, Cyrus Packard ; town clerk, Amasa Slocum ; 
assessors, Elisha Slocum, Joseph Beal and Charles Aldrich; commis- 
sioners of highways, Olney Staples, John Scott and David Stout; poor- 
masters, Thomas Ramsdell and Stephen Eaton. A vacancy occurring 



360 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY 

in the office of constable and collector a year later, justices Cyrus Pack- 
ard, David Sniitii and Asa Wilmarth appointed Elisha Slocum. For 
many years town meetings were held in the Center school house (No. 
3) later at Bushnell's Basin, Fullamtown and Egypt without regular 
order, but for more than half a century Fairport has been the chosen 
place. Prior to the formation of Monroe county, in 18 Ji, Charles Al- 
drich, Peter Ripley and William S Gregory served as supervisors. 
From 1821 to 1895 the roll is thjs : 1821-24, Reuben Willey ; 1825, 
William S. Gregory ; 1826-29 Reuben Willey; 1830, J. D. Thomp- 
son ; 183 r, Reuben Willey; 1832. J. D. Thompson; 1833-34, Enoch 
Strong; 1835-36, John Peters; 1837, Abisha Goodell; 1838, Anson 
Beardslee ; 1839, Florace Lee ; 1840, Anson Beardslee ; 1 841, Lorenzo 

D. Ely; 1842, Darius Talman ; 1843. Joshua F. Jones; 1844, Darius 
Talman ; 1845, Enoch Strong; 1846, William A. Lockwood ; 1847, 
Anson Beardslee; 1848, Enoch Strong; 1849-50, Charles H. Dickin- 
son; 185 I, J. S.Baker; 1852, T. D. Walker ; 1853. J- S. Baker ; 1854. 
G. L. G. Seeley ; 1855, Jacob B. O'Dell ; 1856, Joshua F. Jones ; 1857, 
Jacob B. O'Dell ; 1858-60, T. W. Dickinson ; 1861. William P. Chase ; 
1862, C. H. Dickinson; 1863, E. B. Strong ; 1864-65, A. C. Hill ; 1866, 
J. G. Aldrich ; 1867-68, Jesse B. Hannan ; 1869-71, G. L. G. Seeley; 
1872, G. F Wilcox; 1873-74, William P. Chase; 1875-76, G. L G. 
Seeley; 1877-80, H. A. De Land ; 1881-86, Jesse B. Hannan; 1887, 
P. McAulifife ; 1888-89, T. G. Jones ; 1890, F. A. Defendorf ; 1891-95, 

E. L. Hodskin. 

Piojteers and Eai'ly Settlevient. — The Phelps and Gorham purchase of 
territory extended from the Pennsylvania State line to Lake Ontario. 
In the survey the range lines were run north and south six miles apart. 
The east and west cross lines were also six miles apart, thus dividing 
the tract into townships six miles square. 

In the northwestern portion east and west of the Genesee river, con- 
ditions made a departure from this regularity necessary, and the town- 
ships were not of uniform size and shape. Perinton, which in the origi- 
nal survey, was No. 12 on range 4. from the east boundary of the pur- 
chase, was one of the six miles square townships, and lias not suffered 
any change in its original boundaries It falls short, however, of six 
miles east and west, a fault due, perhaps, to the deflection of the needle 




JOHN AYRAULT. 



THE TOWN OF PERINTON. 361 

when running the range hnes. In 1789 the entire township passed by 
purchase into the possession of William Walker, land agent for Phelps and 
Gorham. Judge Porter is authority for the statement that Walker sold 
to Daniel Penfield and the latter to a Mr. Duncan. In the summer of 
1789 or '90, Caleb Walker, a brother of William, moved into the town- 
ship, bringing with him Glover Perrin and his wife. They built a house 
on what has since for a long time been known as the Eaton farm, now 
owned by Purdy Ellsworth. Then they engaged in surveying the town 
into lots. Walker died within a year. Twenty-two years later when 
the town was organized from Boyle it was named Perinton in honor of 
its pioneer settler, Glover Perrin. 

Perrin cleared land and planted an orchard in nearly the center of 
what was later known as the Slocum farm, now owned by Byron Ells- 
worth. An apple orchard yet occupies the site of that first orchard in 
the town. Jesse Perrin came in 1792, cleared the site of the present 
Center burial ground, and a year later occupied the farm now owned 
by Mrs. H. B. Hamilton. In 1793 Phillip Piester, John Bice and Mr. 
Scribner settled on lands just south of Bushnell's Basin. In 1794 Abner 
Wight settled on the farm just south of Fairport, now owned by S. P. 
Howard. Asa, his son, born 1797, was the first white child born in 
the town that grew to adult age. In 1796 Samuel Bennett and wife 
settled in the center of the town and Bennett operated the first black- 
smith shop in the town. John Kelley settled in 1797 on a farm east of 
the Center, now owned by G. G. Denise. He went to Honeoye to mill 
and to Palmyra to church. Caleb Lyndon in 1800 bought the present 
known Beardsley farm. About the same time the Ramsdell family 
came in and bought a large tract east of the Center at what is now 
known as Egypt. They were successful in growing large crops of corn, 
and in a year of scarcity settlers came there from long distances to buy. 
Hence the name of the hamlet, Egypt. For more than half a century 
the Ramsdell family was a prominent one in the town. Gideon was a 
well known Friend and abolitionist and his house was a favorite way 
station on the underground railroad from the South to Canada for the 
fugitive slave. 

The Slocums — Amasa, Elisha, Benjamin and Smith, came in 1804 
and settled near the Center. In 1806 came to the vicinity of P^gypt 

46 



362 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Oliver Loud, Cyrus Packard, L. Lapham, E. Bateman and S. Aldrich. 
In 1809 OIney and David Staples settled about a mile west of Egypt, 
and in 18 10 James Hannan bought a farm adjoining the first settled by 
Perrin. David Cady and father, David Woolsey, David Barker, John 
Knickerbocker, and the Treadwells were other early settlers. 

Up to 1810 settlement had mainly been along an east and west strip 
a little south of the center of the town. That locality contains its most 
valuable farming land. There were no indications at that date to 
point out the future commercial and business sites or routes of trans- 
portation and travel The State road, the first in the town, was cut 
through the wilderness from Pittsford to Palmyra, the land was 
fertile, location healthy, and settlers attracted. At a later period lines 
of stages traversed this road carrying mails and passengers ; taverns 
were opened along the route and business increased. A village sprang 
up at Egypt, a stage depot was established and three taverns opened. 
A store was kept by Gregory & Co , another by Packard & Watson, 
a grist mill with two run of stone was built, a saw mill on the Aldrich 
farm, a tannery, a foundry, blacksmith, wagon and shoe shops, nurs- 
eries, post-office, and church, were among the later features of the vil- 
lage. The subsequent building of the Erie canal and the Central rail- 
road wrought a great change. Trade, manufacturers and business de- 
parted to other points. Its fertile lands remain, but of the rest, in this 
year of 1895, only the post office, a small store and a little feed mill are 
left in P^gypt. 

In 1807 Ira and Sarah Palmer settled in the northeast part of the 
town. A Mr. Barber was the only other settler then in that quarter of 
the town. Cornelius Conant and wife, Daniel Conant and wife, Park 
Brown, Miles Carter, Richard Woolsey, Stephen Whitehorn, John 
Chamberlain. Jonathan Soules, Daniel Childs and Edmund Plumb were 
earl}- settlers there. Rev. Thomas Parker was a noted pioneer preacher. 
It is recorded that he preached over eleven hundred funeral sermons. 
He died in 1865, aged seventy one years. Bennett Joy with parents 
and family came as early as 1808 to the northeast quarter of the town. 
Also George W. Downer and Ebenezer Jerrolds about 18 16. Milton 
Budlong came about 1817 when a young man of seventeen. In 1820 
he settled on twenty-five acres of land to which he added until his 



tHE TOWN OF PERINTON. 363 

estate amounted to seven hundred acres, the largest farm in the town. 
He dealt in cattle chiefly, plowing but very little. His brother, John 
Budlong, settled near him in 1823. Levi and Richard Treadwell, Mr. 
Wooden, Josiah Bristol and George Hepburn were early settlers in the 
southwestern part of the town. A Mr. Thomas settled east of the vil- 
lage of Fairport before 1800 and gave his name to Thomas creek. 
West of Fairport Isaiah Northrup settled in 1808. Two brothers, 
Andrew and Abel, located near by a little later, and another. Dr. E. 
Northrup, practiced medicine in town for twenty years. Michael Beach, 
Daniel and Roswell Terrell. Aaron Seymour, Hiram Hayes and Valen- 
tine Rowell were early settlers in that locality. 

About i8ro Peter Ripley moved into the limits of the present cor- 
poration of Fairport. His farm was on the west side of Main street and 
north of Thomas creek. In i8i6*Larry Wilcox settled on a farm across 
the street from Ripley's. He sold to Solomon Ralph, and purchased 
a farm on the hill south on the east side of the road. Opposite Wilcox, 
on the west side of the street, Martin Sperbeck bought a farm in 1817. 
The farm on the east side of Main street between Church street and 
Thomas creek, was settled by Isaac Beers in 18 16. He also owned fifty 
acres west of Main and south of Church streets, and had a log house on 
that tract. The farm on the west side of Main street, between Church 
street and Thomas creek, was owned by S. Mallett, who moved into a 
log house in 1822, situated on the present L. T. Howard lot, south, 
of Bown's block. In 18 17 Mr. Beers erected the first frame house built 
in Fairport on the lot where H. A. De Land's residence now stands. 
Beers sold to Oliver Tomlinson in 1820. Jesse Treadwell and John 
Peters owned lands in the present northeastern area of the village, and 
Amos Chad wick and Nathan Weston in the southwestern. In 1822 
the Erie canal was opened for business through the place, and seven 
log cabins, one block and one frame house made the entire village. 

Among the first constructions of the pioneers were mills for sawing 
lumber and grinding grain. The first grist mill in the town was built 
by Joseph Richardson about 18 10, on Irondequoit creek, on the Roch- 
ester road west of Fairport. The second was built in Egypt, by Pack- 
ard and Watson, in 18 18. The third was erected in 1821 in the north- 
west part of the town on Irondequoit creek by Rich, Lincoln and Lath- 



364 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

rop ; tlie fourth on Thomas creek, near its junction with the Ironde- 
quoit. The first saw mill was built on Thomas creek by Peter Ripley 
about 1812; another was built a little further clown the creek about 
I 81 7, by Iv Lewis; a third was built on Irondcquoit creek about 1820, 
by Biiiley and Richardson ; a clothing mill was connected with it. Two 
saw mills were built in I'-gypt, and one on the Irondcquoit, where the 
Palmyra road crosses it; all these saw mills vanished a generation ago. 

The pioneer period of the town of Perinton may be said to have 
ended with the opening of the Erie canal in 1822. The frame work 
upon which its future development should be built was then completed. 
The paths of its progress were plain. The half-dozen log cabins in the 
swamp at Fairport, marked the site of a town, which facilities for 
trade and transportion, should in the future, develop to one of the first 
ill the county. Thirty-one years later the direct line of the Central 
railroad was built through the town and through Fairport. But that 
event did not change the conditions of development. It only intensified 
them. 

Topography. — The area of Perinton is between twenty one and 
twenty-two thousand acres. It measures six miles north and south, 
and about five and one half east and west. Its surface is considerably 
broken and its soil of several qualities. It is abundantly watered by 
springs and streams. The water is hard from the presence of lime. 
Irondcquoit creek enters it at its southwestern corner, but in a short 
distance flows into Pittsford. re- entering Perinton northwest of Bush- 
nell's Basin, thence flowing to the northwest corner of the town. It is 
a liberal stream and furnishes good water power. The lands along this 
stream and in its valley are mostly a sandy loam. Its bluffs are abrupt 
and in many places high and of singular shapes. There is evidence 
that at some remote time an immense volume of water swept down the 
Irondcquoit valley. Thomas creek enters the town in its southeastern 
quarter, flows north and west to the valley traversed by the canal, thence 
westerly through h^airport and into the Irondcquoit about a mile and a- 
half west of the village. Its entire course east of Fairport in the town 
is through swamp lands of which a large part was once covered with 
cedar. Some smaller streams flow tnto Thomas creek. The north- 
eastern part of the town is rolled up into hills with deep valleys between 



THE TOWN OF PERINTON 366 

that were swamps, but which as the country was cleared and cuUivated 
have mostly become tillable. In the central part of the southern por- 
tion of the town is a bold and very broken range of hills known as the 
Turk hills. Some very productive farms are located on these hills and 
along their base. The hills are composed entirely of drift, and many of 
them contain immense deposits of sand and gravel. The soil is a sandy 
loam, bearing considerable clay and small stone in the subsoil. The sum- 
mit is a level plateau of several hundred acres. Here the United States 
Coast Survey had a station when mapping Lake Ontario. The plateau 
is 685 feet higher than the lake, and is the highest land in Monroe 
county. These hills are choice fruit- lands on account of their exemp- 
tion from late spring and early fall frosts, the genial soil and fine natural 
drainage. The original timber was oak, chestnut and hickory, and it 
was small and open. Except in the swamps the timber of other parts 
of the town was mainly beech and maple. The largest body of level 
land in the town lies in the northeastern part along the upper waters of 
Thomas creek. There are several hundred acres of nearly flat lands. 

In the southwest quarter of the town are two or three natural ponds. 
The larger, Bullhead pond, has an area of about forty acres. It is very 
deep, nearly circular and lies in a deep depression, the banks being 
steep and about 100 feet high, except on the southwest where a small 
stream emerges and flows into Irondequoit creek. Close to the waters 
of the Irondequoit, a little south of the West Shore railroad bridge, is a 
remarkable outflow of mineral waters, named after the late Rev. John 
Peddie, D. D., of Philadelphia. Dr. Peddie had a summer residence 
near these springs and first brought their virtues to public notice. The 
water is saline, carrying unusually large amounts of mineral constitu- 
ents and has a strong outflow. Near by are iron springs. The water 
is shipped extensively by the Fairport Crystal Rock Water Company. 

The New York Central four track and the West Shore railroads tra- 
verse the town east and west in the Thomas creek valley. The Auburn 
branch of the Central cuts through the extreme southwest corner of 
the town. 

The Erie canal enters the town at about the center of its eastern 
boundary, runs northwesterly by Fairport to within a mile and a half 
of the north and west lines of the town, then turns southwest for about 



366 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

three and one-half miles and crosses the Irondequoit valley at Bush- 
nell's Basin, The embankment there is the most expensive on the 
canal Tiit-re is a high embankment also at the (^x Bow, a mile south- 
west of Fairport, which forms a sheet of water thirty acres in extent 
and so deep that it is not drained when the canal is emptied. It is a 
famous fishing ground. Both these embankments have suffered breaks 
of great magnitude. 

The lands of Perinton yield abundantly all the products capable of 
growth in this climate. The Turk hills and the sandy loams of the 
west side, have been famous for wheat and potatoes. The stiffer soils 
yield large crops of grass, corn, small grains, and in some localities, of 
potatoes. In earlier times the rearing of cattle, sheep and horses was 
a remunerative industry. Garden products are now largely grown for 
market, especially cabbage and onions, which are shipped both east and 
west in great quantities. Asparagus, tomatoes, sweet- corn, peas and 
berries are grown for the canning factories. Cherries are very abund- 
ant and of extra quality. Vineyards, peach, quince, plum, pear and 
apple orchards flourish and yield bountifully. The Perinton farmer 
can reasonably find no fault with the soil, location and climate as fac- 
tors for making his lot happy and prosperous ; his dissatisfaction is 
with prices. 

Fairport. — Population and business made stable and fairly rapid 
"rowth in the village after the opening of the Erie canal. But there 
are no statistics to measure it in the early decades. It was the buying 
and selling point of a large and energetic body of producers. Accord- 
ing to one United States census Monroe county was only the second 
in the entire Union in the value of its agricultural productions. Proba- 
ably Perinton, in some years, has been a larger producer of potatoes 
than any other town in the United States. In 1874 its production was 
more than 220,000 bushels. The handling of farm produce has been 
since 1822 the most important and continuous business of the place. 
For thirty years it was shipped exclusively by the canal. From the 
warehouses on the banks boats were loaded with grain, apples and 
potatoes. New York buyers were in the town in fall and spring. The 
railroad after 1853 divided the transportation business with the canal, 
constantly gaining on the latter, and for several recent years not a 



THE TOWN OF PERTNTON. 367 

canal boat has been loaded in Fairport with farm produce. The most 
prominent of these old time buyers and shippers were Tomlinson & Co., 
Jeremiah Chadwick, Albert Norton, W. K. Goodrich, Vanderhoof and 
Van Norman, Charles Burlingame. 

The first store was kept by Goodell & Aiken, on the east side of Main 
street near the canal. Charles and Thomas Dickinson succeeded this 
firm and they passed the business to Hill & Hamilton Tomlinson & 
Co. were store keepers Jeremiah Chadwick kept store for a long 
time, and later was produce buyer and banker. Jacob O'Dell, Smith 
Wilbur and H. Montague Moseley were merchants before the civil 
war. G. L. G. Seeley and Mr. Ward established the first tin and hard- 
ware store about 1848. L. T. and J E. Howard conducted for many 
years a large business in blacksmithing and wagonmaking. drawing 
trade far and wide. 

The legal incorporation of Fairport was effected on the 30th of April, 
1867, by the election of officers for the village pursuant to an act passed 
by the Legislature the 12th of the same month. The first president 
was A. C. Hill ; board of trustees, O. P. Simmons, J. Y. Parce, J. E. 
Howard, Lewis Jones, T L. Hulburt and J. M. Swinnerton ; assess- 
ors, E. B. Herrinton, R. B. Hewes ; treasurer, H. Montague Moseley; 
police constable, J. C. Van Ness. The last obtainable data give the 
population of Fairport in 1848 at 200, in 1867 at i,ooo, in 1880 at 1,920, 
iu 1890 at 2,552 and in 1892 at 2,743. 

The school interests of the village have been treated with such liber- 
ality and good judgment that but few towns possess equal facilities for 
education. In 1870 the first move was made to advance beyond the 
common school. A Union Free School was organized and more than 
$20,000 immediately expended in sites and buildings. Interest and 
enterprise in this line has constantly advanced. The course of study 
has been broadened, more commodious buildings added and the 
school property is now valued at more than $40,000. The school 
prepares the student for college or business and includes classical, Eng- 
lish and scientific courses. Diplomas are granted based upon Regents' 
standards. Last year the school expended $9,488.42. Fourteen teach- 
ers are employed. The board of education includes several ladies. 

The total amount of available school money in 1894 for the town of 



368 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Perinton was $13,122.90. The value of school property $49,000. 
Twenty-four teachers were employed. There were in town 1,204 chil- 
dren of school age of which 888 attended school The total days 
attendance was 1 14,480. There are eleven school districts. 

Fairport is unusually fortunate in the possession of a very complete 
system of water works, in the construction of which the water was kept 
in its proper channels and not put into stock to increase the burden of 
tax payers. The village owns the plant, and the cost, considering its 
extent and completeness, is low. The water is abundant and of fine 
quality, being procured from a group of four drilled wells penetrating 
the underlying rocks to depths of from 55 to 100 feet. A Knowles 
pump, capacity a million gallons per day, sends the water to an iron 
stand pipe twenty-six feet in diameter and seventy-five feet high, 
standing on the hill in the southeast quarter of the village and 100 feet 
above the pumping station and business part of the village. From the 
stand pipe the water is distributed by gravity to all parts of the town. 
There are seven and one-half miles of distributing pipe and sixty-eight 
street hydrants. The pressure is eighty five pounds per inch in the 
business part of the town, and large volumes of water can easily be 
thrown over any building. It may also be used to run small ma- 
chinery. 

The first board of water commissioners elected in June, 1893, con- 
sisted of C. L. Peacock, F. A. Defendorf, Nelson Lewis, C. C. Moore, 
C. G. Dewitt, Luther Talman and Joseph Duncan. Plans were drawn 
by W. F. Randall, C. E. of Syracuse. The contracts were immediately 
let and the work was begun August 15, 1893, and the plant was com- 
pleted January i, 1894. Total cost $48,000. 

Careful, liberal and energetic as are the people of the town in con- 
ducting public enterprises, the numerous churches, as a matter of 
course, find a generous support. The progress of the churches and 
schools is linked close to the material growth of the town. They have 
marched hand in hand. One of the first concerns of the pioneers was 
religious worship. Perhaps the Methodist Episcopal society was first 
in the field. In 18 10 meetings were held by its members at private 
residences. In 18 16 circuit preachers were appointed and about 
1825 a society was organized in Fairport and a church built. It flour- 




^/^^Wi^:^^^^^:^'^^ • ^^^^^^cP'^^^^ 



THE TOWN OF PERINTON. 369 

ished a few years but fell into a decline and the building was sold in 
1838 and converted into a shop and the organization ceased. 

A second society formed in Egypt about the same time, a church was 
built and maintained for more than half a century. That, too, has 
ceased to exist. In 1837 the denomination formed a society in the 
southeast part of the town and erected the church known as the South 
Perinton church. The society has been prosperous, possesses to-day a 
good property, is well supported, and is active and earnest in its work. 
Within a few years another society has been formed in Fairport, a fine 
brick church built and a liberal and increasing support drawn to it. 
Rev. F. C. Thompson is the pastor. 

The Congregational society was formed in 1824. It is said the Rev. 
Mr. Crane preached the first sermon, probably earlier than this, in the 
house of Jesse Perrin. In 1832 a legal organization was efiected and a 
church built. Two years later a larger one was erected, and in 1868—9 
the present brick edifice was built at a cost of $18,000. The society 
also owns a fine parsonage and in late years has added to the capacity 
ot the church. Its property represents an expenditure of at least $25,- 
000. The pastors of this church have been : Revs. Morgan, D. Wash- 
burn, D. Johnson. A. W. Brooks, G. Freeman, S. Kellogg, W. Gilliam, 
Billington, Gilbert, Francis, W. H. Piatt, N. Bosworth, J. Butler, G. H. 
Bailey, E. T. Gardner, R. R. Davies and G. F. Waters, the present 
pastor. The present board of trustees are Dr. E. B. Pratt, J. H. Snov\\ 
E. L. Dudley, Dr. W. F. Clapp and N. A. Rightmire ; church clerk, 
H. A Howard ; deacons, Harvey Wygant, B. Wygant, D. J. Howard, 
W. H. Dobbin and C. D. Case. It is worthy of record that Harvey 
Wygant has served the church as deacon continuously for sixty years. 
The present membership is over 220 and the attendance at the Sabbath 
school more than 200. 

The earliest organization of the First Baptist church was prior to 1820. 
Services were held in school houses and Revs. Spencer and Noyce were 
among the pastors. The society was disbanded in 1838. But it was 
not dead; only sleeping. January 8, 1842, at a meeting held in the 
Joy school house articles of faith and and a church covenant were 
adopted. On the 30th of that month, midwinter, the first candidates 
for baptism were immersed in the running stream by the Rev. Franklin 

47 



370 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Woodward. They were Joel De Land, Luciiida De Land, Bleeker Webb, 
and Louisa Smith. February 2, the church was organized with twenty- 
eight members and in May the first pastor, Rev. Frankhn Woodward, 
began his labors. The succeeding pastors have been : Revs. Mr. Gris- 
vvold. Charles De Land, H. Stanwood, O. D. Taylor, J. Williams, J. 
Fargo, M. Forbes, B. P. Russell, E. L. Littel, D. McFarland, R. !•:. 
Burton, B. S. Terrey. The present pastor, Rev. H. H. Hunt, began 
his ministration in 1885. The present deacons are Nathan Case, H. A. 
De Land, William Newman, Burton Howe, Martin Austin, C. G. De- 
witt and Charles Sammons ; church clerk, William Newman ; trustees, 
C. C. Moore, Will O. Greene, George G. Bown, J. W. Morey, B. Howe, 
G. F. Wilcox, J. Y. Parce, George Case and L. J. De Land. The present 
church membership is 440 and the attendance at the Sabbath school 
averages about 500. The first church building was constructed in 1843. 
Additions and repairs were made at times and in 1876-7 the present 
brick edifice was built at a cost of more than $30,000. The society has 
expended more than $10,000 on its parsonage and church furnishings 
and its present property is valued at over $40,000. It is free from debt. 
The Free Baptist church of Fairport was organized in Egypt in 1840 
by Rev. D. G. Holmes, and in 1847 removed to its present location and 
joining with a branch of the Walworth church in the northern part of 
the town effected the present organization. Among the early members 
and trustees were Benjamin Slocum, Nathan Case, Milton Budlong, 
Darius Talman and D. B. Conant. In 1848 a church edifice was built 
at a cost of $3,000. The pastors have been : Revs. D. G. Holmes, 
F. W. Straight. E. P. Talman, D. M. L. Rollin, H. S. Limbocker, A. 
Brown, R. Cameron, J. M. Brewster, W. H. Waldron, W. Taylor, R. 
H. Tozer, R. L. Howard, L. A. Crandall, T. H. Stacey, K. Brockway, 
W. C. Burns. The present pastor is L. W. Raymond. The present 
board of trustees is C. L. Peacock, William B. Bly, O. C. Adams, Frank 
Bown, Jason C. Spear, A. II. Knapp and George Luetweiler. The 
membership of the church is 167 and of the Sunday school 235. One 
of the prettiest and most complete village churches in Western New 
New York has just been finished by this society. It was dedicated Feb- 
ruary 7, 1895. It is built of Warsaw sandstone. The credit of its de- 
sign and fine construction belongs to the present pastor. A new and 



THE TOWN OF PERINTON. 371 

ample parsonage also stands on the large church lot. The church 
property represents an outlay of over $20,000. 

The Church of the Assumption stands on a spacious and beautiful lot 
in the northern part of the village. The present brick church was ded- 
icated in 1883. In points of size and architecture it is conspicuous and 
is highly creditable to the society which erected it. A large and hand- 
some parsonage stands on the same lot. The first Catholic church of 
Fairport was built in 1856. The first pastor was Rev. William Casey. 
Succeeding pastors have been Revs. Louis Miller, P. C. McGrath. The 
present pastor, Rev. J. L. Codyre, has been the incumbent for many 
years and the present church property has been acquired under his 
ministration. Its value is over $20,000. The society is large and 
prosperous. 

Ivvo newspapers are published in Fairport, and receive a liberal pat- 
ronage. The Fairport Herald was started in 1873, by G. C. Taylor. 
J. Newman and George T. Frost purchased the Journal, and the latter 
soon became sole proprietor. In 1876 the present owner and editor, 
A. J. Deal, bought the paper and has since conducted it with ability and 
profit. The politics of the Herald is Republican, but local news is made 
the leading feature. 

The Monroe County Mail was founded in 1 881, by S. D. Palmer, and 
run as a radical prohibition paper. In 1886 the present proprietor, 
Will O. Green, bought it, changed its platform to that of entire inde^ 
pendence on political and social questions, giving much space to local 
news, and has been prosperous in his enterprise. Mr. Green owns a 
fine building 22 feet by 80, fitted with facilities for doing promptly fine 
job work. 

Of the present commercial enterprises of the village the most impor- 
tant, on account of age, continuous prosperity, wide and solid reputation 
and volume of business, is the De Land and Co. Fairport Chemical 
Works, which manufacture soda, saleratus, baking powder and sal soda. 
The business was begun in 1852 by D. B. De Land, in a small building 
then standing on the site of the present extensive works. Immediate 
and continuous success attended the enterprise. The business rapidly 
expanded until the goods were sold in most of the States and territories 
in the west and south. Shipments are made to foreign countries. A 



;:572 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

large working force is employed in the factory, and a small army of 
agents kept in the field. The founder, Judge De Land, died in 1872, but 
his famil}' continued the business with increasing success, the manage- 
ment now being in the hands of his two sons, L. J. and W. M. De Land. 
This firm also owns and operates the village electric light plant. Feb- 
ruary 4, 1893, the works were entirely destroyed by fire, but were 
rebuilt the same year with better facilities and greater capacity. Fair- 
port is very largely indebted to the influence of this firm for its pros- 
perity, its numerous fine residences, the thrift of many citizens and its 
public improvements. Their money has been liberally expended in 
their own locality. 

There are two large canning factories in Fairport. The one first 
established, now belonging to the estate of A. H. Cobb, put up over 
1,500,000 cans in 1894. They used the product of 700 acres of corn 
and peas, 7,500 bushels of pears, 40,000 bushels of apples, and large 
quantities of strawberries, cherries, plums and quinces. The firm 
employs several hundred people for many months in the }ear. 

The other factory is owned and operated by Mr. Howard Thomas, 
and much attention is paid to the canning of small fruits. The average 
quantities of products used yearly are as follows : strawberries, 100,000 
quarts; cherries, 70,000 pounds ; raspberries, 100,000 quarts ; tomatoes, 
300 tons ; plums, 4,300 bushels ; pears, 5,000 bushels ; quinces, 3,300 
bushels; apples, 25,000 bushels. Several hundred hands are also 
employed in this factory in the season. 

The Fairport Vinegar Works is another enterprise of value to the 
town and to producers. It was established in 1893, by P. V. Vielie. 
The manager is William A. Salisbury. In 1894 40,000 bushels of 
apples were used and 3,330 barrels of cider for vinegar made. The 
storage capacity is 5,000 barrels. Twenty-seven tons of evaporated 
apples were produced. 

Near the railroad depot stands a fine looking building, which is the 
factory of William Newman and Son, manufacturers of and dealers in 
baking powder, spices, extracts, soda, saleratus, &c. An experience 
of more than twenty years enables the firm to turn out high quality 
goods which are sold by agents throughout several States. 

Brevities. — Residents of the town of Perinton who have been elected 




£) T3^^la^^^ 



THE TOWN OF PERINTON. 373 

to the legislature to represent the first assembly district are as follows: 
Enoch Strong, Jeremiah Baker, G. L. G. Seeley, Walter S. Hubbell, 
L. J. De Land and F. A. Defendorf. 

The soldiers of the war of 1812 from Perinton were Nathan M. Nor- 
ton, James Hannan, Isaac Arnold, Darius Arnold, Walter Graham, 
Andrew Graham, Manton Graham, Ira Palmer, Larry Wilcox, Andrew 
Northrup. Adolphus Aldricli, Olney Staples, Roswell Everetts, Noah 
Ramsdell, Bennett Joy, Philip Piester. 

Perinton sent 265 men to the Union army in the civil war. A mon- 
ument costing $2,000 is erected to the memory of the fallen in the Mt. 
Pleasant cemetery. A complete record appears in another part of this 
book. 

The present members of the Board of Education of P'airport are 
Burton Howe, E B. Pratt, A. E. Hazen, Mrs. Truman Butts, J. H. 
Snow, Mrs. A. Higbie and H. H. Howell. 

Shipments of farm produce from Fairport by rail for the year 1894 
were as follows : Cabbage, 9,383,800 pounds ; apples, 535,895 pounds ; 
potatoes, 9,588,680 pounds; canned fruic, 6,167,604 pounds; onions, 
1,888,170 pounds; dried fruit, 285 200 pounds; beans, 23,325 pounds; 
quinces, 3,200 pounds ; grapes, i 5,155 pounds ; pears, 162,570 pounds ; 
cherries, 1,760 pounds; berries, 31,200 pounds; plums, 184,000 
pounds. Total, 28,270,558 pounds. Equivalent to 1,178 car loads. 

The census of population of Perinton is as follows: 18 14, 821 ; 1820,, 
1,664; 1825,2.190; 1830,2,183; 1835,2,030; 1840,2,513; 1845, 
2,636; 1850,2,891; 1855,3,175; 1860,3,015; 1865,3,219; 1870, 
3.261; 1875,3,868; 1880,4,030; 1890,4,450; 1892,4,658. The 
years ending with 'o' are the dates of the U. S. census; the others of 
the State census. 

The present officers of the Village Board are : President, Joseph 
Duncan; trustees, E. C. Wood, George Burlingame, A. D. Smith, C. 
C. Pike, N. S. Perkins, George Cobb, clerk, H, Mellen. Police Justice, 
O. P. Simmons ; treasurer, G. L G. Seeley. 

Twenty-one passenger railway trains daily stop at Fairport at one 
station, twelve westward bound and nine eastward. It is ten miles to 
Rochester. 

The town officials for the current year are : supervisor, Egbert L. 



374 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Hodskin ; town clerk, Arthur Newman ; overseer of the poor, T. R. 
Pritchard ; road commissioner. D. B. Fuller; justices, H. A. Walker, 
O. P. Simmons, P. Doyle, Josiah Aldrich ; assessors, T. G. Jones, 
Charles Westerman, G. F. Wilcox. 

The present leading produce buyers, warehouse men, coal dealers, 
are A. M. Loomis, A. W. Palmer, Charles P^ffner & Co., A. Van Nor- 
man, Luther Talman and P>ank Howard. Other transient buyers are 
always in the market. 

The lumber yard of Dobbin & Moore is well equipped with stock, 
a large steam mill and extensive wood working machinery, enabling 
them to turn out fine work in this line. The W. A. Trescott Manu- 
facturing Co. also carries a stock of lumber and is engaged in building 
furnaces, fruit evaporators, bleachers, etc. 

Several pleasure steam and naphtha launches are owned by citizens 
of Fairport, and steam freight boats ply regularly between the village 
and Rochester and Syracuse. 

George G. Bown & Sons and J, T. Merkie are manufacturers of, and 
dealers in all kinds of wheeled vehicles and sleighs, and are ready for 
any job in the line of blacksmithing. 

Some of the present merchants of the town, dealing in dry goods 
and groceries are Howe & Kellogg, Blood & Peters, J. W. Morey, 
Snow, Parce & Snow Co., A. C. Hooker, George S. P'ilkins, McBride & 
Stillwell, O. Scribner ; druggists, Hodskin & Peacock, R. L. Fstes. C. 
R. Cramer, E. B. Pratt ; hardware, F. F. Shumers, W. T. Warsop, C. 
E. Williams; millinery. Miss Aggie Sproul, Mrs. W. ¥.. Bown, C. A. 
Phillips. G. C. Taylor is a manufacturer of patent medicines, extracts, 
condition powders, etc., whose trade is large and extends over a wide 
territory ; D. C. Becker conducts the onl}' banking house in town. 
The leading hotels are the Cottage Hotel, Fairport Hotel, Osburn 
House and Windsor Hotel. ¥.. C. Woods steam mill does a large local 
trade in grain, flour and feed. 

The present faculty of the Union school are, principal. Palmer G. 
Frail, A. M.; preceptress, L. Belle Sage; assistants, Mary E. Steele, 
Ella Zeilbeer, V.. M. Howes, Fanny L. Avery, Edith Bronson. Kate L. 
Turner, Sarah M. Peters, Edith Turner, Adelaide E. Archer, L. Vina 
Mullie, Alida Hitchings, P^lorence M. Thayer. 



THE TOWN OF PITTSFORD. 



376 



The following are the only statistics of farm production for the town 
of Perinton which the editor has been able to find as they appear in the 
State census reports : 



Products. 


1840 


1845 


1855 


1865 


1875 


No. of Horses, 


747 


1,229 


1,000 


986 


885 


" Cattle, 


2,239 


3,487 


2,524 


1,719 


1. 713 


Sheep, 


6,208 


7,799 


5,008 


7,829 


1,650 


" Swine, 


2,933 


2,144 


1,676 


2,628 


479 


Bushels of Wheat, 


63,489 


48,586 


44,662 


25,782 


30,295 


" Barley, 


4,127 


3.615 


8,525 


7,789 




Oats, 


31,773 


30,105 


48,728 


30,236 


62,233 


Rye, 


130 


23 


281 


1,095 


1,827 


" Buckwheat 


1. 371 


1,748 


1,591 


3.324 


960 


" Corn, 


24, 1 12 


29,428 


42,190 


50,731 


37,341 


Pounds of Wool, 


14,450 


18,968 








Bushels of Potatoes, 


43.564 


26,507 


62,150 


105,752 


220,081 


Tons of Hay, 


2,738 




3,062 


3,782 




Pounds of Sugar, 


8,461 










Hops, 




. 


1,800 


8,000 


4,700 



CHAPTER XIV. 



THE TOWN OF PITTSFORD. 



About the time of the completion of the Erie canal, a writer of local 
history said of the town of Pittsford, that it was " a post-township of 
Monroe county, containing twenty-two square miles. It has Ironde- 
quoit creek in the southeast corner, and Noyes creek in the northwest, 
but is poorly supplied with mill seats. If the soil is as good as has been 
represented, its population increases rather slowly. The Erie canal 
holds a very devious course across this town, from the northeast corner 
by and almost around Pittsford village and bearing southeast to the 
southeast part of the Great Embankment over Irondequoit creek, where 



376 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

it enters Perinton. Pittsford is a good township, but owes mucli of its 
prospects to the canal." 

There was much truth in tliese words of the early writer of Pittsford 
history, for the settlement of the town was in fact slow, and the con- 
struction of the canal was an important factor in the development of 
local interests. The canal as originally built did have an exceedingly 
devious course through the town, and even the straightening and en- 
larging process of 1835 ^^^ ^^^ years following did not have the effect 
to entirely remove the objections alluded to by the author quoted. 
Notwithstanding, however, the apparent slow growth of Pittsford in its 
early history, it was one of the first settled regions in the Genesee coun- 
try. And we may also add that the soil is as '" good as has been rep- 
resented," for then the town had only 6,112 acres of improved land, 
whereasnow nearly all of its 14,596 acres are instate of cultivation or valu- 
able for domestic purposes ; and could the historian of 1820 to-day see 
the annual potato crops, several hundred car loads, shipped to market 
he indeed would feel justified in his old observation that " Pittsford is a 
good township." 

The town, under its present name was formed from " Smallwood, ' 
March 25, 18 14, and included all that is now Pittsford and Henrietta. 
The latter town was set ofif March 27, 18 18. As is well understood the 
lands of Pittsford formed exceedingly small part of the vast so-called 
Phelps and Gorham Purchase, and by those proprietors was sold, or at 
least a large portion thereof, to Israel and Simon Stone and Seth Dodge. 
Their tract comprised 13,300 acres; nearly all that is now Pittsford, for 
which they were to pay eighteen pence per acre. However, within a 
very short time after making this purchase the lands of this region in- 
creased rapidly, seeing which, Phelps and Gorham sought to regain this 
tract, and they agreed with Stones and Dodge to give them one-half of 
the tract without further payment if the latter would relinquish their 
claim to the other half. This was done, and by it the Stones became 
absolute owners of nearly one-half the lands of this town for the mere 
nominal consideration of about thirty dollars. 

Israel and Simon Stone at once began preparations for the sale and 
settlement of their splendid tract. They came here in 1789, cleared a 
few acres, sowed it with wheat, then returned east for the winter. 





'^cnro^^ d/ ^y'-t^i^^ 



THE TOWN OF PITTSFORD. 377 

Simon Stone's first log house stood a short distance south of Pittsford 
village, while the abode of his brother was built near a spring on the 
village site. Israel Stone died in his old home in i88o, and in after 
years a serious annoyance was caused the settlers by reason of the de- 
mands made by his widow. She unexpectedly came forward and 
claimed her dower right, she claiming not to have signed the deeds exe- 
cuted by her husband and his brother. 

To Israel and Simon Stone has always been accorded the honor of 
being the first permanent settlers in this town, but it is a fact well 
known that at least two years before the Stones came here John Lusk 
and his son, Stephen, had a squatter's residence near the head of Iron- 
dequoit bay. They had cleared twelve acres and sowed it with wheat. 
Lusk had in fact purchased from the Indians 1,500 acres, but as his 
title was of course worthless, he was afterward compelled to repurchase 
from the proper owners; this he did in 1791, taking 1,000 acres at 
twenty five cents an acre. 

Through the influence of the Stones the actual settlement of the town 
was begun in 1 791, in which year came from the east the families of Josiah 
Farr, Silas Nye and his sons, Nathan, Silas, jr., and Caleb, Thomas 
Clennand, Major Ezra Patterson and Josiah Girninson. Clennand was 
an old Revolutionary soldier. Farr planted the first orchard. Dr. John 
Ray settled in the town in 1792. Noah Norton came in 1794. built 
the first frame house in 1795. Simon Stone built the first saw mill,^ 
and as he was a nail maker he proved a useful man in the new settle- 
ment. In 1792 the settlers were Caleb Hopkins, William Acker, Israel 
Canfield and Benjamin Miller. Other pioneers who came about the 
same time were Dr. Daniel Rood, Jonas Sawens, Elihu Doud, Abner 
Stone, Amos Stone, Daniel Perrin, Glover Perrin, John Acer, and 
others; and previous to 1800 there had come to the town that pioneer 
preacher, Thomas Billinghurst, and also Richard Welch, William Agate, 
Robert and Simon Holland, Jared Barker, Henry Bailey, and others. 

Among the other early settlers of the town whose names are worthy 
of at least a passing mention were Giles Blodgett, Nathan Calhoun, 
Richard Savage, Henry Bailey, William Griffin, Thomas Kempshall, 
George Parrott, Horace Converse, Alexander Chubb, Joseph Chubb, 
Paul Richardson. In the same connection may also be mentioned the 

48 



378 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

" English colony," who came to Pittsford in 1804. The party consisted 
of Richatd Priestly, and his family and descendants, numbering nineteen 
persons in all, and each of whom lived to an advanced age. 

Among the early settlers of Pittslord were several men who had 
served in the American army during the Revolutionary war. They 
were Ebenezer Graves, Captain Henry Gale, Captain Silas N)'(., Deacon 
Samuel Stone, Thomas Cleeland, and others, perhaps, whose names 
have been forgotten. 

The town also furnished a number of officers and men for service in 
the war of 1812, while the whole number of able-bodied men in the 
vicinity were in the enrolled militia and subject to military duty. Caleb 
Hopkins was on the frontier, colonel of the fifty- second regiment and 
took from the town several young men. William Jones was killed. 
A. M. Gallagher wore shoulder straps. Amnion Dunn was killed and 
scalped by the Indians. Joel Dunn was captured and held to the end 
of the war. James Merrill was also in the service. Candius Boughton 
mustered a company of cavalry during the war and the men were en- 
camped in the village several weeks. 

Although the early settlement of Pittsford may have been slow during 
the first twenty years of its history, the character of its population was 
firm to a degree somewhat greater than many of the eastern towns could 
boast. Previous to 1796 little civil jurisdiction had been exercised over 
the region although as early as 1789 the seven towns of Pittsford, Per- 
inton, Penfield, Webster, Brighton, Irondequoit, Henrietta, together 
with all that part of Rochester east of the river, constituted " the dis- 
trict of Northfield," a civil division of Ontario county. This district, 
however, had no special organization previous to 1796, in which year 
town officers were first elected. They were Silas Nye, supervisor ; 
John Ray, town clerk; Noah Norton, Caleb Hopkins, Glover Perrin, 
assessors. A full board of town officers was chosen, but so (e\v of 
them were in fact residents in Pittsford that the subject has little local 
importance. Later subdivisions of this large territory were made soon 
after 1800, but not until March 25, 1814, was the town of Pittsford 
created under the original name of Smallwood. Then the town included 
all that is now Pittsford and Henrietta. The latter was separated March 
27, 1818. 



The town of pittsford. 379 

The first officers for the town of Pittsford were as follows : Ezra Pat- 
terson, supervisor; John Ray, town clerk ; Nathan Nye, William Grif- 
fin, and Stephen Lusk, assessors ; Henry Bailey, Hutchinson Patterson, 
and James Sperry, commissioners of highway ; Glover Perrin and Jonas 
Sawens, overseers of the poor ; Nathan Kingsley, collector; Ebenezer 
Gooding, Nathan Kingsley and Calvin Kingsley, constables. 

In this connection it is interesting to note the succession of super- 
visors of Pittsford ; and inasmuch as the succession is complete from 
the organization of Northfield in 1796, the entire list may be given, viz., 
Silas Nye. 1796-97 ; Noah Norton, 1798 ; Silas Nye, 1799; Ezra Pat- 
terson, 1 800-1 804; also 1806, 1807, 181 1 and 1813 ; Augustus Gris ■ 
wold, 1805 ; William McKinstry, 1808; Caleb Hopkins, 1809; Stephen 
Lusk, 1810; Samuel Spafford, 1812-13 ; Ezra Patterson, 1814; Nathan 
Nye, 1815-16 ; Samuel Fell, 1817 ; Samuel Stone 2d, 1818-25 ; Stephen 
Lusk, 1826-28; Nathan Calhoun, 1829-32; also 1834, 1838-39, John 
Armstrong, 1833; Ephraim Goss, 1835-36, 1847-48, 1855; Solomon 
Stone, 1837, 1843-45, 1856; Marvin Hopkins, 1840, 1842, 1846, 1850, 
1862; Ira Bellows, 1841 ; Wales M. Huntington, 1849; Elias Mathews, 
1851 ; Horace Wheeler, 1852-53; William C. Rowley, 1854; Thomas 
Wilcox, 1857; Isaac Sutherland, 1858; Daniel Kingsley, 1859-60, and 
1863; Jarvis Lord, 1861 ; Nathan R Welch, 1864; Patrick Malone, 
1865-72; Francis A. Shearer, 1873-74; George A. Goss, 1875-77; 
Samuel H. Stone, 1878; Patrick Malone, 1879 ; George A. Goss, 1880;. 
J. M. Wiltsie, 1881-83; Samuel H. Stone, 1884-85; Thomas Spiegel, 
1886-87; George A. Goss, 1888-95. 

The officers of the town of Pittsford for the year 1895 ^^^ ^^ follows : 
George B. Goss, supervisor; Charles Zarnow, Charles H. True, Samuel 
H. Stone and George Morse, justices of the peace ; George Thomas, 
town clerk ; Samuel H. Stone, Edward W. Giskin and Charles R. 
Tobey, assessors ; Jeffrey M. Birdsall, collector ; Charles B. Emmons, 
overseer of the poor ; William Ascomb, highway commissioner; Will- 
iam Alms, William Supner and Charles Lexman, excise commissioners ; 
George R. Hicks and N. C. Steele, constables. The old records of 
Pittsford furnish some rather interesting reminiscences of early times, 
and through them we learn that early in the century some of the 
•wealthy families owned and kept slaves. While quite an unusual cir~ 



380 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY 

cumstance in this region it is not surprising when we remember that 
the early settlers were chiefly New Englanders and that slavery was at 
that time one of the firmly rooted institutions of that region of country. 
However, not many years passed by before the slaves owned in Pitts- 
ford were set free. 

In a preceding portion of this chapter reference has been made to the 
observations of an early writer wherein it is stated that the early 
growth of the town was somewhat ret.irded. While measurably true, 
we are inclined to doubt the absolute accuracy of the writer when we 
recall the fact that in 1820 Pittsford had a population of 1,582, while 
Henrietta, tlie child town of Pittsford, in the same year had a popula- 
tion of 2. 181. As evidence of substantial growth in later years we 
glean from census reports the fact that in 1830 the inhabitants num- 
bered 1,831 ; in 1840 the number was 1,983; in 1850 was 2,061 ; in 
i860 was 2,028; in 1870 was 1,974; in 1880 was 2,236, and in 1890 
was 2,129. 

In 1824, according to statistics, there were in the town 290 farmers, 
seventy mechanics, ten merchants or persons engaged in trade, ten free 
blacks and no slaves. There were owned in the town at that time 1,330 
cattle, 272 horses, 2,880 sheep, and there was in operation two grist 
mills, three saw mills, two distilleries, and one ashery. Ten year^ later 
the cattle numbered 2,257; horses, 789 ; sheep, 3,234 ; swine, 2,338; 
and there were three grist mills, one saw mill, three distilleries, three 
tanneries, and one brewery in successful operation. 

In addition to these early enterprises and industries the town had 
several others of more or less importance, but from what has been 
stated the reader will discover that Pittsford has not been wholly 
wanting in the matter of internal improvement and development. The 
one great acquisition which above all others added to early local pros- 
perity was the construction of the Erie canal, one grand result of 
which was the founding and building up of an attractive and substantial 
village, besides the advancement of numerous other interests in the 
locality. Still later (1840) the Rochester and Auburn railroad was 
completed and opened for traffic through the town, and this, too, was of 
the greatest benefit to the inhabitants. 

The Village of Pittsford. — Like all New Englanders, the early settlers 



THE TOWN OF PITTSFORD. 381 

in this town made provision for a trading center, but just when the 
village took definite character is difficult to determine at this time. 
Israel Stone, the pioneer, built his house on the village site and had 
much to do with its early history. He had a stock of goods, yet gave 
more attention to the sale of liis land than to trade. Augustus Elliott 
opened a store as early as i8io and soon after the war, opened a hotel_ 
Samuel Hildreth came here in 1814, opened a store and soon afterward 
a hotel and was also proprietor of a stage line between Rochester and 
Canandaigua. Henry S. Potter started in trade here in 1821 and con- 
tinued until 1850. Charles Richardson and Thomas Benedict were also 
early merchants. Elihu Doud had a brick yard. In 18 14, Dr. A. G. 
Smith, Nathan Nye, Colonel Hopkins and John Acer opened a large 
store, but the concern failed after four years. Sylvanus Lathrop was an 
early surveyor and undertook to bridge Irondequoit valley for the Erie 
canal, but his project proved a failure. Among the first physicians in 
the village were Drs Smith, Carver, Ray, Rood, Monroe, Bowen, 
Huntington, Camp, Reynolds and Carne. Jabez Hull was a lawyer 
and was in the town before 1800 and was followed later on by Simon 
Stone 2d, William G. Taylor, Ira Bellows and others. The village 
was incorporated April 7, 1827. and on the 7th of May following its 
first officers were elected. The trustees were John Lane, Philo Hurd; 
Simon Stone 2d, Samuel Hopkins and Carmi Hart ; treasurer, Henry 
S. Potter; collector. Palmer B. Wilder; constable, Ephraim Hopkins f 
assessors, John Acer, Uriah Parker and Joseph E. Camp ; clerks, Mor- 
timer F. Delano and Edward Dodd ; fire wardens, Ira Buck, Thomas 
Hartwell, George Hart. Mr. Hard was elected president of the board 
and village, but resigned and was succeeded in both offices by James 
K. Guernsey. From 1827 to the present time the presidents of the 
village have been as follows: James K. Guernsey, L. H. Clapp, Ira 
Bellows, M. F Delano, John Acer, Erastus Gaylord, Alexander Voor- 
hees, Frederick Boughton, Henry S, Potter, Henry Fitch, David Hay- 
wood, Albert Marcellus, David W. Smith, E. Goss, George Marvin, E. 
W. Gaskin, P. Malone, Lucius M. May, James M. Wiltsie, George A. 
Goss (the record for the years 1877 and 1878 were burned), Samuel H. 
Stone, Wesley Van Buskirk, George A. Goss, G. F. Vought, Thomas 
Spiegel. The present president is Wesley Van Buskirk ; clerk, Burton 
M. Wiltsie. 



382 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

As at present constituted and governed, Pittsford enjoys the distinc- 
tion of being one of the prettiest and most desirable residence villages 
in Monroe county. Early in its history a number of the most influen- 
tial men sought to establish this as a manufacturing and commercial 
center of prominence, and put forth very laudable efforts to accomplish 
that result. But manufacturers found the admirable water power 
and other superior advantages of the county seat far more desirable, 
hence all business of magnitude naturally centered there Neverthe- 
less, in a moderate way, Pittsford has become a rather important 
municipality in the county. It is pleasantly situated and always pre- 
sents a clean and inviting appearance. Many of the old structures are 
preserved and still standing, a pleasant contrast with surrounding build- 
ings of modern construction. The public or village properties are few, 
and according to the necessities of the times fair provision is made. 
The fire department consists of two hand engines, with hose and hooks 
and ladders. The first fire wardens, elected in 1827, were Ira Buck, 
Thomas Hartwell and George Hart. The principal fraternal and social 
organizations of the village are Northfield Lodge, F. & A. M , which 
has a temple building owned by the lodge. James Harmer is the 
present master. There are also the Grange, Knights of " S. F. I.," and 
G. A. R. organizations, each in good condition. 

The business interests of the present day are well represented and 
appear to be established on a firm basis. J T, Vought & Son are pro- 
prietors of a large steam roller flouring mill ; Rand Bros, have a 
hosiery knitting mill and are doing a good business. W. & J. Agate 
are maltsters, and Samuel Hutchinson has an extensive cooper shop. 
Wadhams & Whitlock are proprietors of the local planing and lumber 
mill and yards. The principal merchants are Wiltsie & Crump, and 
J. B. Bacon & Co., each of which firms carry a large stock of general 
merchandise. The hotels are the Phoenix, National, Exchange and 
Cottage. 

The people of the village feel a just and pardonable pride in their 
Union Free School, and in the system of instruction employed therein. 
The present Board of Education is composed of Drs. P. D. Carpenter, 
W. W. Johnson and W. H. Doane, also Charles H. True, Samuel H, 
Stone, Grandin T. Vought and J. M. Wiltsie. The principal is F. J. 
Withinsfton. 



THE TOWN OF PITTSFORD. , 383 

The ecclesiastical history of Pittsford relates to village and town in 
combination and cannot be mentioned as pertaining specially to either, 
and will be generally treated in this chapter. 

The Presbyterian Church of Pittsford is one of the oldest religious 
organizations in the Genesee country, and was formed in the year 1807, 
including in its first membership many of the pioneer families of the 
region, and antedating in its history the town itself. The first trustees 
were Orange Stone, Thomas Kempshall, Amos Bronson, William Spear, 
Glover Perrin and Samuel Stone. According to its original organiza- 
tion the society was known as *' The Congregational Society of North- 
field," but became Presbyterian in form of church organization on 
April 20, 1 8 14, at which time it was received into the Geneva Presby- 
tery. Rev. John Stewart was the first settled pastor, in February, 
1808, succeeded by Rev. Solomon Allen in 1809. The first services 
were held in the log meeting house north of the village, but in 18 16 a 
frame building was erected on the hill a mile south of the village. In 
1826 a third edifice was built in the settlement, which burned in 1861, 
and was replaced witli a more modern and substantial structure in 1862 ; 
dedicated May 13, 1863. This society is numerically and perhaps in- 
fluentially stronger than any of its contemporaries in Pittsford. Its 
present members number 200, and the church is under the pastoral 
care of Rev. Arthur M. Smith. The Sunday school has 150 attendants. 
The present trustees are Angelo Crump, George Goss and Henry. 
Thornell. 

The Baptist church of Pittsford had its origin in the early informal 
meetings held in the region as early as 1804, but not until the 20th of 
October, 1809, was the Second Baptist Church of Boyle duly organ- 
ized. Elder Daniel Brown, of Ogden, was ordained pastor November 
30, 1809. Robert Heath and Noah Norton were the first deacons, while 
the original members were Richard and Ann Priestly, Robert Heath, 
John Roworth and Daniel Brown. William Hill and Jacob Mann were 
baptized October 20, 1809. The first church edifice was erected in 
1826, on the hill, the meetings of the society previous to this time being 
held in dwellings, school houses and barns. In 1850 the old house on 
the hill was vacated and a substantial church home provided in the 
village. The present condition of the church is progressive, although 



384 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

its past life and experience iiave not been vvholl)' without vicissitudes 
In membership it now numbers ninety persons, and in tiie Sunday school 
are 125 children. The pastor is Rev. George R. Varney, and the trustees 
are James T. Hurlingame, William Agate, sr., and Merritt Tobey. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church of Pittsford was founded and estab- 
lished in January, 1831, though as early as 181 5 local preachers and 
circuit riders had held occasional services in the town. The first trustees 
of the local society were Ephraim Goss, Michael Miller, Peter Hopkins, 
Nehemiah Phillips, Lemuel Hard, Daniel True, Henry S. Potter, Alfred 
Doud, Moses Mather and Caleb Munson. • After the organization a 
meeting house was at once erected on a lot deeded the society by 
P^benezer Sutherland, but the location proved unfortunate and injured 
the early increase of the society. In 1843 the building was torn down 
and moved to a more convenient site in the village. The church has a 
present membership of fifty persons ; the Sunday school, thirty-five. 
The pastor is Rev. James E. Wallace, and the trustees, J. W. Geare, S. 
A. Wilson, George Kingsley, George Hooker and Albert Rowe. 

A Free Methodist church and society were organized in Pittsford in 
1864. A house of worship was provided and the society progressed 
for a time, but later on, through lack of interest and membership, was 
dissolved, several of its members uniting with the M. E. church. 

Christ Church, Protestant Episcopal, of Pittsford, was organized as a 
parish, November 2, 1846, although as early as 18 1 7 church services 
had been conducted in the town ; and in 1844 regular services began. 
When organized Sylvester Parker and A. Vought were chosen wardens. 
In 1846 a liitle building was provided as a church home, and in 1868 
the new edifice was erected and dedicated. The present officers of the 
church and society are H. L. Wood, rector; C. H. Porter, senior 
warden ; F. G. Barnard, junior warden ; and George Thomas, J. B. 
Bacon, Henry Smalley, M. W. Rand and H. C. Knickerbocker, vestry- 
men. 

St. Paul's German Lutheran Church of Pittsford was organized and 
edifice built in 1866, Rev. B. Mueller, and from that time the society 
and church have grown and enlarged until its total membership and 
congregation includes 425 persons. The present pastor is Rev. G. H. 
Gomph. The trustees are John Hertzer, John Baker, Andrew Wentz, 
Frederick Buckholz and John Stero. 



THE TOWN OF PITTSFORD. 385 

The parish of St. Louis' church, Roman Catholic, was organized in 
1873, and during the same year the church edifice was erected. How- 
ever, as early as 1856, Fathers Casey and Miller said masses in the 
town. In the parish to-day are 200 Catholic members, under the pas- 
toral charge of Rev. Father J. L. Coydre. 

A Universalist. society was organized in Pittsfield at an early day, 
and lived and flourished for many years, until about 1850, when it dis- 
solved. 

Of the schools and educational system of the town of Pittsford little 
can be said, for the reason that this special and important department 
of local government preserves few of its records. However, tradition 
informs us that a log school house was built or in existence one mile 
south of the village as early as 1794, and in 1806 a frame school house 
was built on the same site. The first frame school house was built in 
1804, in then district No. 2. After Henrietta was set off in 18 18, it 
became necessary to rearrange the Pittsford districts. In 1824 the 
town had nine districts, and 444 children of school age. In 1835 the 
districts nnmbered ten, and children, 531. In 1894, and at the present 
time, the number of districts is ten, and children of school age, 571. 
There are also ten school houses, five of which are frame and five brick. 
The school property of the town is valued at $25,050. For the year 
ending July 31, 1894, the town had school revenues to the amount of 
$7,855.55, of which $1,793.96 were public moneys; raised by town 
tax $5,005.37. During the year fifteen teachers were employed and 
paid $4,900.28. Repairs for the year cost $1,398, and other expenses 
about $1,300. 

49 



386 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 



CHAPTER XV. 
THE TOWN OF RIGA. 

This town originaliy formed a part of old Northampton, the mother 
to Monroe county towns west of the Genesee. Northampton, however, 
was divided on December 8, 1807, and Pultney erected out of a part of 
its territory, the latter including what is now Chili and Riga, respect- 
ively known as East and West Pultney. They formed a part of the 
same jurisdiction until 1822, when the eastern township was set off and 
named Chili. 

Riga occupies a position on the western border of the county, and is 
bounded north by Ogden ; east by Chili ; south by Wheatland and a 
part of Genesee county, and west by Bergen, Genesee county. It has 
an area of 21,356 acres of land, all as well cleared and as susceptible of 
continuous cultivation as any in the county. The land surface is level 
or gently undulating, the only water course of any note being Black 
Creek, a dull, sluggish stream, flowing in a tortuous course through the 
town near its center. The soil generally is a clayey loam, rich and fer- 
tile and yields abundantly and profitably under proper tillage. 

As a matter of fact, Riga is and for many years has been known as 
one of the best farming towns of the county, but this condition has been 
produced through the energy and perseverance of the inhabitants, for 
naturally the town has no features that make it superior to surrounding 
towns. It so happened that this special region was settled under the 
personal direction of James Wadsworth, land agent, and he succeeded 
in bringing to the locality a class of persons who were practical, thor- 
ough, energetic and determined men, chiefly Massachusetts Yankees, 
who laid the proper foundation for lasting benefits to succeeding gene- 
rations, and to-day the inhabitants of Riga live in the enjoyment of 
results of their forefathers' thrift. And it is, also, a fact that the later 
occupants of the soil have not been neglectful of their interests, but 



THE TOWN OF RIGA 387 

liave, as a rule, faithfully kept up and maintained the early standard of 
excellence established by the pioneers. This suggestion naturally 
leads us to inquire into the first settlement of the town and discover 
who were those worthy pioneers. 

Before proceeding to the subject of pioneership in the town it is well 
enough to state that the lands of Riga were a part of the famous " Mill- 
Seat Tract," deeded to the Phelps and Gorham proprietors by the Ind- 
ians. The region, however, soon passed into the hands of Robert Mor- 
ris, of Philadelphia, the financier of the Revolution, and by him were 
sold to the Pultney estate, alias the Pultneys, the Pultney Associates, 
and the Pultney heirs. The agency for the sale and development of 
these lands was entrusted to James Wadsworth, and through his efforts 
they were peopled by a thrifty class of inhabitants. 

Settlement in Riga was somewhat delayed by reason of the fact that 
its lands lay rather to the north of the great thoroughfare of travel to 
the west — the highway leading from Canandaigua to Le Roy, Batavia 
and Buffalo — and it was not until 1806 that the first pioneer settler 
came to the town. This honor, if such it be, fell to Elihu Church who 
then located on lot 94, but during the same year, Amasa and Deacon 
Nehemiah PVost, William Parker, Richard and Samuel Church, Ezekiel 
Barnes, Samuel Shepard Samuel Baldwin, Henry Brewster also came 
to the town and made improvements, though the families of some of 
them did not come here until the following year. 

In 1807 still more families became settle; s in Riga, and among them 
may be recalled the names of Enos Moore and his sons, Ephraim and 
Samuel, Joseph Thompson, George Richmond, Benajah Holbrook, 
Charles and Eber Orcutt, Thomas Bingham and his three sons, Joseph, 
Justin and William, and also his daughter who became Mrs. Pratt. 
There were also James Knowles and his sons James, William and Paul ; 
Joseph Emerson and three stalwart sons, Erastus, Joseph and George, 
Jesse Church, Clark Hall, Rev. Robert Hill, Thomas and George Hill, 
and their sister. Mrs. Emerson. In 1808 Benjamin F. Richmond set- 
tled south of Churchville hamlet, and about the same time Dr. John 
Darling located at the Center. 

Between 1808 and 18 1 1 the tide of immigration equaled that of any 
previous period, and among the settlers of the time were Deacon Hill, 



388 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Erastus Sprague, Daniel Hawes, Thomas Gay, Hibbard Hall, George 
E. Harmon, Oliver Ide, the blacksmith, Ebenezer Clark, Dr. Richard 

Dibble, Joseph Sibley, Tuttle, Thomas Adams, Klisha P. Davis, 

George Baldwin and John Crocker. Other and perhaps later settlers 
were Billings Richmond, Dr. Thurber, Richard Chamberlain, H. Orton, 
Isaac Lacy, William Frost, A. Nettleton. Linus Pierson, Jonathan Tup- 
per, William Chafney, Warner Douglass, Charles Harward, Ebenezer 
Slater, Jacob Cole, I. C. Griswold, Solomon Blood, Daniel Densmorc, 
and others, all of whom were here at least as early as the first years of 
the war of 1812. During this period settlement was of course much 
retarded, and for a time absolutely stopped, in fact some of the timid 
ones returned east, but the great majority remained and were reason- 
ably well prepared to join an)' movement whenever called into service. 

Having brought to notice the names of nearly all the first settlers in 
Riga, we may now with equal propriety note the first events in town 
history, for these Yankees were energetic and established whatever was 
needful for material welfare. Pioneer Elisha Church is accredited with 
building the first dweUing house, in 1806, the year of his settlement in 
the town. He also cleared the first land and raised the first grain. 
Tlie death of Richard Church, father to Elisha, was the first event of 
its kind in Riga. The first birth was a daughter of Samuel Church, 
born 1806, while the first male child was Hiram, son of Samuel Shep- 
ard, born also in 1806. The first marriage was that of Joseph Sibley, 
and Clarissa, daughter of Richard Church. 

The first store was opened in 1808 by Thompson & Tuttle, at the 
Center, while in the same year Amasa Frost opened tavern in a log 
house, also at the Center. Here, too, the first school was taught by 
Thomas Gay. John Darling was the first physician in 1808, and Rich- 
ard Dibble the second, two years later. Both lived at the Center. The 
first postmaster was Joseph Thompson, when appointed is not now 
known, but Dr. Dibble held the office in 18 14. Benajah Holbrook was 
the first blacksmith. The first pastor was Rev. Allen Hollister, founder 
in part of the Congregational church in Riga. 

This little hamlet near the center of the town which we call Riga 
Center, was once known to the pioneers as West Pultney, and under that 
name the settlement was founded. It has ever been a custom amouiz 



THE TOWN OF RIGA. 389 

native New Englanders to establish a convenient trading center, and 
they generally make ample provision for future growth and develop- 
ment. So they did in Riga. After the name Pultney had been dropped 
the two little hamlets became known as Riga and East Riga, the latter 
now is Chili and so called. From this we infer correctly that Riga was 
the principal of the villages named, Churchville being a later growth 
and owing much of its prosperity to its railroad connections. 

Among the various primitive industries of Riga was the saw mill 
built by Samuel Church in i8o8, and also the grist mill by the same 
owner, erected in i8ii. These structures led to the founding of 
Churchville, the village so called being named in allusion to and in 
honor of Samuel Church. These mills were built on Black Creek, as also 
were others in later years. George Baldwin built a saw mill in 1812, 
south of the village, and a third was put up in 18 18 by Thomas Adams. 
Mr. Church then built his second saw mill on the creek. The first dis- 
tillery was built in 1 814 by John Crocker, and the second a few years 
afterward by Erastus Sprague. 

Thus it will be noticed that the resources of Riga were quite fully de- 
veloped at a very early day by the determined inhabitants of the town. 
The first settlement was made in 1806 and within a dozen years from 
that time the town became well populated, and the people were engaged 
in various manufacturing enterprises. The census reports for 1820 in- 
form us that Riga (inclusive of Chili) then had two grist mills, twelve . 
saw mills, two fulling mills, two carding machines, five distilleries and 
seven asheries. In 18 10, four years after the first pioneer came to the 
town, the population numbered 864, and in the next ten years increased 
to 3,139, a record rarely equaled in the whole Genesee country. The 
erection of Chili in 1822 took from Riga 24,558 acres of land and nearly 
half its population, the number of inhabitants in Riga in 1825 being 
1,745, while Chili had 1,827. 

Indeed so rapid was the settlement of the region when once begun 
that the creation of a new jurisdiction became imperative, hence on the 
8th of December, 1807, the town of Pultney was formed, and on the 
4th of April, 1809, Riga was organized, supsereding Pultney both in 
name and government. At the first town meeting, held at the house of 
Henry Waidener. these ofificers were elected : Thomas Hill, supervisor ; 



390 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Joshua Howell, town clerk ; Ebenezer Slater, Jesse Church and Isaac 
Douglass, assessors ; Thomas Gay, collector; Warner Douglass, con 
stable; Thomas Bingham, I. C. Griswold and Jacob Cole, road com- 
missioners; Amasa Frost and Henry Waidener, overseers of the poor; 
Daniel Densmore, George Richmond and Solomon Blood, fence viewers. 

In this connection it is interesting to note the succession of incum- 
bents of the supervisorship, the principal office in the town, viz : 
Thomas Hill, 1809-10; Klihu Church, 181 1-13 ; Richard Dibble, 1814; 
Elihu Church, 1815-16 ; Joseph Sibley, 1817-18 ; Isaac Lacey, 1819-20; 
Joseph Sibley, 1821 ; Joseph Thompson, 1822-23 ; Joseph Sibley, 
1824; Joseph Thompson, 1825-26; Phineas Smith, 1827-29; Thomas 
Bingham, 1830; Hubbard Hall, 1831-32; Elihu Church, 1833-35; 
John R. Smith, 1836; Asa Adams, 1837; Lucius Lilley, 1838-40: 
Spencer Smith, 1841 ; James R. Flynn. 1S42 ; Aretas Adams, 1843-44 ; 
Ashabel A. Hosmer, 1845-49; Dennis Church, 1850; Aretas Adams, 
1851-53; Paul Knowles, 1854-55; Volney Lacey, 1856-57; George 
Brown, 1858-61 ; Zophar VVillard. 1862-63 ; M. J. Molloch, 1864-65; 
Henry W. Davis, 1866-69; James W. Craig, 1870; James P. Knowles, 
1871 ; George Savage, 1872-75; Henry W. Davis, 1876-78; Stewart 
Church, 1879-80; George Savage, 1881-84; Oscar S Babcock, 1885- 
89; William S. Church, 1890-91 ; Henry J. Snyder, 1892-95. 

The officers of Riga for the year 1895 are as follows : Henry J. Snyder 
supervisor; Alfred Harrison, town clerk; Oscar S. Babcock, Edward 
Fitch, Henry Richmond and James L. Sackett, justices of the peace ; 
Edwin Emens, Spencer Johnson and Angus Mcintosh, assessors ; John 
Lemmon, overseer of the poor; Richard Barnum, collector; James 
Brady, Ellsworth Savage and Robert Snyder, excise commissioners; 
James Dennis, Charles Lear and Richard Barnum, constables ; John 
Mcintosh, Richard Atbridge and John Stewart, road commissioners. 

The little centrally located village of Riga Center was the chief cen- 
ter of trade and business in the town for a period of about twent}'-five 
years ; and then began to yield its importance to the village of Church- 
ville. Still later, in 1852, the completion of the Rochester and Buffalo 
railroad gave to Churchville an additional importance and correspond- 
ingly injured local interests at the Center. Almost the only institution of 
the latter place which has been permanent and enduring, is the old First 



THE TOWN OF RIGA. 391 

Congregational church, one of the pioneer churches of the whole region ; 
and to its early history we may briefly refer, although its early records 
are so incomplete and imperfect that little reliance is to be placed in 
them. 

This society and church were organized at the Center, December 9, 
1809, by the Rev. Oliver Ayers, with these original members: 
Nehemiah Frost, Henry Brewster, John Barber, Benjamin Kneeland, 
Elizabeth Frost, Rebecca Brewster, Lois Baldwin, Sally Barker, Su- 
sanna Wallis, Elizabeth Buell and Rebecca Frost. Nehemiah Frost was 
the first deacon, and Rev. Allen Hollister the first pastor. During the 
first fourteen years of its history services were held in the school house 
but in 1823 a church edifice was completed. From that time the 
society has been continuous, although during more recent years the 
membership is somewhat reduced. At the present time the pastorate 
of this church is supplied by Rev. Mr. Anderson, of Caledonia. 

The old Riga Academy was also at one time an institution of the 
Center, and of the town, of more than passing importance, though its 
career was of brief duration. It was founded in 1846 through the 
efforts of members of the Congregational church who were desirous to 
give their children the advantages of a higher education than was 
offered in the common schools, and at the same time keep them within 
the influence of home. On the iith of May, 1846, the academy was 
incorporated by the Regents, and the trustees purchased the old Joseph 
Thompson tavern, erected in 181 1, which they remodeled, enlarged and 
arranged for school purposes. The trustees referred to were Ira Rich- 
ards, president ; Dennis Church, secretary ; Asa Adams, treasurer ; and 
Dr. John R. Smith, Alfred Fitch, Thomas Adams, Joshua P. Rogers, 
Dr. Isaac Lovejoy, Gordon Baldwin, Elias Ward, Samuel C. Baldwin, 
Rev. Silas H. Ashman and Sherman Ward. However, as an educa- 
tional institution the Riga Academy was not a success, and was aban- 
doned after six years of unprofitable life. Its principals were Revs. 
Franklin W. Olmstead, George Thompson, Prof R. D. H. Allen and 
Professor Wedge, in the order named. 

Churchville. — This pretty little village is situated in the northwest 
part of Riga, on Black Creek. Its name was given in allusion to the 
former owner of the land on which the village has been built up — 



392 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Samuel Church — a pioneer of the town and one of the most enter- 
prising of the early settlers. In 1 8o8 Mr. Church built a saw mill near 
the village site, and soon afterward several other industries were started. 
This led to the village settlement, one interest adding to another, one 
dwelling and its tenant constantly swelling the population, until we find 
on Samuel Church's farm an altogether progressive and thrifty munic- 
pality ; not large, to be sure, yet comfortable, convenient and quiet. 
In 1852 a railroad was constructed through the then hamlet site, which 
had the effect to enlarge and increase all business interests, both of vil- 
lage and town. This created a necessity for more liberal expenditures 
for local good, and a village corporation was the result. 

The first election was held on the 7th of March, 1855. The first 
officers, elective and appointive, were as follows: J. M. Jameson, Zephas 
Willard and John Markley, trustees; A. R. Smith, clerk; J. M. Ran 
dall, John Markly and L. Bangs, assessors ; Lemuel Brook, collector ; 
J. B. Johnson, treasurer; J. M. Randall and Norman Savage, street 
commissioners ; J. W. Craig, P. Stone and Roswell Clark, fire wardens. 

The trustees for 1895 are Charles G. Stewart, president, and Selden 
G. Hitchins, Frank Potter, Thomas Parnell and Alfred Harrison ; clerk, 
Fred E. Smith. 

Returning to the early history of the village, mention may be made 
of some of the first occupants and business enterprises. The first 
habitation of man on the village site was the log house occupied by 
Samuel Church, and the first frame dwelling was that of George E. 
Harmon. The first store was opened by Linus Pierson, about 18 14 or 
1815, and the second by Hubbard Hall, about 1818. A public house 
was opened early, as the village happened to be a place on the stage 
route where the drivers changed horses, and the tavern was then as 
necessary as the store. Elisha P. Davis built and kept the tavern, and 
also officiated as postmaster. Later hotel keepers were one Conwell 
and Ichabod Sprague, the last mentioned soon after 1830. 

However, as a business center, Churchville has never attained any 
special prominence among the country towns of the county, nor do the 
people lay claim to the possession of a commercial village. Here is the 
heart of a large and valuable agricultural region, the soil being especially 
productive of wheat, barley and beans. These, and all other products 
of the vicinity are shipped to market from the station at Churchville. 





r- u 


-^^1^ ^W 






i 


''-^aB^^^Hp^ 




^^^^■1 


f '^l 




^^•\ 


1 









^-^4^^-^ 



THE TOWN OF RIGA. 393 

Among the more prominent present business interests of the village 
may be mentioned the large and well known water-power grist mill of 
Sage & Potter ; the works and gum factory of the Specialty Company, 
and the general stores of Alfred Harrison and Briscoe & Randall. In 
the village, also, are three hotels, comfortable and well conducted. 

In the latter part of 1 894 the qualified electors voted to establish a 
Union Free School to replace and supersede the old district system. 
However, this reform was not accomplished without a severe contest, 
and possibly some unpleasant feelings. But it was done, and the action 
can never cause lasting regret, and within the next two years Church- 
ville will possess one of the finest and best appointed union school 
buildings in the county. 

During the period of its existence, Churchville has been the home of 
several church societies and organizations, and of these some mention 
may properly be made. The Methodist Episcopal church of Churchville 
was organized about the year 1835 and originally and for many years 
formed a part of the circuit with Chili, but later became annexed to Ber- 
gen in Genesee county. It is now a joint station with Sweden. The 
church edifice was erected about the year 1835. The society now has 
a good membership of sixty persons and with it is connected a large 
Sunday school. The present pastor is Rev. P. P. Sowers. The trus- 
tees are Charles Sanford, George Adams and A. A. Schofield. 

The present Universalist church and society of Churchville and the 
town of Riga was the outgrowth of early meetings of the early settlers 
who favored the doctrine of universalism. Among the pioneers of this 
town were many former New Englanders, and in that part of our coun- 
try this denomination has ever been strong and representative. The 
services in Riga can be traced back to about 181 3, and among the prom- 
inent universalist leaders may be recalled the Richmonds, George, 
Billings and Joshua, also Elisha P, Davis, Joseph Emerson, Samuel 
Shepard, Ichabod Sprague, Linus Crosby and Ashley Smith. The first 
organization of this society .was effected in 1839, '^^^ ^^ ^^^ next year 
the church house was built. The first pastor was Rev. James Cook. 
The society prospered for many years, but recently an unfortunate fire 
brought disaster and destruction to the edifice. 

The first church organization in the village was Presbyterian in doc- 

50 



394 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

trine, and was formed very soon after the founding of the settlement. 
For many years the society flourished, but at last interest began to de- 
cline, and result was ultimate dissolution. The old edifice, however, 
outlived its tenant societ)' and was the temporary house also of the 
Union Congregational church, the latter being here organized in the 
early part of 1852. A more suitable house of worship was erected and 
the Congregational society took a leading position among the eccles- 
iastical organizations of the village. The prominence it has ever main- 
tained, and its present members number one hundred and twenty-five 
persons. The pastor is Rev. Johnson Henderson. The trustees are 
H. P. Dusinbury, I. L. Randall and J. H. Bushnell. 

The Baptist church of Churchville was organized December 1 1, 185 i, 
by Rev. A. C. Drake, with an original membership of twenty persons. 
From this beginning the membership is now increased to sixty at the 
present time. The church edifice was erected in 1852. The present 
pastor of this church is Rev. A. A. Shaw. 

St. Vincent de Paul's Roman Catholic church was organized in 1869, 
although masses were said in the town at a much earlier date. The 
church edifice was built in 1870. The parish of this church includes all 
the Catholic families of Churchville and its vicinity, and numbers about 
400 persons of all ages. Rev. Father D. J. Curran is the present priest 
in charge of this church. The trustees are L. Lemon and Patrick 
McDermott. 

In closing this chapter a brief allusion to the schools of Riga will be 
found of interest. The first school in town was located at the Center 
and was one of the earliest public institutions of the town. Its teacher 
was Thomas Gay. In 1814 and 181 5 this school was taught by 
-Billings Richmond, who had a hundred pupils. Another school located 
south of the Center, numbering twenty-five pupils, was taught by Lorin 
Clark, while the Churchville school was in charge of a third teacher and 
had thirty attendants. In 1820 Riga, inclusive of Chili, was divided 
into twenty-five districts, and the whole nymber of children of school 
age then living in the town was 977. In 1835, Chili in the meantime 
having been set ofT, Riga had sixteen districts and 704 children of 
school age. 

As at present constituted, the town has ten school districts all of 



TOE TOWN OF RUSH. 395 

which, except No. 7, has a good school house. Of the nine buildings 
six are frame and three brick. During the school year ending July 
31, 1884, twelve teachers were employed, and were paid $3,980. 
Tiiere was apportioned to the town in that year $1,598.09, and raised 
by town tax, $3,127.82. Repairs cost $18038; libraries, $72.87, and 
all other expenses of schools amounted to $455.81. The value of 
school property in Riga is $6,875. 



CHAPTER XVI. 
THE TOWN OF RUSH. 

In the original division of the Genesee country into towns or provi- 
sional districts, in 1789, the town of Hartford was created. This name 
remained unchanged until 1808, and was thereafter known as Avon. 
The latter was in turn divided on March 13, 18 18, and the present 
town of Rush formed. In 1821 it was taken from Ontario to form a 
part of the then created county of Monroe. In area the town contains 
18,296 acres of land. Geographically, Rush lies near the centerof the south 
border of the county, the Genesee River forming its western boundary. 
Honeoye Creek flows west through the town and discharges into the 
river near the center of the west border. Along the river valley are 
extensive flat lands, fertile and productive to a remarkable degree, and 
in this locality are many fine farms. The land surface is rolling, with 
an inclination to the west, and the soil is a calcareons loam on the up- 
lands, and a rich alluvium on the flats. 

The first settlers in this new and then comparatively unknown region 
were James and John Ganson, who during the year 1788 visited the 
town and built a log house, and also made a clearing preparatory to 
cultivating the land. These young men came to this locaHty at the 
suggestion of their father, Capt. John Ganson, a soldier of the Revolu- 
tion, and whose knowledge of the country hereabouts was acquired 
during Sullivan's famous campaign against the Indians in 1779. Cap- 
tain Ganson was one of Sullivan's men and had taken an active part in 



396 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY 

the campaign. Yet so far as his residence in this town was concerned, 
he made the unfortunate mistake of acquiring the title to his lands from 
the Indians or the notorious lessee company, and the ultimate result was 
that he was obliged to abandon his improvement Captain Ganson himself 
came to the town in 1789, and with his sons, constructed the first mills 
for grinding grain in the whole region. After leaving the town the 
family established themselves near Le Roy, where all were interested 
in keeping public houses, and there each became prominent in local 
affairs. 

The Phelps and Gorham proprietary sold nearly all the lands of this 
township to Jeremiah Wadsworth, and also to Joseph Morgan and his 
associates, and under the sales made by them the actual and permanent 
settlement of the town was made. The Ganson tract passed into the 
hands of Col. William Markham and by him \^-as occupied. He was a 
prominent man in the early history of Ontario county ; at one time was 
member of assembly. He came from New Hampshire and settled first 
in Bloomfield, and thence moved to Rush. One of the first distilleries 
in the region was located on his farm. He built a substantial mill in 
1 8 10, and two others at a later date, and, it is said, at one time owned 
one-sixteenth of all the land in this town. He died in 1826. 

Capt. Ransom Smith was the cotemporary of Captain Markham, and 
came with him to the new region. The third settler was John Barnes, 
who located near Markham's, followed, about 1797, by Thomas Dailey. 
In 1 80 1 Christie Thomas came in from Maryland, and built the first 
saw mill in the town in 1805, and two years later a bridge across Hon- 
eoye Creek. The still later settlers, though soon after 1800, Jacob 
Stull and Philip Price, the former of whom built a block-house in the 
town in 1802. Price built another in 1803. The Ott family came to 
Rush in 1801 and .located on a 300-acre farm tract, and in the same 
year came John Bell. Abraham Wright, a mulatto, is said to have 
settled in the town as early as 1797, in the locality then known as the 
" Negro's settlement," but later as "Abraham's Plains." Soon afterward 
several negro families settled near this place, but after a time they 
nearly all disappeared. 

In 1804 there came into the town a considerable colony of pioneers, 
nearly all of them from Connecticut, and every one an honest and de- 



THE TOWN OF RUSH. 397 

termined settler, seeking to better his condition in the then famous 
Genesee country. These colonists were devoted members of the Bap- 
tist church in the east and continued their consistent hfe and example 
in this town, and from this fact the party became known as the " Bap- 
tist colony." Among their number were sixteen families, the heads 
being remembered as Squire Goff, Charles Goff, Comfort Gofif, sr. and 
jr., Gurnsey and Enoch Goff, Ephraim Stoddard, Benajah Billings, 
Clark Davis, Stephen Wilcox, Thaddeus Harris, John Tupper, Daniel 
Remington, William Allen, and Eli Brainard. These families settled 
in the neighborhood of " the Square," in the western part of the town, 
and the descendants of many of them still live in the county. 

Through the influence and energy of these colonists many worthy 
improvements were accomplished at an early day. The so-called 
" Square " was in accord with New England custom, and was provided 
through the generosity of Proprietor Wadsworth, not perhaps through 
purely philanthropic motives, but rather to induce settlement and the 
consequent sale of his lands. In this vicinity these good pioneers estab- 
lished a school and also made provision for regular weekly religious 
meetings. Elder Goff was one of their earliest ministers and preached 
for them until 1816. 

Among the other early settlers of Rush may be recalled the names 
of John Mack, Joseph McFarlan, Jonathan and Wells Clark, Thomas 
Cummings, John Hartwell, Asa Farrer, John Bliss, Job Case, Jonathan, 
Ichabod, and Rufus Burdick, Nathaniel Rowley, Oliver Case, Jeremiah 
Ruland, Abram and Gabriel Furman, Elnathan Perry, John Underhill, 
Samuel Helmes (an early tavern-keeper), George Fenner, Ethan Davis, 
Jacob Shaffer, or Shaver, Nathan Jeffords, Cyrenus and Elisha Brown 
(the famous hut builders of early days), and others, all of whom are 
worthy of mention in these pages. 

Continuing on the same line of narration, we may also mention the 
Martin families who came in from Maryland in 1809, and who were 
Jacob, Abraham, John, Henry and Daniel. Later comers were Daniel 
Hart, George Lyday, Peter and Philip Price, Joseph Sibley, Elisha Sib- 
ley, Dr. Alexander Kelsey, John Diver. The first physician was Dr. 
Farr, followed Drs. Fin. Kelsey, Kingsbury and Socrates Smith, about 
in the order named. 



398 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTT. 

Referring brief!}' to some of the first events of Rush history, there 
may be noted the fact that the Ganson boys built the first mill ; Philip 
Price the first distillery, and Nathan Jeffords had the first oot-ashery. 
Martin Goodrich and one Jennin<^s had the first tannery. The first 
child born was that of Joseph Morgan, in 1789 The first deaths were 
those of Mr. and Mrs. Markham, in 1791. John Webster kept the first 
inn, Benjamin Campbell the first store, and John Webster the first regu- 
lar grist mill. 

A number of these early residents of Rush took an active part in the 
war of 1812-15, and among those remembered in that connection were 
Col. Philetus Swift, Joseph Sibley, Major John Markham, Benjamin 
Jeffords and Joseph Jeffords. John Case, John Sherwood, Calvin Diver 

and Shemerhorn went out during the first year, while those who 

marched to the frontier and remained but a short time were Dr. Alex- 
ander Kelsey, Jacob Stull, George, Jacob, and Peter Price, Alfred 
Jaynes, Nathan Jeffords, Micah Fishall, Peter Ackley and Warren Cas- 
well. 

P'rom what has been noted on preceding pages the reader must dis- 
cover that settlement once begun in this region increased with rapidity 
until all the most available lands were well occupied. So rapid indeed 
was the increase in population that in 1820, just two years after the 
town was set off and separately organized, the number of inhabitants in 
the district was 1,701, more in fact than are in the town at the present 
day. The maximum population was reached in 1830, the census of 
that year showing the number of inhabitants to be 2,098 In 1840 it 
had decreased to 1,929, and in 1850 had increased to 2,015. In i860 
the number was 1,613, in 1870 was 1,654, in 1880 was 1,741, and in 
1890 was 1,695. However, soon after 1815 the people of the north 
part of old Avon began to discuss the subject of a separate jurisdiction, 
for they were sufficient in number and so situated in the town as de- 
mand such an organization in the interest of public convenience. Con- 
sequently, an act was passed, Avon was divided, and on the 13th of 
March, 181 8. the new town of Rush was created and soon thereafter 
fully organized. 

The first town meeting was held at the dwelling of Benajah Billings, 
and William Markham was elected supervisor; Peter Price, town clerk; 



THE TOWN OF RUSH. 399 

Nathan Jeffords, Jacob Stull, and John Markham, assessors ; Nathan 
Rose, Dudley Brainerd and Clark Davis, commissioner of highways ; 
George Lyday and Peter Price, overseers of the poor ; Adolphus Allen, 
collector. 

In 1 82 1 Rush was separated from the mother county and taken for 
the formation of Monroe, and since that year the supervisors of the town 
have been as follows: Peter Price, 182 1-3 1 ; Mimon M. Coe, 1832-34; 
Alfred Jones, 1835; John P. Stull, 1836-38; Nathan Jeffords, 1839; 
Joseph Sibley, 1840; Peter Price, 1841-47; Nathan Jeffords, 1848-49; 
Henry B. Hart, 1850; Nathan Jeffords, 1851; John B. Crosby, 1852 ; 
Wells Clark, 1853; Joseph Sibley, 1854; J. B. Crosby, 1855; Owen 
D. Crosby, 1856-58; Thomas J. Jeffords, 1859-67; Hosea Martin, 
1868; Thomas J. Jeffords, 1869-70: Hosea Martin, 1871; Thomas J. 
Jeffords. 1872-73; George H. Houck, 1874-76; Charles M. Green, 
1877-78; Joseph H. Sherman, 1879-82; David Martin, 1883-86; 
Byron A. Diver, 1887-89; Joseph H. Sherman, 1890-91; George 
Houck, 1892; David Martin, 1893-95. 

The officers of the the town of Rush for the year 1895 ^'^^ ^s follows: 
David Martin, supervisor; John H. Behnk, town clerk; James M. 
Heath, Andrew Liday, Samuel H. Kinny, George Frederick and The- 
odore Green, justices of the peace; Edward Morrison, James Sherman, 
and John Hetzler, assessors ; Albert M. Goff, overseer of the poor ; 
Edward Darrohn, collector; Charles Hart, George Martin and Charles * 
M.Green, excise commissioners; Joseph Keyes, road commissioner; 
Everett Darrohn, Fred Banks, Charles Gottschalk, Martin Darn and 
Samuel Clark, constables. 

As a manufacturing town Rush has never attained a position of any 
importance among the civil divisions of the county. In fact the loca- 
tion and natural features of the town are such as to preclude the possi- 
bility of any importance in this respect. However, glancing back over 
the past records of the town, we learn in 1820 there were in operation 
two saw mills, two grist mills, two distilleries and one ashery. Fifteen 
years later there were two grist mills, seven saw mills, one fulling mill, 
one carding machine, one distillery and one ashery. At the present 
time each of these industries has lost its usefulness and with the excep- 
tion of a single flour and grist mill, is no longer known to the town. 



400 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

As an agricultural town in general, Rush stands well in the county, 
and a fair proportion of her 18,296 acres is under cultivation Originally 
the inhabitants devoted themselves to general agriculture and the grow- 
ing of wheat, but as the later product become unprofitable by reason of 
western competioii, the local farmer has been compelled to substitute some 
other crops in its stead. A little practical experience has taught the 
Rush husbandman that the production of potatoes yields nearly the same 
profit as did wheat raising, and the result has been to place Rush in the 
front rank of potato producing towns in this entire region. 

During the period of its history, within the town of Rush three small 
villages have been built up, but neither has attained the dignity of a 
corporate character. 

East Rush is situated in the east part of the town and has a present 
population of about 300. Within the last few years this village has been 
given the benefit of a line of railroads, but even this has not stimulated 
local growth to any considerable extent. The business interests at this 
place comprise the steam and water powerflour and grist mill of Homer 
L. S. Hall, the general stores of Samuel H. Kinsey, M. S. Sherman, 
Mead & Provost, and the several small shops generally found in similar 
hamlets. Here are also two good hotels, known as the Price House 
and the Longfellow House. 

West Rush is a hamlet of about 200 population situated in the west- 
ern portion of the town on the line of the old Canandaigua & Batavia 
railroad, and about one mile east of Rush station on the Erie Railroad. 
As a shipping point for potatoes and other products of the region this 
village has some j)rominence. The business and mercantile interest are 
the flour and grist mill of Richard Cook, the general stores of Clarence 
Carr and A. B. Chapman, the cooper shop of James Kelly, and two ho- 
tels known as the Sweeney and the Keys House. 

North Rush, or as more familiarly and commonly known. Hart's 
Corners, is a small hamlet in the northwest part of the town, about one 
mile east of Scottsville station. As a trading center it is least in im- 
portance among the hamlets of the town, the business interests being 
the general store of Earnest Parmalee and cider mill of John Hetzler. 

The church and religious history of the town of Rush forms an in- 
teresting element of local annals, and as such may be briefly treated in 



THE TOWN OF RUSH. 401 

this chapter. The first religious society in the town was formed by the 
Baptist colony, who began their meetings soon after 1804, although a 
number of years passed before an organization was perfected. In Jan- 
uary, 1830, the Associated Baptist Society of Rush was formed, and ten 
years later a church home was built. However, this society has prac- 
tically passed out of existence and its old house of worship has been put 
to secular uses. 

The First Methodist Episcopal church of Rush was formed in 1831, 
and was regularly incorporated February 19, 1844, under the name of 
the First Methodist Episcopal church of East Rush. The church edi- 
fice, built in 1845, was burned '" 1850. The new church was com- 
pleted in 1852. This chuch is now a joint charge with Henrietta, under 
the pastoral care of Rev. J. T. Humphreys ; the membership of these 
churches is about 150 persons. 

The Evangelical Lutheran Reformed church of Rush was organized, 
and its church edifice was built about 1830. A second structure was 
erected in 1863. The pastor of this church was Rev. John Keeler. 

The Christian church of Rush, or more properly, the church of the 
Diciples of Christ, was organized in 1829, although meetings of this 
denomination were held as early as 181 5 by Elder Badger. The society 
was organized by Elder Silsby, and about 1832 a frame church was 
erected. A new church was erected about 1870. The present pastor 
is Rev. Mr Crow. 

In 1804 or 1805 the Baptist colony caused to be built in the neigh- 
borhood of the " Square " a little log school house, and here Mr. West- 
fall taught the first school. In 1806 the second school house, a frame 
building, was built on the Square and here the first school was taught 
by Dudley Miller. 

There was no separate division of Rush into school districts until after 
the organization of the town in 18 1 8. In 1820 here were 236 children 
of school age, which number increased during the next fifteen years to 
763. In 1835 there were twelve districts, and but ten in i860. As 
now constituted the town is divided into ten districts, one of which (No. 
8) has no school house. During the school year ending July 31, 1894, 
this town received for school purposes $3,437,29, of which amount 
$1,974.16 was raised by town tax. The number of children of school 

51 



-102 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

a^e was 463, for whose instruction ten teachers were employed and 
paid $2,801.40. The total value of school property in the town is 

$7,725.00. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE TOWN OF SWEDEN AND VILLAGE OF BROCKPORT." 

The termination of hostilities between Great Britain and the Colonies 
in 1783 found the people of the thirteen States possessed of but little 
more than freedom from English oppression. Eight years of stubborn 
unyielding on the part of George III and his parliament was a most 
serious matter to the struggling State. 

The conflict for independence had cost an enormous sum. The want 
of unity between the sovereign States rendered legislation for the 
benefit of the people slow and of doubtful result. Private enterprise 
was utterly crippled, agriculture had been almost wholly abandoned, 
trade with foreign nations had long since ceased to be a source of 
revenue and the entire resources of the whole nation were so depleted 
that the greatest privation was endured by all classes. 

The suffering brought about by the Revolution was an important 
factor in causing the increased emigration to the central and western 
portions of the State of New York. In 1788 Messrs. Phelps and 
Gorham began negotiations with the commonwealth of Massachusetts, 
who claimed jurisdiction by virtue of an old charter, for the purchase 
of an immense tract of land in the western part of New York. The 
territory which they proposed to acquire was still in the possession of 
the Seneca nation, but the Legislature of Massachusetts sold to Phelps 
and Gorham the right to extinguish the Indian title. A council was 
held at Buffalo Creek and the Indians agreed, to dispose of a part of 
their territory, but refused to sell any land west of the Genesee River. 
Phelps, however, who was present, represented to the Indians that a 
" mill seat" lot was of great importance and ultimately prevailed upon 

' By Morley 11. Turpin, of Rochester. 



TtlE TOWN OF SWEDEN 4o3 

them to give to him the title to a tract of valuable land west of the 
Genesee River. This was known as the " Mill Seat " lot and extended 
northward from the village of Canavvagus to Lake Ontario and was to 
be twelve miles in width throughout. In the survey of the "mill seat" 
lot an error was made by Hugh Maxwell in 1789. He ran the west 
line due north instead of parallel with the general course of the Genesee 
River. This error was afterwards corrected by Augustus Porter, who 
ran the west line 22° east of north. 

The area included between Maxwell's erroneous line and the correct 
line as surveyed by Porter contained 87,000 acres and was and is known 
as the "Triangle" tract. This triangle, which embraces the towns of 
Sweden, Clarkson and Hamlin in Monroe county, came into the posses- 
sion of Robert Morris in 1801, who conveyed it to Le Roy, Bayard 
and McEvers, gentlemen engaged in mercantile pursuits in the city of 
New York. 

The transactions of Phelps and Gorham, Robert Morris and the pro- 
prietors of the "Triangle" were now well known throughout the State. 
The improvements made by them had placed the advantages of the 
western part of the State in strong contrast with the over- burdened 
and at that time non productive east. The alluring offers made by the 
agents of Phelps and Gorham and others were taken advantage of by a 
large number of persons who were desirous of bettering their condition 
and the tide of emigration turned so strongly westward that in two years 
from the date of their purchase Phelps and Gorham had disposed of a 
considerable number of townships. 

The county of Ontario was taken from Montgomery in 1789 and at 
that time comprised all the territory westward to Lake Erie and the 
Niagara frontier. As early as 1797 ^iH the region west of the Genesee 
River in the State of New York was known as the town of Northamp- 
ton. 

The " Triangle " tract above mentioned lies between the " Mill Seat " 
lot on the east and the east line of the Connecticut tract and Morris 
reserve on the west. The base rests on Lake Ontario and the apex of 
the triangle is at a point in the line between the towns of Pavilion and 
Le Roy in Genesee county. It was surveyed into five townships num- 
bering from south to north. Each township was divided into sections 



4(H LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

of one and one lialf miles square and these sections subdivided into 
farm lots of I20 acres each. The surveys were made by Richard M. 
Stoddard in 1801 and the property immediately put upon the market. 
Mr. Stoddard acting as agent for the owners. 

In the early days the land in the "Triangle" was considered to be 
of the poorest quality. A long unbroken forest stretched to the west- 
ward, marshes abounded and the general uninviting aspect of the coun- 
try made the sales slow, although land was offered at two dollars and 
two dollars and fifty cents an acre. In 1805 but three lots were sold in 
Sweden, in 1806 nine, in 1807 but twenty-six. and it is uncertain as to 
whether all who made purchases became actual settlers or not; probably 
they did not. 

In 1802 a road was opened to the lake. It was the gift of the owners 
and was not included in the lots bordering on it, but the then principal 
thoroughfare was the Buffalo Road and the country north of it was but 
little thought of. 

So lit'le progress was made in the matter of highways that as late as 
181 1 the Ridge Road, so well adapted by nature to the purposes of 
travel, was but little more than a pathway cut through the woods, wide 
enough only for a single wagon to pass and crossed and recrossed by 
innumerable small streams often swollen and proving serious obstacles 
to the passage of the few pioneers who journeyed into the wilds of 
Western New York. So unfamiliar were the settlers with the country 
that in 18 12 a large army whose destination was Lewiston actually 
turned southward from the ridge at Clarkson and continued their march 
to the front by the way of Bergen and Batavia. 

There were no mail routes north of the Buffalo road until after 18 12, 
and no means of communicating with the outside world save by long 
and tedious journeys through the thick forests in wagons drawn by oxen 
or on horseback. Supplies for household use and utensils for farm 
work were obtained under great difficulties and from points far removed, 
and the marketing of the little the settler was able to produce was at- 
tended with an enormous outlay of time and energy. 

The advantages of living at the present time are not calculated to 
instill into our minds a realizing sense of the obstacles met and over- 
come by the pioneers who were the makers of the Empire State. 



THE TOWN OP SWEDEN. 406 

The settler in the western State of to-day has infinitely less to con- 
tend with than did the early settler in our own State. In the case of 
the one all that modern thought can devise lessens his labor and brings 
to his fireside the comforts of a prosperous nation. On the other hand 
the pioneer in western New York was compelled to undergo the sever- 
est trials, possessing only the barest necessities procured through the 
greatest difficulties and oftentimes in the face of personal danger, where 
are novv thriving farms, prosperous towns and villages bound together 
in the closest relations by telegraph and telephone, where railroads and 
canal make marketing an easy matter; where postal service and news- 
papers bring intelligence of interest and value and where all that science 
can suggest is made the instrument of good, was seventy five or eighty 
years ago a barren wilderness of wood and marsh, with no churches, no 
educational institutions, and but little to lighten the dreary life of the 
pioneer. 

In the early part of 1813 the first steps toward a better civilization 
were taken, and the town of Sweden was erected from Murray, which 
had been originally designated Bayard, and the town of Northampton 
was divided. On the 5th day of April in 18 14, the first meeting of the 
town of Sweden was held at the house of Reuben Stickney, one of the 
earliest settlers on township No. 3. The officers elected at that time 
were the first to be elected in the town of Sweden, the act of the Legis- 
lature necessary at that time for the erection of a town having been 
passed on the 2d day of April of the previous year. 

The following were the officers chosen : Supervisor, John Reed ; town 
clerk, Elisha Stewart ; assessors, Joshua B. Adams, Henry Hill, John 
Marshal; road commissioners, Alanson Dudley, Zenas Case, Colvin 
Gibbs; poormasters, Benajah Warden, Record W. Vining; school com- 
missioners, John Reed, William James, Colvin Gibbs; school inspect- 
ors, David Gliddon, William Sheldon, Lyman Humphreys, Elisha 
Stewart, Amos Frink, Peleg Sanders; collector and constable, William 
James; constable, William Luther; pound master, Reuben Stickney; 
and twenty seven overseers of highways. 

From 1 8 14 to 1820 inclusive John Reed was the supervisor for the 
town of Sweden in Genesee county, Sweden being in that county up to 
February 23, 1821, when Genesee county was divided and Monroe 
county erected. 



406 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COtJNTr. 

The succession of supervisors from Sweden to the Monroe County 
Board embraces the following named persons: Silas Judson, 1821 to 
1823; James Seymour, 1824 to 1825; Joseph Randall, 182610 1829; 
Robert Staples. i830to 1835; Samuel H. Davis, 1836 to 1838; Joseph 
Randall, 1839 to 1840; Nathaniel Palmer, i84r to 1842; Robert Sta- 
ples, 1843 to 1847; Humphrey Palmer, 1848; Robert Staples. 1849; 
Asa Rowe, 1850; Samuel H. Davis, 1851 to 1853; Frederick P. Root, 
185410 1858; Chauncey S. White, 1859 to 1H60; Henry Root, 1861 ; 
Thomas Cornes, 1862; Samuel H. Davis, 1863 to 1864; Thomas Cornes, 
1865 to 1866; Walter C. Fairbanks, 1867; Luther Gordon, 1868 to 
1869; F. F. Capen. 1870 to 1871 ; E. A. Young, 1872 to 1873 ; Ira 
Crawford, 187410 1875 ; Lucius T. Underbill, 1876 and 1878 ; William 
J. P!dmunds. 187910 1881 ; George W. Sime, 1882 to 1884; Henry L. 
White, 1885 to 1087; Frank E. Williams, 1888 to 1889; Clifford M. 
White, 1890 ; George L. Smith, 1891 ; Alfred M. White, 1892 ; George 
L. Smith, 1893 and Benjamin F. Gleason, 1894. 

The present limits of the town of Sweden comprise the third town- 
ship of the Triangle tract. Its extension from north to south is about 
six miles, its width from east to west five and three-quarter miles, with 
an area of 22,942 acres, or about thirty-four and one-half square miles. 

The earliest settlements made in Sweden of which any record is to be 
had, were in 1804. '05, at least contracts for land were made in those 
years and it is presumed that active settlement followed within a rea- 
sonable time. The increase in the population of township No. 3 was 
slow, but the growth was healthful and here and there along the lake 
road, clearings were made in the forest large enough only, at first, for 
the primitive dwellings of the pioneer. But little mone\' was brought 
into the country by the early comers and whatever was done in the way 
of improvements was made under difficulty and discouragement. By 
slow stages the little openings in the woods were enlarged and suffi- 
cient land cultivated to supply what was actually needed. Other set- 
tlers cames and logging bees and raising bees were common oc- 
currences. 

In 1807 Nathaniel Poole and Walter Palmer settled on the Lake 
road and later in the same year Samuel Bishop, Isaac White, Stephen 
Johnson, and Joseph Hopkins purchased land and settled on the 



THE TOWN OF SWEDEN. 407 

highway to the lake. In the following year John -i^eed purchased 
900 acres of land in the southern part of the tow^u and soon became 
identified with the best interests of the district. Timothy Taylor 
located south of the center of the towu'; tCdward Parks south of what 
is now Brockport, and Decc'on Rice at Wilkie's Corners ; also James 
and Amos Stickney. -and Reuben Stickney, jr., Israel Stickney and 
Ltwis Gardner all of whom settled on the Lake road ; Reuben Moore, 
Zenas Case and Elder Zenas Case, jr., settled in the east part of the 
town, and somewhat later settlements were made on what is now known 
as the Fourth Section road by Elijah Steward, Walter Steward, Uriah 
L. James, William James, Simeon Palmer and Joshua B. Adams. Ben- 
jamin S. Sheldon settled in the same neighborhood "about 18 10 and in 
the same year William Warden, Aaron Hill and Moses J. Hill on the 
town line road leading from Wilkie's Corners to Holley. In the same 
year and the year following settlements were made in the east and south 
part of the town by Joseph Hutchinson, Joseph Luce, and Oramel But- 
ler; also Roland Saunders and Edward H. Raleigh on the Lake road 
south of the center of the town ; Levi Page and Ezra Brown settled at 
west Sweden and Abijah Cooper one mile west on the Lake road in 

181 1 or 1 81 2. 

A few other pioneers whose names are nowhere mentioned had set- 
tled in this vicinity up to 1812, but only a small portion of the town 
was occupied. A census report made in November, 18 13, shows that 
in the towns of Sweden and Clarendon, comprised one hundred and 
forty families, composed of eight hundred and nineteen persons. They 
were divided as follows : twenty-two males and the same number of females 
who were forty-five years of age and over; one hundred and fifty-four 
males and one hundred and thirty four females who were between the 
ages of eighteen and forty five; and two hundred and sixty-five males 
and two hundred and twenty-one females who were under eighteen. 
The number of electors with freehold who rented tenements of the 
yearly value of forty shillings, was one hundred and forty-two ; of the 
value of twenty to one hundred pounds, none ; and of the value of one 
hundred pounds and over, five. 

The constant state of excitement and alarm incident to the war of 

18 1 2 proved disastrous to the further increase in the population of 



408 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Sweden. Emigra'tion was not wholly discontinued, but was somewhat 
restricted, and not a Vew of those who had already located here were 
frightened into leaving. 

During the progress of the war the nrices of farm produce were ex- 
tremely high, wheat ranging from three to Tour dollars a bushel, and 
two dollars was the average price demanded for a ^jushel of oats. The 
prices of other produce and supplies were proportionately high. After 
the conclusion of the war, and the uncertainties incident thereto were 
removed, the settlement of Sweden was again begun with renewed vigor 
and the population so rapidly increased that in 1816 almost the entire 
Ridge road west of the Genesee river was settled. 

The year 18 16 was a disastrous one, being cold and unproductive, 
and barely enough was raised to prevent the settlers from suffering 
actual want. This order of things was not of long duration, and for 
the next few years the naturally productive soil yielded so bountifully 
that the price of the best quality of wheat dropped to thirty-seven and 
one-half cents per bushel. Discouraging as this must have been to the 
producers, who were almost without exception in debt for land, and 
dependent upon what they raised to pay the interest on their invest- 
ments, the problem was met and overcome. 

During tiie first decade much was done in the way of improvement 
and those who were able to meet the obligations imposed upon them 
by the contracts entered into with Messrs. Le Roy, Bayard and Mc- 
Evers found themselves in 1825 amply repaid for their trials by the in- 
creased value of their property. In this year the Erie Canal became a 
reality and by reason of the increased facilities for transportation and 
communication a greater impetus was given to the life and vigor of the 
district. 

The education of the young and movements tending toward the re- 
finement of those of more mature years were not overlooked during 
these busy days, and although the means at hand were somewhat prim- 
itive in their nature, yet they were far reaching and eminently beneficial 
in the results accomplished. 

Much that was done in the way of educating the youngtr members 
of the community was performed in the home and by members of the 
home circle, yet there were schools where the elements of an educa- 



THE TOWN OF SWEDEN. 409 

tion were to be haH. In a sparsely settled country the schools were 
necessarily few and far between, but the sturdy mind of the early settler 
fully understood the advantages of preparing their children to meet and 
intelligently overcome the obstacles of life. 

Meetings of a religious nature aiming toward the betterment of 
society were frequent and the foundation laid in those early days by 
church and school is to-day noticeable in the solidity of the present in- 
stitutions of Sweden. 

The names of those who were instrumental in shaping the destinies of 
the town, in directing and maintaining all that was for the " greatest 
good of the greatest number," in guarding the interests of both church 
state, are here given in recognition of their services as makers of history. 
Prominent in all movements for progress were : Joseph Staples, Robert 
Staples, Peter Stutphin, Oliver Spencer, Edmond Spencer, Chauncey 
Staples, John White, James Stickney, Amos Stickney, Samual H.Davis, 
Abel Root, Joseph Randall, Chester Roberts, Elvis Lee, Samuel Mor- 
gan, David Morgan, Dr. David Avery, Dr. E. B. Elliott, Levi Pond, 
Humphrey Palmer, Thaddeus Stone, Oramel Butler, Daniel Butler, 
Nathaniel Bangs, Dudley Root, William Root, Julius Comstock, Eli 
Gallup, Aaron Root, Samuel V. Way, Timothy Taylor, Joseph Hutchin- 
son, Sisson Taylor, Reuben Allen, John House, Job Whipple, John 
Clark, Mr. Bronson, Thomas Cooley, Lieutenant Crippen, Deacon 
Niles, Zadoc Hurd, Elisha Locke and sons, Samuel C. Bentley, C. J^ 
Whitcher, Uriah L. James, William King, Alanson Thomas, Elder 
Brackett, Royal Barlow, Elder Bigalow, James Jackson, Walter Phelps, 
Artemus Lyman, James Hart, Peleg Thomas, Seth L. King, E. H. 
Raleigh, Asa Babcock, William Ward, James White, Silas Parker, 
Abijah Capen, Ezra Brown, -Rowland Sanders, Simeon Palmer, Benja- 
min J. Sheldon, Aaron Hill, Moses Hill, Daniel Freeman, Joseph Pres- 
ton, Benjamin Pemington, Elish Brace, Lyons Udell, Samuel Chadsey, 
William Seldon, Erastus Lawrence, Samuel Bishop, Silas Judson, John 
Reed, John Beadle, Elisha Steward, Chauncey Robinson, Elisha Hunt- 
ley, Eldrige Farwell, Jacob Cooley, Harmon Cooley, and many others 
whose names cannot be mentioned but to whose memory we pay 
tribute. 

The topography of Sweden is generally level, though gently undu- 

52 



410 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

lating in some parts. The soil is a sandy loam with a mixture of gravel 
or clay in some localities and is as fertile and productive as any in the 
State. Streams flow in every direction from the center of the town, 
which is slightly elevated, thus supplying abundant water and ad- 
mirable drainage The Salmon rises west and southwest of the center 
and flows easterly into Ogden. The west branch of the same stream 
rises south of Brockport, flowing northeast. A stream of consider- 
able size has its origin in the west part of the town and flows southerly 
into Riga. Numerous other small streams supply water in plenty. 
The Erie Canal crosses the town from east to west and the Niagara Falls 
branch of the New York Central extends entirely across the northern 
portion. Competition between canal and railroad has been of benefit to 
the farmer in keeping transportation rates at a minimum. In early 
days the low health rate was an inducement for physicians to settle in 
Sweden and at an early date Dr. John B. Eliott located in the town on 
Beach Ridge, but shortly after removed to Brockport and opened a 
drug store. In 1830 or 1831 Dr. Ralph A. Gillet commenced the 
practice of medicine at Sweden Center and also conducted a grocery 
and dry goods business. Daniel J. Avery and D. N. Glazier opened 
stores at the Center a few years later, but as the village of Brockport 
absorbed the trade, the enterprise was abandoned in 1850. Dr. S. M. 
Olden succeeded Dr. Gillet as town physician in 1839 or 1840, but re- 
moved to Brockport about 1850. Dr. Muntley also located at the 
Center, but he, too, removed to Brockport in 1855. 

Nathaniel Poole built the first log house on the north side of Beach 
Ridge and James Beadle erected the first frame house and kept the first 
tavern It was located about one-half mile south of Sweden Center. 
Jeliial Davis built the first grist mill in 1813 or 1814; it was in the 
east part of the town, on. Salmon Creek. Roswell Burroughs erected 
the first saw mill on the same stream in 18 15. The first distillery be- 
gan operations in 1816 and in 1827 there were three distilleries in the 
town. 

The population of the town was in 1820, 2,761 ; in 1830, 2,937; 'n 
1840, 3,133 ; in 1850, 3,623 ; in i860, 4,025 ; in 1870, 4,558 ; in 1880, 
5,734, and in 1S90, 5,201. 

The details of life in Sweden were much the same during the sue- 



THE TOWN OF SWEDEN. 411 

ceeding years, and to further follow its history would be unnecessary 
In the course of events the number of schools were increased, churches 
were founded and society fully organized. The town was active during 
the dark days of 1861-65 and sent to the front a large number of men 
who bravely fought for the cause they so well represented. Sweden is 
to-day one of the most prosperous towns in Monroe county and it is 
difficult to realize that within the memory of men yet living the 
flourishing farms, quiet homes of an intelligent and God fearing people 
was the abode of a savage nation. 

The town officers for 1895 are: Justices, John N. Drake, Delbert 
A. Adams, Theodere S. Dean and James Mershon. Assessors, George 
Gallup. Franklin Sparlin and Edwin C. Hendrick. Collector, Charles 
Mershon. Constables, William H. Pollock, William B. Hendrick, Con- 
rad Guenther, William H. Patten and Edgar Coates. Town clerk, 
George Benson. The total value of real estate is $2,657,468.00. 

The First Presbyterian church of Sweden was organized at Sweden 
Centre on the 5th of September, 1817, by a council convened for that 
purpose and consisting of the following persons : Rev. Comfort Will- 
iams of Rochester; Rev. Alanson Darwin of Riga; Rev. Henry Smith, 
from the Female Missionary Society of Utica ; Rev. Flam Clark, from 
the Youth's Missionary Society of Oneida ; Deacon Ward, of Bergen ; 
Deacon Davis, of Parma ; Justus Brown and Asahel Finch also of Par- 
ma. The first members were Theda Clark, Abigail Smith, Lydia Lee^ 
Sally Hollister, Lucre tia Bennett, Abigail Beedle, Daniel Avery, Elisha 
Smith, Samuel Blair, Joseph Langdon, Rebecca Cone, Anna Brown, 
Artemus Lyman, Sarah Stickney, Rosanna Avery, and Silas Judson. 
Daniel Avery was chosen the first clerk. Josiah Pierson was the first 
minister. 

On the 4th of Januarj^ 18 19, the society numbered thirty- three 
members, and Silas Judson was a delegate to the Ontario presbytery. 
The church was originally Congregational but on the 23d of June, 1833, 
it was received in the presbytery of Rochester and became a regular 
Presbyterian church. The first church building was erected in 1821, 
It was a wooden structure and was dedicated by Rev. Abraham Fore- 
man. The present church building is of brick and was erected and con- 
secrated in 1836. The Sabbath school was organized in 18 18 or 18 19 



412 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

ill the school liouse and Dr. Daniel Avery and Calvin Gibbs were super- 
intendents. The library connected with the school was purchased in 
1826 Emerson G. Wickes is the present pastor. 

The Second Baptist church of Sweden was organized on the 6th of 
May, 1819, with the following membership: Rebecca Mills, Daniel 
Freeman, Nabby Freeman, Joseph Lee, Rhoda Douglass, Davis Doug- 
lass, Patty Lee, Samuel G. Lewis, Hannah Allen, Judah Church, Sarah 
Lewis, Amos B. Niles, I'Lunice Coolej', Henry Niles, Nancy Howard, 
Orrin Case, Olive Lee, Jildin Tennant, Nancy Cooley, Ruben J. Allen, 
Almy Howard, John Smith, Amy Allen, Barnard M. Howard, Susanna 
Bently, Samuel Bently, Betsey Phillips, S}'bel Case, and Anna Smith. 
The clerk was David Douglass. The present church building was 
erected in 1835 and 1836 at a cost of $2,849. It was dedicated by Elder 
Coleman and Elders Putnam and Case on the 14th of September, 1836. 
Elder Vining was the first pastor. He entered upon his duties June 26, 
1 8 19 at an annual compensation of seventy dollars. 

The Methodist lipisopal church of Sweden Centre was organized in 
1855 in the school house with a membership of forty. Class meetings 
had been held for many years previous to the organization of the so- 
ciety but the present church edifice was not erected until 1856. The 
cost price was five thousand dollars, furnished by the Ladies Aid Society 
who also supplied an organ costing ninety- five dollars. The church 
was dedicated March 8, 1856, the first pastor being the Rev. Joseph 
Latham who served two years. The Sabbath school was organized in 
March, 1856, and held meetings in the new church building. The 
school began with forty-five pupils and fifteen teachers. 

The Methodist Episcopal church of West Sweden was organized in 
that part of the town about 1835, mainly as the result of the efforts of 
Rev. S. M. Chase of Brockport. The trustees were J. Cook, William 
Warn and Nathaniel Fox. The church building, thirty by forty feet 
in size, costing twelve hundred dollars, was erected in 1836. The first 
pastor was the Rev. Philo E. Brown. It is impossible to obtain a com- 
plete list of those who ofiiciated as pastors of this church, but among 
those who were located here were : Wallace Lock, Rev. Mr. Fellows, 
Reuben Frost, Rev. Mr. Fillmore and the Revs. Judd. Anderson, Kings- 
ley, Abell and Baker. The Sabbath school organized at the time the 



THE TOWX OF SWEDEN 413 

church was completed was in the charge of Truman Richmond. There 
was a good hbrary in connection containing about one hundred volumes. . 
The society was dissolved in 1855 owing to a modification of the relig- 
ious belief of Methodist societies generally. The Free Methodist church 
of West Sweden was organized by those who seceded from the orig- 
inal society. lu i860 the church property of the old society was trans- 
ferred to it and meetings were held in it in connection with the church 
of Brockport, the same minister preaching in West Sweden in the morn- 
ing and in Brockport on the afternoon of the same day. The first min- 
ister was the Rev. John Wells. 

The Baptist church of Sweden and Bergen was organized January 7, 
1835, in the school house at West Sweden by delegates from the 
Baptist churches in Brockport, Byron, HoUey, Sweden, Ogden, Le Roy, 
and Parma. Rev. D. Eldridge was moderator, Rev. Zenas Case, clerk. 
The first sermon was preached by the Rev. Mr. Crane of Le Roy. Tne 
The first members were William D. Potter, Seneca Anderson, Edmund 
Spencer, Guy Chapell, John Jennings. James N. HoUister, Lyman 
Davis, Gerge Davis, Curtis Cook, Shubael H. Reed, Alfred Robinson, 
Horace Lord, Timothy Baker, Horatio Reed, Susannah Potter, Lucy 
Anderson, Wealthy Spencer, Cornelia Spencer, Clarissa Chapell, Mary 
Jennings, Elizabeth Jennings, Eleanor. Miller, Julia Davis, Mary Davis, 
Abigail Churchill, Sally Adair, Betsey Cook, Sarah H. Reed, Almira 
Robinson, Melissa Lord, Sally M. Langdon and Jane G. Reed. The, 
first trustees were John Jennings, Edmund Spencer and Mr. Troup. 
The first and only deacons were Seneca Anderson and James H. 
Walker. Horatio Reed was the first clerk, serving in that capacity for 
four years, James H. Hollister fifteen years, Horatio Reed was the last 
clerk. 

The present church building was erected in 1835 at a cost of about 
$2,400. It was located at West Sweden and is still standing. John B. 
Potter, the first pastor, served two years. 

THE VILLAGE OF BROCKPORT. 

The village of Brockport, in the town of Sweden and about eighteen 
miles west of Rochester, on the Niagara Falls branch of the New York 
Central Railroad is the largest village in Monroe county. It was in 



414 LANDMARKf^ OF MONROE COUNTY, 

early da\'s tlie most important village west of the Genesee River and is 
to clay a prosperous, thriving place, with a population of about 4,500. 
At the time the Erie Canal was in the j)rospective only it was foreseen 
that wherever the canal should intersect the lake road there would be 
an important business centre. As soon as the exact location of the 
canal became a certainty enterprising men purchased the land in the 
vicinity and laid the foundation for future prosperity. 

Brockport is indebted for its name to Micl Brockway, a native of 
Lyme, Conn., who came to Sweden shortly after the war of 1812 and 
purchased that portion of the village lying west of the lake road. The 
purchase was made from John Phelps and the price paid was at the 
rate of twelve to fifteen dollars per acre. 

The east part of the village, from the town line to Market street, was 
bought by James Seymour of Rufus Hammond at a uniform price of 
seven dollars per acre. The southeast corner, from Market street to 
Parkes farm was bought of Benjamin Knight by James Seymour, Abel 
Baldwin and Myron Holley. The land bordering the road was sur- 
veyed into village lots in 1822 and building operations begun by Hiel 
Brockway, James Seymour, Joshua Fields, Luke Webster, John G. 
Davis, and Charles Richardson. Hiel Brockway was a man of great 
energy and was the largest owner of village land. He made liberal 
ofifers to those who would establish homes, and gave largel}' for the 
purposes of educational and religious interests Mr. Brockway was also 
extensively interested in packet boats, and in his capacity and industry 
in this direction infused new lite into the enterprise. Brockport was 
of steady and uninterrupted growth and after the completion of the 
canal was the centre of packet boat operations in the west. 

The village was incorporated and a charter adopted in 1829 by virtue 
of an act of the Legislature passed on the 6th of April of the same 
year, but who served as its officers is not now known, as the records of 
the first election were lost. In 1852 the charter was revised and under 
it a board of five trustees constituted the village government. In 1872, 
on the 25th of June, the present charter was adopted and the first elec- 
tion under it held July 26, 1872, the following oflficers were chosen: 
President, Luther Gordon ; G. H. Allen, Edgar Brown and Samuel 
Johnson were trustees; J. H. Kingsbury, treasurer; John Short, col- 



THE TOWN OF SWEDEN. 415 

lector; W. G. Raines, clerk; B H. Halsey, street commissioner; and 
David Bennett, police constable. In 1823 it was designed to make 
Rochester the western terminus of the Erie Canal, until the rock cutting 
at Lockport was completed, but through the efforts of James Seymour 
it was extended twenty miles to the westward and Brockport made the 
terminus. This gave the village two years of commercial prosperity. 
In 1825, when the canal was opened through to Buffalo, Brockport was 
an important manufacturing and business center. The manufacture of 
agricultural implements was one of the early enterprises, and a few words 
regarding the growth of so important an industry is of interest. 

At an early a date as 1828 an iron foundry was established in Brock- 
port on State street by Harry Backus and Joseph Ganson. In 1830 
they removed their plant to grounds north of the canal on Main street, 
and the firm name changed to Backus, Webster & Co. Balch, Webster 
& Co. soon succeeded and later the firm became known as Backus, 
Burroughs & Co., but a change was again made to Backus, Fitch & 
Co., who were the pioneers in the manufacture of improved threshing 
machines. At this time the stationary machine run by horse power 
was the only kind in use. 

In 1844 Cyrus McCormick was induced to make a trial at Brockport 
of his recently and rudely constructed reaper This trial was appar- 
ently successful and Backus, Fitch & Co. received from McCormick an 
order for the manufacture of one hundred reapers. The machines did 
not, however, meet the requiremeets of the purchasers and were nearly 
all returned. Experience suggested a remedy for the failure of the 
first attempt and in after years the firm manufactured a machine that 
was a complete success. This was the beginning of a new era for the 
farmer, not only in this immediate vicinity but throughout the whole 
civilized world. The early reaper was not the perfect machine it was 
destined to become and as the enterprise grew in years it also increased 
in the effectiveness of its productions. 

In 1846 Mr. Backus, who had been at the head of the business since 
its beginning, retired and the business firm was changed to Fitch, Barry & 
Co., who were succeeded by Stillman, Bowman & Co., a few years later. 
The firm was again changed to Ganson, Huntley & Co., who were in- 
terested largely in the making of reapers of the Palmer & Williams pat- 



416 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

tern. This was the first reaper of the self-raking type used in this sec- 
tion and was a combination of the quadrant platform invented by W. 
H. Seymour, and the sweep rake patented by Aaron Palmer was the 
first successful automatic reaper known. 

Since this time much has been done to increase the efficiency of har- 
vesting machines and the perfection of the modern self-binding machine 
stands as a monument to the ingenuity and enterprise of men who 
established themselves in Brockport. 

In 1868 the shops passed into the hands of Samuel Johnson and 
Byron Huntley. The Johnson harvester was made by them, at first, in 
a moderate way, but sales increased rapidly, and in 1870 a stock com- 
pany was formed with a capital of three hundred thousand dollars, under 
the corporate name of the Johnson Harvester Company. Samuel 
Johnson was president, and B. E. Huntley was secretary and treasurer. 
Five hundred machines were made during the year following organiza- 
tion. The demand for machines in Europe was so rapidly increasing 
that B. E. Huntley was sent abroad as general European agent, and 
F. S. Stebbins was made secretary and treasurer. 

Sixteen hundred machines were manufactured in 1872, and in 1877 
nearly six thousand were made. The Johnson Harvester plant was 
entirely destroyed by fire in June, 1882, and was not rebuilt in Brock- 
port, the company removing to l^atavia, N. Y., taking with them a large 
number of the hundred men employed by them previous to the fire. 

A second foundry and machine shop was established in Brockport in 
1844 by William H. Seymour and Thomas R. Roby. Mr. Roby's 
interest in the firm was purchased by Dayton S. Morgan, and the man- 
ufacture of stoves and farm implements began in a modest way. 

In 1846 the making of the McCormick reaper was undertaken, and 
one hundred machines of this type were built and put upon the market. 
These machines were in every way a success, and were the first hundred 
reapers that were successful machines known to have been made in the 
world. In 1849 ^^ improved machine styled the " New Yorker," was 
made, and various other improvements were patented by Mr. Se)'mour, 
the most notable of which was the " quadrant " platform. 

In 1852 a self- raking reaper was built by Seymour & Morgan, and 
anotiier by Palmer & Williams. Both machines werfe manufactured by 



THE TOWN OF SWEDEN. -117 

Seymour & Morgan, and eacli possessed the essentials of a perfect ma- 
chine, though differing somewhat in the plan of construction. The 
patents were subsequently united in one machine, each party holding 
specific interests in the enterprise. In 1853 George H. Allen acquired 
an interest in the business, and the firm was then st}'led Seymour, 
Morgan & Allen. 

In 1873-4 a new reaper of a greatly improved pattern was made, 
which was an embodiment of all the good points of the older machines, 
together with several additions not heretofore used. The new produc- 
tion was called the Triumph, and was the result of years of experience 
and a thorough appreciation of the requirements of reaping and har- 
vesting machines. The D. S. Morgan Company which succeeded, con- 
tinued to manufacture "Triumph" harvesting machinery until the fall 
of 1894, when the firm retired, and at this time their large. plant is idle, 
with little prospect of being revived. 

Brockport has always been a manufacturing town, and has at the 
present time several important industries affording employment to a 
large number of skilled mechanics. As a place of residence it is all that 
could be desired, offering advantages not often obtainable in a village 
of its size. 

The Business Men's Association has been instrumental in increasing 
the commercial importance of the place. Through the influence and 
energy of this organization several extensive manufacturing concerns 
have been established. The life of the association dates from 1893, and 
a vast amount of good has been done by it. The president is T. H. 
Dobson ; secretary, John N. Drake ; vice presidents, George C. Gor- 
don, J. H. Kingsbury, A. W. Fowler, L. T. Underhill, B. F. Gleason, 
F. F. Capen, John Owens, M. A. Cleveland ; treasurer, Henry Har- 
rison. 

The Brockport shoe factory furnishes stead}' employment for about 
two hundred hands, and is the largest and most important industry in 
the place. It was established as the Moore-Shafer Manufacturing Com- 
pany in 1 88 1, with a capital of thirty thousand dollars, and a reserve 
fund of forty thousand dollars. A fine grade of shoes for woman's 
wear is made, and its product is in demand in all parts of the United 

States. The factory is located on Park avenue a short distance from the 
53 



418 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

New York Central Railroad, and is equipped with the latest and most 
improved machinery. It has a capacity of about six hundred pairs of 
shoes daily, and adds largely to the commercial prosperity of the vil- 
lage. F. F. Capen is the president, and Wilson H. Moore is manager. 

The Brockport Piano Company was established in 1893. and is one of 
the progressive institutions of the place. A high grade instrument is 
made, that is successful both from an artistic and a business standpoint. 
A number of skilled workmen are employed. The president is F. F. 
Capen ; vice president, William Daily ; secretary and treasurer, R C. 
Hull ; superintendent, George Ropelt. 

Amongst the many and varied industries of the village may be men- 
tioned the Gleason Cooling Board Company, manufacturing valuable 
appliances for undertakers' use ; the Brockport vinegar factory, the mill- 
ing interests, and many enterprises of progress and success. 

The social element is active in the village, and there are a large 
number of societies the officers of which are as follows: 

Monroe Ladge No. 173, F. & M.— W. M., A. G. Chriswell ; S. W., 
J. N. Drake; J. W., G. E. Locke; S. D., W. B. Conkling ; J D., J. R. 
Bush; S. M C, C. L. Lawton ; J. M. C, John Read; Tyler, H. 
Boyrst ; chaplain, Charles W. Smith ; marshal, L. D. Trimmer; treas- 
urer, A. W. Fowler ; secretary, B. C. Ketchum. 

Monroe Lodge No. 88, I. O. O. F— N. G., Henry Hurley; V. G., 
Edgar Knowles ; recording secretary, D. C. Hines ; treasurer, J. B. 
Sweeting ; permanent secretary, Fred Meinhardt. 

Hope Rebecca Lodge No. 10, L O. O. F.— N G., Mrs. H. Richard- 
son ; V. G., Mrs. Ed. Knowles ; recording secretary, Mrs D. C. Hines ; 
treasurer, Mrs. Charles Guelph ; permanent secretary, Mrs. Miles 
Upton. 

Royal Templars of Temperance. — Select councilor, H. C. Hener ; 
vice councilor, Mrs. E. Knowles ; past councilor, J. Wendover ; chap- 
l.iin. May Thompson ; recording and financial secretary, Frank Consaul; 
treasurer, H. D. Chapman ; herald, E. Knowles ; deputy herald, Mary 
Warner ; guard, Judson Robinson ; sentinel, Hugh MacLachlan ; trus- 
tees, Messrs. Frost, Wendover and MacLachlan. 

Cady Post No. 263, G. A R. — Commander, B. C. Ketcham ; senior 
vice commander. Edwin Losee ; junior vice-commander, E. R Peck; 



tHE TOWN OF SWEDKN. 419 

adjutant, W. H. Pererson ; sergeant, George A. Knowles ; chaplain, 
David Hathaway ; quartermaster, Leonard Krausey ; officer of the 
day, Peter Guelph ; officer of the guard, Christian Miller ; sergeant- 
major, Gustav Baker; quartermaster sergeant, D. J. Butler. 

Soldiers" Monument Association — President, S. P. Frost; vice presi- 
dents, Daniel Holmes, George C. Gordon, M. A. Cleveland, Harry 
Smith and E W. Briggs ; secretary, P. Swart ; treasurer, H. N. Beach ; 
trustees, S. P. Frost, H. N. Beach, T. C. Berry, Andrew Boyd, E. A. 
Maynard, T. S. Hinton, D. Richards, L. Krausey, P. Swart, John 
Owens, C. H. Bellinger and F. A. Winne. 

Young Men's Christian Association — This organization is in fine 
working order, and, under the secretaryship of Mr Keeler, is produc- 
tive of much good. The average daily attendance is thirty four. 

W.C. T. U.— President, Mrs. E. A. Benedict. 

Y. W. C. T. U. — President, Georgietta Palmer ; secretary, Gertie Page; 
treasurer, Nellie Ives. 

The educational possibilities of Brockport are of the highest order of 
excellence and the large number of students of both sexes who attend 
the Normal School from year to year attest the superiority of the in 
stitution. The Brockport Normal School is the outgrowth of the Brock- 
port Collegiate Institute, a Baptist organization of early days. 

In 1832 the Baptist Association of Western New York determined to 
establish a college at some point west of Rochester. The characteristic 
generosity and energy of Hiel Brockway secured to the village, in the 
face of much competition, the location of the school and his gift of six 
acres of land and $3,000 in cash greatly assisted the promoters of the 
scheme in the furtherance of their plans. The Baptist people in West- 
ern New York responded liberally to the petitions circulated asking for 
aid, and in 1834 a sufficient fund was raised to warrant the erection of 
the building. The work was pushed rapidly forward and in 1835 or 
1836 a portion of it was completed and opened as a school, with Pro- 
fessor Morse as principal. 

Progress to this point was not made without incurring a considerable 
debt, and as the financial condition of the country was strained, the 
association was greatly embarrassed by those who held mortgages 
against them and who were persistently pressing their claims. In 1836 



420 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

the building, by reason of the failure of tlic association to meet their obli- 
gations, came into possession of Philemon Allen by virtue of fore- 
closure proceedings instituted by him. This state of affairs proved 
disastrous to the further continuance of the school and it was closed 
and became, as an authority puts it, " a habitation for wild beasts." 
As the Baptist Association of Rrockport had now gone into bankruptcy 
and the school propert)' had passed into the hands of the assignees of 
Allen, who had also met with reverses, the further maintenance of the 
college as had been originally designed seemed to be hopeless. The 
citizens of Brockport were unwilling to permit so valuable an adjunct 
to their progress to fall into decay, and on the 19th of August, 1841, 
called a meeting to consider the advisability of purchasing the grounds 
and buildings which had been advertised for sale at $3,800. A stock 
company was created and shares to the amount of $3,950 were disposed 
of. On the 1 2th of September, 1841, a board of twenty- four trustees 
were elected and a resolution passed to the effect that if at any time 
within ten years the Baptist Society could raise sufficient funds to take 
up the stock held by the citizens and to maintain a church college, then 
the property should be transferred to them. A loan was obtained and 
a subscription raised to improve the grounds and buildings and the in- 
stitution incorporated as a collegiate institute. 

On the 2d of April, 1854, when the school had attained considerable 
reputation and was firmly established on a substantial basis, fire broke 
out and in three hours the edifice was completely destroyed. The 
trustees were not disheartened, however, and on the day after tiie 
disaster, determined to rebuild, which they did, and on the 27th of 
November, 1855, school work was resumed under the supervision of 
N. B. Stanton, A. M. The new building was dedicated December 23, 
1856. 

In 1886 the Legislature passed an act authorizing the establishing of 
four Normal Schools. After much competition Brockport was selected 
as the location of one of the schools. Fifty thousand dollars .was 
raised by the village and the buildings purchased and deeded to the 
State, reserving, however, a portion as an academic department. The 
Normal School was formall\- openeil April 17, 1867, with Malcolm 
McVicar as principal. Professor McVicar was succeeded by C. I). 
McLean in 1868. 



THE TOWN OF SWEDEN 421 

During the twenty seven years following Professor McLean has been 
at the head of the school, which is under the supervision of a local 
board composed of some of the most influential men and women of the 
village. The Normal School building is an imposing structure of red 
sandstone, of about 400 feet front ana 200 feet deep The six acres of 
land on which the buildings stand are tastefully laid out and are an 
ornament to the village. The average number of pupils is about 900. 

Resides the Normal School there are three district schools. Miss 
Casey is principal of the north district, Miss Crofoot of the east dis- 
trict, and Miss Knowles of the west district. There is also a parochial 
school in connection with the Roman Catholic church. 

The fire department is well organized and efficient and is officered as 
follows: Chief, Fred Schlosser, jr ; first assistant, Howard Matson ; 
second assistant, F. W. Consaul. 

Byron Huntley Steamer Company. — President, A. S. Lewis ; secre- 
tary, M. S. Stewart ; treasurer, J. H. Kingsbury ; foreman. P. F. Swart. 

Silsby Hose. — President, T. S, Dean ; secretary, Willis Matson. 

Harrison Hose. — President, Thomas Kavanagh ; secretary, John 
Collins. 

Capen Hose — President, T. J. Peckham ; secretary, W. G. Holbrook. 

Protectives. — President, George Guelph ; secretary, William Burns. 

Hook and Ladder Company. — President, Henry Scram ; secretar}', 
Albert Bronson. 

The efficient protection against fire afiforded by the fire department is 
greatly increased by the splendid system of water works in use. Hy- 
drants are placed 500 feet apart throughout the village and there is an 
average pressure of sevent}'five pounds to the square inch in the 
mains. The supply comes from three flowing wells at Holley and is 
abundant and of the purest quality. The water works is not owned by 
the village, but is the property of the Brockport Water Works Com- 
pany, of which W. N. Winslow is superintendent. 

The Town Hall, an imposing structure, was built in 1884. In it are 
a number of fine offices and quarters for the fire department. 

The Brockport Free Press was the first newspaper established in 
Brockport. It made its appearance on the 6th of December, 1827, and 
was edited by Thomas H. Hyatt and owned by Harris and Hyatt. 



422 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Tlie Brockport Recorder was the second paper and was first issued Jan- 
uary 9. 1828, and was edited by Abithar M. Harris. 

The Monroe RepubHcan was first issifed on tlie 30th of May, 1833, 
and the Jeffersonian at Ciarkson village on the 17th or June, 1835. 
The Branchport Sentinel appeared June 17, 1843, and the Brockport 
Watcliman in 1844. The Brockport Weekly Journal was first issued 
September 3, 1852, and the Brockport Gazette, October 30. 1858. 
There are at present two weekly papers published in the village, the 
Brockport Republican and the Brockport Democrat. The Republican 
was first issued October 9, 1856, and was owned and edited by Horatio 
N. Beach. The paper is at present owned and edited by Mr. L T. 
Beach, is the organ of the Republican party and has a large circulation. 

The Brockport Democrat was started July 21, 1870, by Williams and 
Brink. It is the Democratic organ of the village and is owned and ed- 
ited by P. J. Wilson. 

There are two banks in the village, the First National and the private 
banking house of John Kingsbury. 

There are three cemeteries, the oldest of which is within the village 
limits and is owned by an association of lot owners. Lake View Cem- 
etery, situated on the summit of Beach Ridge commands a fine view of 
the lake and surrounding country. The Rural Cemetery is east of the 
village and contains the fine monumental tower erected to the memory 
of these who participated in the late war. The tower was dedicated 
September i, 1894, and was erected by a society organized for the pur- 
pose. The Roman Catholic Cemetery is also east of the village. 

The Methodist Episcopal church was organized December 10, 1827, 
by the Rev. John Copeland Previous to this time meetings were held 
in private houses, the hotel and later in the academy. The church 
building was erected in 1828 and was the first church building erected 
in the village. It was of brick and was located on Market street. The 
present structure was built in 1876, the corner stone having been laid 
on the 8th of August of the same year and during the pastorate of the 
Rev. John Dennis. 

The Presbyterian church of Brockport was organized as a Congrega- 
tional Society on the 7th of August, 1827. In 1 834 the first elders 
were chosen and the society united with the Rochester presbytery. 



THE TOWN OF SWEDEN. 423 

Two of those who were members of the original society areahve at this 
date, WiUiam H Seymour and George F. Barnett. At the present 
time the church has a large membership, a Christian l'2ndeavor Society, 
a ladies' missionary, and an art circle, the members of which are pledged 
to the raising of funds for church imj)rovement. The pastor is George 
Reichal, 

The Second Baptist was organized largely by those who had form- 
erly been connected with the first Baptist society of Brockport and 
which disbanded in 1839. On the same day that the First Baptist so- 
ciety dissolved, the loth of March, 1839, the Second church was or- 
ganized and the property of the original society was purchased. In 
1863 the old edifice was taken down and anew and more modern build- 
ing erected, the cornerstone of which was laid September 23, 1864. 
The church at present has no pastor. 

St. Luke's Episcopal church was organized September 20, 1838. 
The present church building was erected in 1855 or 1856 at a cost of 
upwards of seven thousand dollars and was consecrated in July, 1856, 
by Bishop De Lancey. At the present time the parish has no rector. 

The Free Methodist church of the village was organized in May, 
1844. The church was built in 1845, ^"^ consecrated to divine wor- 
ship in the same year by Elder D. L. W. Rollin assisted by Elder 
Whitcomb. 

In 1848 the first mass was celebrated in Brockport by Rev. William 
O'Reilly. At that time the Catholics had no regular place of meeting 
but used the village hall for church purposes. In 1851 a lot was pur- 
chased and shortly after the foundation was laid for a church edifice. 
During the pastorate of Rev. Edward McGonan the church was com- 
pleted and dedicated. In 1873 the building was enlarged and grounds 
purchased for a convent and school The Rev. R. J. Story is the pres- 
ent pastor. 

The German Evangelical Association was organized in 1871 by Rev. 
A. Klein, a missionary sent to Brockport for the purpose by the New- 
York Conference. The old church building of the Evangelical Reformed 
Lutheran church was enlarged and deeded to the new society in 1871. 

The German Lutheran church was founded in 1886 by Charles N. 
Conrad. The congregation owns valuable property on Spring street 



424 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

and lias a iiienibcrsliip of about eiglity. There is a ladies' societ)- and 
a young people's society connected with tlic church. 

The officers of the village for the present year are as follows: Presi- 
dent, Thomas H. Dobson ; trustees, A. W. Fowler, J. W. Cunningham, 
\V. II. Burnes, P. F Swart and Robert Currie ; treasurer, John R. 
Doris; clerk, John N. Drake; collector, N. Robinson ; police justice, 
W. A. Mattison. 

The village is the home of Mary J. Holmes, a lady who has achieved 
a national reputation as a writer of books of fiction. She has done much 
to benefit the villa<^e and by reason of the great success of her works 
has brought Brockport into prominent notice. 

The growth and progress of Brockport has been steady and the vil- 
lage is to-day as flourishing as any to be found in Western New York. 
Its streets are broad and clean, well lighted and bordered with fine old 
shade trees Its residences are generally of the better class. Its mer- 
chants are enterprising, its citizens progressive and on every hand are 
to be seen the results of the untiring efforts of those who, in early days, 
laid the foundation for those who were to come after and the many evi- 
dences of civilization are a constant reminder that " wheresoever the 
Saxon race goes, there laws and industries and safety for life and prop- 
erty, and all the great results of steady perseverance are certain to rise " 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE TOWN OF WEBSTER. 

In 1806, one year after the first permanent settler came to what is 
now Webster, the six northeastern towns of Monroe county were 
brought under one town organization, and called Bojde. On the 30th 
of March, 1810, Boyle was divided and Penfield created, embracing all 
that is now Penfield and Webster. Therefore the northern portion of 
the old town of Penfield, which was set ofif February 6, 1840, and called 
Webster, forms the subject of this chapter, 

Webster has an area 20,241 acres of land, nearly all of which is under 




^-y^t^ c^.Lm^^. 




THE TOWN OF WEBSTER. 425 

a fair state of cultivation, and a major portion of which constitutes some 
of the best and most productiv^e and profitable lands of Monroe county, 
or of the whole Genesee country. Nor can this statement be in any 
maimer considered a fulsome compliment, for it is a fact well known 
thnt this town, notwithstanding its somewhat remote location, pos- 
sesses natural resources not enjoyed by the other towns of the county, 
and its inhabitants have demonstrated the fact that Webster is to be 
mentioned first among the small fruit and berry producing towns, while 
in general agriculture it ranks almost equal with any other similarly 
conditioned civil division of the county. 

Geograpically, Webster is situated in the northeast corner of the 
county. Lake Ontario forming its north boundary, while Irondequoit 
Bay is on the west ; Penfield, the mother town, on the south and the 
county line on the east. The land surface is slightly rolling and inclines 
toward the lake. The shore rises in planes about fifty feet, and on 
Irondequoit Bay from eighty to lOO feet. The streams are small and 
flow north into the lake. The soil is a sandy loam north of the Ridge 
road, and clay and clay loam south of that once famous highway. 

While it may appear to the present reader an unaccountable fact, it is 
nevertheless true, that the pioneer settlement in this immediate locality 
did not begin earlier than the year 1805, and from that time progressed 
quite slowly for several years. The first settlers were chiefly from the 
hills and mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire, with others from 
eastern New York, and they appear to have avoided the lake region 
until the forests were cleared away and the dampness of the more de- 
pressed localities had been dried up by the sun's rays and heat. 

The^ honor of being the pioneer of Webster has been accorded by 

past writers to Caleb Lyon, a Connecticut Yankee, who came here in 

1805, and besides making the first settlement, also built the first saw 

and grist mills. Incidentally, the fact may be stated that these mills 

were burned in 18 16, during the ownership of John Inman. Soon after 

Lyon there came Ebenezer Spear, also William Harris, both of whom 

are believed to have been here as early as 1807. The settlers in 18 10 

are well recalled, and were Stephen Sherman and his son Henry, from 

old Saratoga county; Ebenezer Cook, the first blacksmith, from New 

Hampshire ; the Eldridge family, from Washington county, and Daniel 
54 



426 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Harvey from Greene county. Others who came duiing the same year 
were Simeon Goodenouj.,di, Nathaniel Abbott, sr., Asa Fell, John At- 
wootl, David Fell, Samuel Robb and William McFarlin, sr., all of whom 
came from New Hampshire; and Zebulon Handy from Saratoga 
county; Thomas Stratton from Greene county, and Dr. Nathaniel 
Beecher, the pioneer physician, from Connecticut. 

In 1811 there came in Amos Knapp, Ebenezer Clark (who entered 
the army in the war of 1 812-15), John Letts, the builder of the famous 
old " Letts's Tavern," Levi Harris, Deacon Abram Foster, Robert 
Woodhull, John F. Whiting, Robert and Benjamin Bennett. In the fol- 
lowing year there came Gerard Dunning, Abram Smith, Amasa Kil- 
bourn, William and Constance Holt, Alpheus Ballard, Robert Canada, 
Asa Bass. James Spear and Isaac Straight, all from eastern New York 
and New England. Among the settlers in 181 3 were Ransom Thomas, 
Elisha Judson, Lyman and Martin Fox, Peter Amy and Alpheus 
Crocker; and in 1814 there also came John and William Hicks, Mi- 
chael Dunning, Thomas Murphy, John Smith, and in 181 5, Timothy 
Thompson. 

Other and perhaps later settlers in what is now Webster, though all 
previous to 1820, were Chester Cleveland, Ebenezer Curtice, Reuben 
Cobb, Moore and Andrew Robb, Nathaniel Knight, Samuel Preston. 
Dr. O. Reynolds, Calvin Chamberlain, Lazarus Church, Justin Dwi- 
nell, Joshua Vosburgh, John and William Mandeville, Joseph Vinton, 
Barnet Van Hoesen, Nelson Stearns, John and Ziba Curtice, and others, 
whose names are equally worthy of mention, but whom, through the 
lapse of time have been forgotten. 

These were the pioneers and early settlers, and through their efforts 
the lands of the town were developed and the natural resources and 
fertility of the soil made known to the world. The sons of a few and 
the descendants of many of these old families are still living in the 
town, yet during the last quarter of a century the character of the pop- 
ulation has materially changed. This is noticeable in various ways and 
the German element and customs are now both numerous and popular. 
In many respects this change has been advantageous, for by it many of 
the once large and unwieldy farms have been divided, and the land 
placed in a more advanced state of cultivation. 



THE TOWN OF WEBSTER. 427 

The Germans of Webster are thrifty and progressive, and they and 
the natives aUice, have turned many of the general farms into fruit 
orchards and berry lots, and given to the town a reputation not enjoyed 
by other divisions of the county ; and while this great change has not 
been accomplished without great cost in time, labor, and money, it has 
been the source of ultimate profit to the people of the region, and has 
supplied the city of Rochester with fresh and delicious strawberries and 
black raspberries, and also an abundance of other berries and small 
fruits. 

In 1840 it was deemed advisable to divide the large town of Penfield, 
hence an act was passed creating the town of . Webster, and including 
within its boundaries 20,241 acres of land. The first town meeting was 
held at John Letts's famous tavern, situated about three-fourths of a mile 
south of Webster village, at which time Byron Woodhull was elected 
supervisor, and T. B. Corning, town clerk. From 1840 to 1895 the su- 
pervisors of this town have been as follows: Byron Woodhull, 1840 ; 
William Corning, 1841 ; Alpheus Crocker, 1842; Byron Woodhull, 
1843; Alpheus Crocker. 1844; William Woodhull, 1845; William 
Hall, 1846; Byron Woodhull, 1847 ; Alexander Melvin, 1848 ; Nelson 
Stearns, 1849; Byron Woodhull, 1850-51 ; Thad. Van Alstyne, 1852; 
H. Nelson Curtice, 1853; Willis Wilmot, 1854; Thad. Van Alstyne, 
1855; Byron Woodhull, 1856; H. N. Curtice, 1857; Horace Holt, 
1858-59; Charles S. Wright, i860; H. N. Curtice, 1861 ; Luther Cur- 
tice, 1862-63 ; Charleys. Wright, 1864-66; Thad. Van Alstyne, 1867 ; 
Charles S.Wright, 1868; H. N. Curtice, 1869; Thomas Wright, 1870- 
71 ; John H. Whitlock, 1872-76; Lewis J. Billings, 1877-78; George 
L. Conrow, 1879-80; Charles Goetzman, 1881-84; Frank M.Jones, 
1885-89; Burton E. Sperry, 1890; Ansel E. Wright, 1891-95. 

The town officers of Webster for the year 1895 are as follows : Ansel 
E. Wright, supervisor; Thomas Nagle, town clerk; Almond J. Pratt, 
Byron W. Burnett, James H. Thatcher, and I. N. Stewart, justices of 
the peace ; Edwin Jones, John Granger and Walter D. Wright, assess- 
ors ; Dexter S. Wager, overseer of the poor ; Frank Knapp, collector ; 
George Dunn, road commissioner; John W. Foster, Melvin S. Collins, 
and John W. Hallauerer, excise commissioners ; Herbert M. Abbott, 
Jacob Hoffman, H. C. Cook, Allen C. Smith and Chauncey Woodward, 
constables. 



428 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

An interesting and noteworthy fact in connection with the history of 
Webster has been the gradual yet constant increase in population, also 
ill the (ievclopnient of its resources, from the time the town was set off, 
in 1840, to the present time. In this respect, among the towns of 
Monroe county, Webster stands with Perinton, Greece and Briy;hton. 
In proof of this assertion let us look briefly to the various changes in 
population in this town as indicated by the census report. In 1840, the 
year in which Webster was created, the inhabitants numbered 2.235, 
and in 1850 had increased to 2,446 In i860 the population was 2,650, 
and in 1870 had still further increased to 2,749. In 1880 the number 
of inhabitants was 2,950, and in 1 890 was 3.139. When we consider 
the location of the town in the county and the disadvantages which at- 
tended its early -eltlement. together with its quite recent organization, 
we have here a condition of development and increase not elsewhere 
equaled in the county. 

Webster Village. — The busy little hamlet has grown and developed 
from a beginning as humble and primitive as any other of the local in- 
stitutions. The village itself is situated on the once famous Ridge road, 
at the point where pioneer James Spear built his frame house in 181 2, 
and which he occupied as a public house. Previous to that time, how- 
ever, William R. Ellis had opened a store here, and these were the be- 
ginning of village history. Samuel Lacy built the first brick building 
in 1830, and in the next year a Presbyterian church was erected. 
Later church societies were the Baptist, Universalist, Methodist Episco- 
pal, Methodist Protestant and German Lutheran, with still others in the 
near vicinity. 

At the present time, although not incorporated, the village has a 
population of about 800 inhabitants, and is in all respects a well ordered 
municipality. Its manufacturing interests comprise the picture frame 
and moulding works of Hendricks & Clem, the casket factory of Holt 
& Co., and two sash, door and planing mills, owned by Odell Brothers 
and Lake & Co. The merchants of the village are G. W. Hawley, F. 
M. Jones, Anthony Smith, Robert F. Ilendee & Son. each having a 
stock of general merchandise, and George G. Mason, grocer and drug- 
gist. In addition to these there are two meat markets, one tailor shop, 
two milliners, one ladies' furnishing store, three blacksmiths, the har- 



THE TOWN OF WEBSTER. 429 

ness shop, the shoe shop, and a yood flour and grist mill, the latter the 
property of Dimniick.& Sperry. 

The Union School of the village is one of the important institutions 
of the town, and had its origin in the old Webster Academy, established 
in 1832, burned in 1872, and soon .iftervvard rebuilt As at present 
conducted, six teachers are employctl and an excellent system of man- 
agement maintained. The president of the board is Dr. A. P. Mann ; 
Newton L. Hand}', secrelar}-, and George G Mason, treasurer. 

West Webster is a small hamlet of about 200 inhabitants, situated on 
the Ridge road in the southwest part of the town. Meie is a basket 
factory, operated by Bancroft & Lewis, one large general store, owned 
by Charles Goetzman, and one market and a few small shops. Here, 
also, is a district school, and the church houses of the Methodist Epis- 
copal and Free Methodist societies. 

The town of Webster, with a present population of 3,139. has within 
its boundaries no less than eleven regularly organized and well supported 
church societies, and each of these is provided with a comfortable house 
of worship ; and in this respect, also, Webster stands unrivaled among 
the towns of the county. Of these organizations we may briefly treat. 

The Presbyterian church of Webster was organized as a Congrega- 
tional Society in 1825, but on account of some disturbance in the soci- 
ety over doctrinal questions, the form of government was changed to 
Presbyterian. The first meeting house of this society, which was the 
first in the town, was built south of Webster village, but the second 
edifice, built in 1855, was erected in the village proper. This is one of 
the strong church societies of the town, and is now under the pastoral 
charge of Rev. Francis Wade. Membership, about 150. 

The First Methodist Episcopal church of Webster was organized in 
1830, and in 1832 a church edifice was erected on the Ridge road, one 
and one- half miles west of the center village, and became known as the 
Center church. This was a large and influential society in the town, 
and formed the nucleus of three later and successful church organiza- 
tions. 

The Second Methodist Episcopal church of Webster, known as the 
Lakeside and otherwise as the Boston church, was foimed in 1839, hav- 
ing an original membership of ten persons. The first edifice was built 



430 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

in 1849. and stood on the town line road in the northeast part of Web- 
ster. This cluirch and the charge at Ontario are joint, and have a 
membership of one hundred and tliirty-three. The pastor is Rev. J. S. 
Duxbury. 

The First Methodist I^piscopal church of Webster village was organ- 
ized in 1859, with fifty five members, and was the direct ofif shoot from 
the mother church at the center village, out of the latter growing three 
separate churches. The fine church home of the society was built in 
1 86 1, and was located in the village. The membership in this church 
numbers about 200 persons. The present pastor is Rev. T. C. Carson. 
The society and congregation of this church is among the largest in the 
town. 

The First Methodist Fpiscopal church of West Webster was also or- 
ganized in 1859 upon the disintegration of the mother society south of 
Webster village. The church edifice at the west village was completed 
and dedicated in the spring of i860. This, too, is a strong society, the 
active church membership numbering about seventy five persons. The 
pastor is Rev R. M. Connal. 

The First Universalist church of Webster dates back in its history to 
the early days of the town altiiough no formal organization was effected 
previous to 1843. The original members numbered nineteen, and in- 
cluded some of the best families of the town. The cobblestone edifice 
was erected in 1844, and dedicated in November, 1845, by Rev. L. L. 
Spaulding, who became the first pastor. The society is at present with- 
out a pastor. 

The Evangelical, German Methodist, church was organized in Web- 
ster in i860, with seventeen members. The church edifice was erected 
in 1 861, and was located on the old "Salt road," one and one-half miles 
east of Webster village. The dedicatory services were held August 18, 
1861, by the Rev. Mr. Weaver. A Sunday school was started in 1862. 
The present pastor of this church is Rev. William Arndt. Member- 
ship, one hundred. 

The Emanuel church, German Lutheran, was organized in 1867, 
with fifteen members, and the church edifice when erected, in 1868, was 
located one mile east of West Webster village. This structure, how- 
ever, is now removed to Webster village, which place is the seat of 



THE TOWN OF WEBSTER 431 

operations of the society. The present pastor is Rev. A. Schlenck. 
The church edifice is a frame building. Church membership, about one 
hundred. 

The Baptist church and society of Webster was organized in 1830, 
with thirteen constituent members, including a number of the substan- 
tial pioneer element of the town. The first edifice was erected in 1832, 
and used from i860 to 1872 for the academy. It was burned in the 
last mentioned year. The new cobblestone edifice was begun in 1855, 
and was completed and dedicated January i. 1857. "^'^^ membership 
of this church and society are large. The present pastor is Rev. Joseph 
Weston. Memborship, 180. 

Trinity church (Roman Catholic) was formed as a parish in 1859, the 
membership then, as well as at the present time, being comprised chiefly 
of the German Catholic element of the town. The church edifice was 
erected in i860, and is located on the Ridge road, half a mile east of 
Webster village. The first pastor was Rev. Father Heginer. The 
present pastor is Rev. Father J. Magin. There are about 300 Catholics 
in this parish. 

The Free Methodist church of Webster dates its organization back to 
about the year 1867 or '68, but the meeting house was not erected un- 
til 1873. Rev. William Gould and four laymen comprised the original 
membership. The first regular pastor was Rev. M. D. McDougall. 
The present pastor is Rev. J. E. Tififany. Membership, about fifty. 
Present church, a frame structure. 

The history of the early schools of Webster is a part of the history 
of the town of Penfield, and at the time of the organization of the 
former town the territory was divided and rearranged into districts to 
suit the convenience of the inhabitants living in the newly constituted 
jurisdiction. Tradition informs us that the first school established in 
the northern part of Penfield was taught by William Harris, but gives 
us no information as to the location of the school house. However, 
well verified records state that in 1813a log school house was erected 
and opened on the site afterward occupied by the school of district No. 
12, and from that time the development of educational interests can be 
reasonably well traced. 

According to the present disposition of school interests, the territor)' 



4.32 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

of the town is divided into fourteen districts, each of whicli, except No. 
lO, is provided with a comfortable school building. During the school 
year 1893-4, the number of children in the town of school age was 
1,045, ^oi" \\'hose instruction nineteen teachers were employed, and paid 
for their services the sum of $6,40660. In addition to the public 
schools, the town has one private school with fourteen pupils in attend- 
ance. Of the thirteen school houses, ten are of frame, two of brick, and 
one of stone construction, and all have an aggregate appraised value of 
$21,475 In the year mentioned there was apportioned to the town 
public moneys amounting to $2,422 40, added to which was the Regents' 
fund of $223.39, while the town raisetj b\' tax on the several districts, 
$3,481 33 There was realized from other sources $1,73050 The 
total revenue for the year was $8,296 53. In addition to teachers' 
wages, there was paid for libraries, $[03.92; for school apparatus, 
$108.22 ; for repairs, $460 Si, and for all other expenses, $838.69. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE TOWN OF WHEATLAND. 

If it were possible in this volume to reproduce all the generous and 
perhaps deserving compliments that have been spoken and written of 
the town of Wheatland by enthusiastic observers of the past, many 
other civil divisions of the county might feel injured or at least slighted ; 
and while it is not the purpose of the present writer to create un- 
pleasant feelings or any dissatisfaction in any direction, justice and 
candor compel the confession that among the towns of Monroe county 
Wheatland occupies a position well to the front as a producing town. 
More than that, in connection with its early history and occupancy it en- 
joyed a distinction not common to the region, as it was associated with 
the once noted " white woman," Mary Jemison, who dwelt among the 
Senecas during the Revolution. Still further, at the junction of Oatka 
Creek (Allen's Creek as now known) with the Genesee was the abiding 
place of the notorious Ebenezer Allen, the first white settler in the 




FREEMAN EDSON, M. D. 



THE TOWN OF WHEATLAND. 433 

Genesee country, the mention of whom renders appropriate a brief 
allusion to his history. 

Ebenezer Allen was a tory, who in consequence of his crimes fled 
from his home in Pennsylvania and joined the Indians about 1 780 He 
located on the Genesee and lived for a time on the lands of Mary 
Jemison. He afterward built a saw and grist mill on the site of Roch- 
ester, thence moved to Oatka Creek, and finally to Canada. Few 
characters in either history or fiction approached so near the idea of 
total depravity as this inhuman monster. He was an open polygamist, 
murdered several persons while professing the greatest friendship for 
them, and while on the warpath with the Indians amused himself by 
dashing out the brains of Indians. Allen obtained from the Senecas a 
gift of 300 acres of land at the mouth of the creek, and afterward bought 
from Phelps and Gorman an additional 170 acres. He had a com- 
fortable log house and about sixty acres under cultivation. After he 
had sold to the Shaffers, Allen and his family left the locality, proceed- 
ing to Mt. Morris and thence to Canada. 

Settlement. — The recognized pioneers of what is now Wheatland 
were Peter Shaffer and his sons Peter and Jacob, who came to the 
locality in December, 1809. They found the settlement begun by 
Allen and his brother- in law, Christopher Dugan, near the mouth of 
Allen's Creek, a short distance below Scottsville, and they became the 
purchasers of his farm, paying therefor $2.50 per acre. With apple- 
seeds brought from Pennsylvania, the Shaffers planted the first orchard 
west of the Genesee. Mr. Shaffer and his son Jacob died soon after 
making the settlement, but Peter lived to a good old age. 

The valley of the river below Shaffer's was slow in settling. Joseph 
Morgan came in 1792; Andrew Wortman in 1794 or 1795. Caleb 
Aspinwall, Peter Conkle, P^rederick and Nicholas Hetztillcr were also 
early settlers in the Shaffer neighborhood. Reuben Heath came from 
Vermont in 1799. Isaac Scott, founder of Scottsville, came in 1799 
and within a year or two opened public house, the first in tlie town. 
Other early settlers in this vicinity were Donald McVean (1800), Powell 
Ca'-penter (1804), Newman Warren, Samuel Co.x and his sons Jo.seph, 
Isaac and James; James Wood, John Smith (a pioneer surveyor), 



434 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Joseph Thorn, (the early schoohiiaster), Hiram Peabody, b'.nos Finch 
(near Catholic Corners, so called), and Uarius Shadbolt (1805). 

The southwest part of the town was settled early by several families 
of Scotch birth, who came to the region under the direction of Charles 
Williamson, who made generous provision for public purposes. He 
donated lOO acres for a glebe lot and sixty acres for a school, also 500 
acres each for ten gentlemen ; lOO acres each for ten farmers and 
seventy-eight acres each for forty other farmers. The first of the 
Scotch emigrants left Perthshire in the spring of 1798, reaching New 
York about the first of May, but not until the next year did the first of 
the colony come to the Genesee country to locate permanently. Atuong 
the first to arrive here were Porter Campbell, Malcolm and James 
McLaren, John McNaughton and Donald McVean, all of whom, except 
McVean, brought families. In July, 1803, another party of Scotch 
emigrants left their Inverness-shire homes and came to the new coun- 
try. They, too, settled in what afterward became Wheatland, and, like 
their predecessors, were among the thrifty residents of the town in 
later years. 

Early in the century this element of local population organized the 
Caledonia Presbyterian Society, at the dwelling of Peter Campbell, and 
chose as trustees Peter Anderson, John Christie, Peter Campbell, 
Thomas Irvine and Duncan McPherson In 1804 John McKay built a 
saw mill, thus enabling the inhabitants to construct better habitations. 
Referring briefly to the settlers on the west side of the town, there may 
be recalled the names of John McVean, James McLaren, John McPher- 
son, Donald McPherson, Peter Anderson, Deacon John Christie and 
others now forgotten. 

In addition to those already mentioned we may recall generally the 
names of still others of the early settlers, among them Jacob Hetzler. 
Levi Lacy, Harris Rogers, Zachariah Garbutt, John, Philip and William 
Garbutt, sons of Zachariah, William Garbutt, Rev. Donald Mann, 
Joseph Blackmer, Deacon Rawson Harmon, Francis Albright, John 
McNaughton, George Goodhue, John SagCj^ Elihu Goble, Rufus Cady, 
Marvin Cady, Seeley Finch, Calvin Armstrong, Deacon Smith, Jirah 
Blackmer, Benjamin Irish, Abram Grant, Andrew Cone, Joseph Tucker, 
Henry Martin, Daniel and Martin Smith, Samuel Bassett, H. Hutchin- 



THE TOWN OF WHEATLAND. 435 

son, James Olmstead Thomas Lowrey. Elder and John Mudge, 
Ebenezer Skinner, Bela Armstrong, Francis Smith, Theodore, Theron 
and Kinner Brown, sons of Rev. Solomon Broun, Joel Phelps, Rob- 
ert Smith, E T. Miller, James Mallock, David and Eh"sha Farwell, 
Stephen Baker, William Shirts, William Peabody, Charles Killan, 
Whiting Merry, James Eraser, William Armstrong, Thomas Simpson, 
PhiHp Wardner, Moses Wells, William Reed, Joseph Blackmer, Thomas 
Stokes. 

Tozvn Organization. — The town now known as Wheatland was, on 
the 30th of March, 1802, formed, with other territory, into Southampton, 
and was so known and distinguished until April 4, 1 806, when the 
name was changed to Caledonia. On the creation of Monroe county it 
became desirable to annex a portion of Caledonia to the new jurisdic- 
tion, consequently the creating act included 18,903 acres of that town's 
land. This act was passed February 23, 1821. and upon the organiza- 
tion of the new district the town was named *' Inverness," and so called, 
undoubtedly, in allusion to Inverness, Scotland, from whence came 
many of the early settlers of this special region. On this subject a 
writer of early history says the town was named " from some Scotch 
whim " This may have been true, yet there is abundant room to doubt 
anything of a whimsical nature in the matter, for the Scotch settlers 
here were not types of that character. The name was indeed appro - 
priate and no reasonable explanation is yet offered to show why it 
should have been changed during the same legislative session, on April 
30, to Wheatland. The latter name was also highly proper, for at that 
time and for many years afterward the town was noted for its wheat 
production, and as well for its general fertility and prolificy in all cereal 
products. 

After the creation of the town the first meeting of the freeholders 
was held at the house of Powell Carpenter, on the 3d of April, 182 i, at 
which time these officers were elected : John Garbutt, supervisor ; Levi 
Lacy, town clerk; William Reed, Jirah Blackmer and William Garbutt, 
assessors; Thomas Stoker, collector; Rawson Harmon and Peter Shaf- 
fer, overseers of the poor; Joseph Cox, Clark Hall and Ephraim Black- 
mer, commissioners of highways ; P'reeman Edson, Thomas Lowry and 
Jirah Blackmer, commissioners of common schools; George Wood, Syl- 



430 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

vcster Harmon and Peter W. McPherson, inspectors of common schools; 
Caleb Calkins and Chester Savage, constables. 

In this connection it is interesting to note the succession of supervisors 
of the tov\n from its organization to tlie present time, viz : John Gar- 
butt, 1821; Rawson Harmon, 1822-23; Levi Lacy, 1824-25; John 
Garbult, 1826-27; Isaac I. Lewis, 1 828; William Garbutt, 1 829, D. 

McVean, 1830-31 ; Reed, 1832-33; John McVean, 1834-36; 

Theron Brown, 1837-38; John McVean, 1839; Jirah Blackmer, 1840- 
41 ; Lewis Goodrich, 1842; Jirah l^lackmer, 1843; Duncan McVean, 
1844-45; Elisha Harmon, 1846-47; George R. Hall, 1848; Philip 
Garbutt, 1849; Ephraim Blackmer, 1850; Philip Garbutt, 1851-54; 
William Welch, 1855-56; Ephraim P'^inch, 1857-59; Samuel Scofield, 
1860-63; Donald McNaughton, 1864-67; W. G. Ashby, 1868; Vol- 
ne\' P. Brown, 1869; T. R. Sibley, 1870; Donald McNaughton, 1871- 
74; Philip Garbutt, 1875-76; J. Julian McVean, 1877; T. R Sibley, 
1878 ; Philip Garbutt, 1879-83 ; Charles T. Brown, 1884-86; William 
C Page, 1887; Stephen Bennett, 1888; William C.Page, 1889-90; 
Edward A. Brown, 1891-92; George H. Pope, 1893-95. 

The town ofificers for the year 1895 are George H. Pope, supervisor; 
William H. Kcyes, town clerk ; John Shoulder, David Nichols, Simon 
W. McDonald and'Charles H. Mordofif, justices of the peace; George 
E. Slocum, R. H. Burrell, William Champ, assessors; D. Rogers, jr., Isaac 
Budlong, jr., and Patrick Ereeman, highway commissioners ; Duncan 
McQueen, collector; Otto Bennett, 1st district and Alexander Stewart, 
2d district, oxerseers of the poor; David Corcoran, Alfred Kime and 
James Martin, excise commissioners ; Samuel McConkcy, Isaac H. 
Warren, Duncan McQueen, William F. Lawson and Charles D. Nichols, 
collector. 

Population. — In 1825, the year in which was made the first enumera- 
tion of inhabitants after the formation of the town, the population was 
1,728, and in 1830 had increased to 2,240. Since this time the various 
fluctuations of population are best shown by quoting from the reports 
of the federal census made at the beginning of each decade, as follows: 
In 1840, 2,871; in 1850, 2,916; 1870, 2,560; 1880, 2,599; 1890, 
2,400. I'^rom iliis it will be seen that the town now has more than 400 
less inhabitants than it had in 1 840, and less than 200 more than in 
1830 



THE TOWN OF WHEATLAND. 437 

Another noticeable fact in connection with Wheatland history is that 
its present industries are not as numerous as they were at the erection 
of tlie town, in proof of which the statement may be made that in 1821, 
then having only '],']']'] acres of land under improvement, there were in 
operation four grist mills, four saw mills, three fulling mills, three card- 
ing mills, four distilleries and two asluries. At that time, also, there 
were owned in the town 1,338 cattle, 327 horses and 3,082 sheep. 
Fifteen years later, tliere were under improvement 13,500 acres of land, 
and in operation six grist mills, three saw mills, one woolen factory, one 
distillery, one ashery and one tannery. In this year the cattle num- 
bered 1,753: horses, 798; sheep, 6,580; swine 1,866 A comparison 
of these statements will show that with the decline of one industry or 
interest another succeeded, demonstrating clearly that Wheatland has 
never retrograded. The town now has 18,903 acres of land nearly all ot 
which is susceptible of constant cultivation. It was originally a wheat 
producing town, and as such was famous throughout the whole Genese;" 
country. In fact, from its prominence in this respect, it was named 
" Wheatland," the land of wheat. 

While the wheat district has not materially lessened in fertility and 
productiveness the farmers have been conipelled to resort to other pro- 
ducts to a great extent, as wheat during recent }'ears has been an un- 
profitable cro[% and growers now fully realize the fact that the East 
cannot compete with the West in producing this staple. At the present ' 
time the enterprising agriculturalists are large growers of beans, and in 
this commodity the town produces abundantly and profitably. More- 
over, in general agriculture Wheatland ranks among the foremost towns 
of the Genesee country. 

Villages and Hamlets. — During the full century of occupancj' of 
Wheatland, several small villages or hamlets have been established and 
built up, some the creations of convenience, others of necessity, but 
none has ever attained the dignity of a corpoi ate character. 

Scottsville was founded and named in honor of Isaac Scott, a New 
Hampshire Yankee, who came to the region in 1790 and purchased 
from the Wadsworths one hundred and fifty acres of land at $4 per acre. 
He was a farmer but took the first step toward founding a village by 
building and opening a public house. Soon afterward Abraham Han- 



438 LANDMARKS oF MONROE COUNTY. 

ford opened a store, and Dr. I^'reeman Edson, who also came from New 
Hampshire, began practicing physic and surgery on the village site. 
Both were iiere as early as 1814. Other residents soon came in and 
before 1816 a tannery and an ashery were in operation in the settlement. 
In 1816 a second tavern was opened bv Dr. Augustus Hrislol, and in 
the same year David McVean built a ^^list mill The tannery was built 
during the war of 1812 by Jonathan Habcock, succeeded in occupancy 
by Martin Goodricii. The first distiller}- was built by Sherman Hills, 
while the second was " run " by Al^raham Hanford as an adjunct to his 
grist mill. Thus tiie village was established, and from that early day to 
the present time Scoltsville has been the leading business center of the 
town. Ilowever among the early residents of the village, and in some 
manner identified witli its history, ma\- be mentioned the names of Mr. 
Sharp and Luniau Guthrie, blacksmiths; Kdward Collins, mason and 
builder; Alvin Savage, millwright and general mechanic; Whitman 
Ashley, law) er ; John Farquharson, wagonmaker A post-office was 
established in the village in 1822, Dr. Edson. postmaster. A canal was 
completed from Rochester to Scottsville in 184Q. A classical school or 
academy was opened here in 1824, with Rev. John Milligan as principal, 
but being an un{)rofitable venture was abandoned after a few } ears. 

From the humble beginnings narrated above the present village of 
Scottsville has grown. In population it numbers about eight hundred, 
and although its business interests have never been large, those which 
have been established have generally proved substantial and profitable. 
However, in January, 1895, the chief industry of the village was de- 
stroyed by fire, this disaster being a serious blow to local interests, for 
the large flouring mills were an important factor in local prosperity. 
The present business interests are the general stores of Keys Bros., 
Williams & Dunn, J. Chambers & Son, and the general hardware store 
of L. M. Slocum. There are two good hotels, the " McVean House " 
and the " Cargill I louse." The district school is one of the best features 
of the village, and one of the best institutions of its kind in this part of 
the county. The district trustees are William Rafierty, W. J. Howe 
and Selden S Brown. Four teachers are employed. In the immedi- 
ate vicinity of the village is the famous stock and dairy farm of H. L. 
S. Hall, whose herd of Jersey cows attracted attention from the whole 



THE TOWN OK WIIKATLAND. 439 

country. Tlic villa<Te fire apparatus consists of a hand engine and a well 
e([uipped bucket brigade. The fraternal organizations are Otka Lodge, 
No. 759. F. & A, M., and a tent of Maccabees. 

The village of Scottsville or its near vicinity is the seat of four well 
organized and worthy church societies, the Methodist I'.piscopal, Pres- 
byterian, Protestant Episcopal, and Konian Catholic; and to each of 
these we may briefly refer. 

A Methodist class was formed soon after 1820. and comprised Joel 
Hunter, wife and one daughter, Mrs. Carpenter, John Harroun, Henry 
Tarbox and Mrs. Buck. The church society was incorporated Febru- 
ary 4, 1827, and on February 23, 1829, the first service was held in the 
first church edifice. This society is now in excellent condition, the 
church attendance being large, and regular members numbering lOO 
persons. The pastor is Rev. Y S. Robinson, and the trustees J. T. 
Wells, W. W. Wells, h>ank Shafier and T. E. Sanders. 

The Presbyterian Church of Scottsville was organized in March, 
1822, on a Congregational basis, and adopted Presbyterian form in 
1832. The first members were chiefly from Caledonia, Riga and Chili. 
Rev. John Mulligan began preaching in the town as early as 1821, and 
was the first stated supply of the society when formed. A house of 
worship was erected and completed in 1831. Th pastor of this church 
is Rev. Edwin Bristol. 

Grace Church, Protestant Episcopal, was the result of missionary 
services conducted in the town sixty and more years ago. The parish 
and church have never been numerically strong, yet is one of the sub- 
stantial institutions of the locality. The number of communicating 
members is sixty-seven. The rector is Rev. h\ A .Gould. The war- 
dens are S. S. Brown and M. C. Mordofif; vestrymen, Seward Sco- 
field, Charles S. Ellis, Francis Cox, M.D. Strobel, jr., C. F. Hardy. T. 
R. Sibley. 

The Church of the Assumption, at Scottsville, otherwise occasionally 
known as St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, originated in services of 
missionary character begun in the village about the year 1840, at which 
time a parish was organized and a building remodeled for church pur- 
poses. A regular edifice, commodious and convenient, was built in 
1853-54. This church is now under the pastoral care of Rev Father 



440 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY 

L. A. Lambert, and the congregation luinibcrs about 400, including all 
the Catholic families of the vicinity. 

Mumford is a pretty little hamlet of about 350 inhabitants, situated in 
the southwest part of Wheatland, and, like Scottsville, has access to the 
excellent water privileges of Allen's Creek. The pioneer of this locality 
was Donald McKenzie, who established a cloth dressing mill here early 
in the century. The mill was in operation here in 1809. John and 
Rober McKay bought a tract of land in this locality, and tiie latter 
soon sold his interest to Thomas Mumford, In 18 17 John McKay and 
Mumford built the large grist mill that made a village settlement here, 
and from Thomas Mumford the hamlet was given its name, although 
Elisha H. S. Mumford succeeded his father in the mill, and did much to 
establish the prosperous condition of the settlement. A post office was 
established here abiut 1835. The first store keeper was Philip Garbutt. 
A brewery was started by L White in 1825, and the first tavern was 
opened by Benjamin Dobson. 

F"rom these primitive enterprises the present prosperous little village 
has been built up, and at no time in its history has it ever attained 
greater importance than it now enjoys. Somewhat remote from the 
county seat, to be sure, yet directly connected therewith by rail, no 
serious inconvenience is experienced on this account. Here is the very 
center of a rich agricultural region, the inhabitants being thrifty and in 
good circumstances generally, which element has contributed to village 
growth and importance. Mumford now has three general stores the 
proprietors of which are Woodward & Keefe, Reid & Skiventon, and 
A. P. Campbell ; also two good hotels and mills and shops incident to 
such hamlets Here is also a good district school and three churches. 

The Baptist Church of Mumford, now under the pastoral charge of 
Rev. D, L. McVey, was constituted December 9, 1852, under the min- 
istr\' of Rev. W. W. Everts. The church edifice was completed and 
dedicated August 24, 1853, and the first pastor was Rev. C. A. Wardner. 

The United Presbyterian Church of Mumford was organized May 
13, 1869. with nearly thirty constituent members. The society built a 
substantial edifice in 1876. This church, now fairly large and progress- 
ive, is under the pastoral charge of Rev. W. J. Reid. 

St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church at Mumford is another larse 



THE TOWN OF WHEATLAND. 441 

and worthy institution of the village, and is in charge of Rev. Father 
George J. Eisler. This church was founded about the year 1840. 

Beulah and Relcoda are hamlets, hardly more than cross road settle- 
ments, both in the northern part of Wheatland. At the hamlet first 
mentioned was established and built the United Presbyterian Church in 
February, 1852, with twenty-seven original members. The church has 
ever maintained an existence, and though small in membership is nev- 
ertheless a worthy organization. Its present pastor is Rev. David 
Anderson. 

The old Baptist Church of Wheatland was one of the pioneer soci- 
eties of the town, and was organized May 2S, 181 1. Its first members 
included about twelve or fifteen of the first settlers. The first pastor 
was Elder Solomon Brown. In 1845 the church edifice was remodeled, 
but when ready for occupancy was destroyed by fire. Another struc- 
ture was built at once. 

Another of the pioneer institutions was the Farmers' Library ot 
Wheatland, which was organized January 26, 1805, and though now a 
thing of the past is nevertheless worthy of at least a mention in this 
chapter. 

In this chapter frequent mention has been made of the location and 
character of the early schools of Wheatland, wherefore in the present 
connection little need be said other than to present the present condi- 
tion of the educational system of the town. In 1820 Wheatland was di- 
vided into eight school districts, and the number of children of school age 
(b-tween five and fifteen years) was 371. In 1835 the districts numbered 
nine with 780 children attending school. In 1894 according to the com- 
missioners' report for the year ending July 31st, the districts numbered 
nine, and children of school age 715. There were nine school houses, 
also one private school with seven pupils. The total amount of moneys 
available for school purposes during the year was $8,336.12, of which 
$2,05925 was apportioned from public moneys and $4,911.20 was 
raised by town tax. Fifteen teachers were employed, and paid the 
aggregate of $6,084.05. Of the school buildings, six are of frame and 
three of brick construction. The value of school property in the town 
is estimated at $22,050. 

56 



JUDGES AND ATTORNEYS. 



The chapter on the Bench and Bar contained brief sketches of some 
of the more distinguished of the deceased judges who had been resi- 
dents of Rochester during most of their Hves Nothing of a biographi- 
cal character was given in that connection concerning any of the Hving 
members of the profession, and it is thought to be only fitting that 
something should be said in this place of some, at least, of those who 
continue to adorn the bench or to enhance the honor of the bar. 

George F. Danforth was born in Boston, Mass., July 5, 18 19, and is 
a son of Isaac and Dolly Danforth, natives of New Hampshire. He was 
graduated from Union college in 1840 and in August of that year came 
to Rochester, where he read law. Admitted to the bar he began the 
practice of his profession in this city in June, 1843, ^"<^ continued with'^ut 
interruption until January i, 1879, when, having been elected, he 
took his seat as associate judge of the court of Appeals of the state of 
New York. He served in that capacity till December 31, 1890, when 
he retired from the bench by reason of the constitutional limitation as 
to age. He then resumed the practice of law, in which he still con- 
tinues. He is a strong Republican, and in 1892 was president of the 
judiciary commission. For many years he has occupied a foremost 
place not only in tlie bar of Monroe county but in the bar of Western 
New York, while in the jurisprudence of the state his great ability and 
profound knowledge of law have received universal recognition. On 
April 27, 1846, he married Miss Frances J. Wright, daughter of Orrin 
and Frances J. (Gold) Wright, of Pittsford, Mass. 

John M. Davy was born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, on June 29, 
1835, ^"<^ removed to Monroe county with his parents when an infant, 
residing in the towns of Mendon and Henrietta until he began the prac- 
tice of law, when he came to Rochester. Receiving a common school 




J. M. DAVY. 




WILLIAM E. WhRNER. 



JUDGES AND ATTORNEYS. 443 

and academic education he read law in the office of Strong, Palmer & 
Mumford, but before completing his legal studies he assisted, in 1862, 
in raising Co. G, of the loSth Regiment N. Y. Vols., and was appointed 
first lieutenant of that company. He was in active service in the 
war for the Union until the winter of 1863, when, being incapaci- 
tated by illness, he was honorably discharged, returned to Rochestei, 
resumed the study of law, and was admitted to the bar in December, 
1863 Being an unswerving Republican he was nominated by his 
party and elected district attorney of Monroe county in the fall of 
1868 and served until 1871, declining a renomination. In 1872 he 
was appointed by President Grant collector of customs for the port 
of Genesee, and held that office until he took his seat in the 
XLIVth congress in 1875, to which he had been elected by the Repub- 
licans. At the close of his congressional term he again devoted his at- 
tention to his profession, in which he has achieved eminent success. In 
1888 he was nominated by both the Republican and Democratic judi- 
cial conventions for the Seventh Judicial district for the office of justice 
of the Supreme court, to succeed Judge Angle, and his election was 
equally unanimous, the vote being the largest ever cast for a Supreme 
court justice in this district. Judge Davy has honored and dignified 
this responsible position for seven years, and is one of the ablest advo- 
cates on the Supreme bench of the state. 

George F. Yeoman, ex-justice of the Supreme court for the Seventh 
Judicial district of this state, was born in Delaware count)% in 1846. 
He studied at the university of Rochester, and began the practice of law 
in this city in 1875. The death of Judge Francis A. Macomber caused 
a vacancy on the bench and on November 10, 1893, Governor Flower 
appointed Mr. Yeoman to fill the same. He took the oath of office 
November 15, 1893, and retired December 31, 1894. 

William E. Werner, justice of the Supreme court, was born in Buf- 
falo, N. Y., on the 19th of April, 1855, and received his early education 
in the public schools of his native city. In 1877 he came to Rochester 
and read law in the offices of W. H. Bowman and D. C. Feel}', and 
while pursuing his studies was appointed clerk of the Municipal court, 
in which capacity he served until shortly before his admission to the 
bar in October, 1880. He then entered upon the successful practice of 



444 LA'NDNfARKS OF^MO^IROE COUNTY. 

his profession, and continued until the fall of 1884, when he was elected 
special county judge of Monroe county. After serving three years, he 
was unanimously re-elected to th^ same office in 1887. In 1889, when 
the office of county judge was made- j^iicant by the death of Judge 
Morgan, he was unanimously elected to that responsible position, which 
he held until December 31, 1894. In November, 1894, he was elected 
without opposition to the office of justice of the Supreme court of the 
state of New York for the Seventh judicial district, which position he 
now holds. 

Justice Werner commands the respect and confidence of all citizens 
regardless of party affiliations, and his services upon the bench have been 
characterised by ability, dignity, justice and honesty. As an attorney 
he had charge of the legal business of many of the largest corporations 
in the city, and before his accession to the bench he was regarded as 
one of the most successful lawyers in the county. In every relation, 
as judge, lawyer and citizen, he has been and is deservedly popular and 
influential. He is a member of several social organisations, and is also 
prominently identified with the Masonic order, with the Odd P'ellows, 
and with the Knights of Pythias. 

Harvey Humphrey, born in Goshen, Conn., in 1798, was a son of 
Jonathan and Rachel Humphrey, farmers, who settled with their family 
in East Bloomfield (township No. 10 of Phelps and Gorham's pur- 
chase), Ontario county, in the spring of 1799, being among the pioneers 
of that section. There he was reared and educated. In 18 16 he 
entered Hamilton college, and was graduated first in his class in 1820, 
pronouncing the salutatory. He manifested a special love for the 
classics throughout life. Leaving college he entered the law office of 
Nicholas B. Randall, at Maniius, N. Y. , and remained two years. In 
1822 he became a tutor in his alma mater, and for two years taught 
Latin and Greek. Resigning in 1824 he settled in Rochester and soon 
after was admitted to the court of Common Pleas, and for fifty-three 
years practiced his profession in this city. Soon after his admission he 
^■''was appointed justice of the peace and held that office for a long time. 
About 1829 he was admitted as solicitor in chancery; in 1 843 he 
formed a partnership with Hon. Isaac Hills; and from 1852 to 1856 
he served as judge of Monroe county. He was also a village trustee 




'"y-'i^'sd by J KCampi 



,//.A^^ 





"^^^ 



^^^ 



JUDGES AND ATTORNEYS. 445 

and for several years supervisor. He was one of the founders of the 
Pundit club, and between 1855 ^"d 1875 contributed to it no less than 
twenty papers on scientific, historic, and other technical subjects, and 
often wrote for the press and periodicals. He was one of the most emi- 
nent lawyers of his time, long a leader of the bar of Western New York, 
a profound scholar, well versed in the classics, a man of many attain- 
ments, and after a successful career filled with study and good deeds 
died May i, 1877. He was married in October, 1828, to Elizabeth 
Rogers Perkins. 

Col. Simeon B. Jewett was born at Sharon, Litchfield county. Conn. 
August 12, 1801, and resided at Sharon, where he received his educa- 
tion. In 1820 he removed to Skaneateles, Onondaga county, N. Y. 
He became a student at law in the ofiice of his brother, Judge Freeborn 
G. Jewett, and was admitted to the bar in 1823. He settled at Clark- 
son, Monroe county, N. Y., and opened an office in the same year and 
continued to reside there and practice his profession most of his life. 
He was married in 1831 to Miss Nancy Cook, step-daughter of Capt. 
William Peck. In 1834 he formed a co-partnership with Judge Henry 
R. Selden, under the firm name of Jewett & Selden, which continued 
to 1858, when Judge Selden removed to Rochester, Monroe county. 
He was engaged for a short period during the years of 1835 and 1836 
in a business enterprise in the state of Georgia, and organised a large 
lumber industry. He early became interested in politics and took an 
active interest in town, county, state and national elections. Always 
a Democrat, he was always more interested in the success of his party 
and in his friends than in his own advancement. He was appointed 
surrogate of the county of Monroe in 1845, ^"^ served during two years 
in that capacity; was appointed marshal of the Northern district of 
New York by President Buchanan soon after his inauguration, and 
served in that capacity for four years. He early became what was 
known as a Freesoiler and became identified with that wing of the Demo- 
cratic party. He was a man of wonderful executive ability, of untiring 
industry. For quickness of perception and boldness of execution he 
had no superior ; formed opinions at once and never afterwards hesi- 
tated ; always had the cour^ige of his convictions and fought to the end 
both in politics and law. 



446 LANDMARKS OP MONROE COUNTY. 

As a lawyer, he had few superiors, and as a collector was known 
throughout the state. He was prominent in all state and national con- 
ventions, well acquainted with the men ol note in both the state and nation. 
Few men could accomplish more in moulding the policy of his party 
and in selecting its candidates. Socially, he was always pleasant and 
courteous; was a fine conversationalist and was popular with all with 
whom he came in contact. He was a good husband, kind father and 
faithful friend. 

lie was stricken with paralysis in 1867, and after that date retired 
from active business. He died in Clarkson in July, 1869, aged sixty- 
eight years. He left surviving him his wife, who died in April, 1883. 
His daughter and only child, Mary W. Jewett, is still living in the 
homestead at Clarkson, Monroe county, N. Y. 

Denton G. Shuart was born in 1805, at Plattekill, Ulster county, N. Y., 
and in 1807 came whith his parents to Mendon, Monroe county, one 
mile from Honeoye Falls. His father, Abraham Shuart, was one of 
the pioneers of this section of the county. Denton G. received an aca- 
demic education and in 1825 he returned to Ulster county for the pur- 
pose of studying law. In 1832 he was admitted to the bar in New York 
city, and shortly after began practicing at Honeoye Falls. From 1852- 
1856 he was surrogate of Monroe county, and for nearly half a century 
was one of the prominent members of the county bar. His wife was 
Mary Elizabeth Barrett, daughter of Stephen Barrett, of Honeoye Falls. 
He had four children: Denton Barrett, who died in 1866, William 
H., of Rochester, N. Y., Clarence A., of Honeoye Falls, N. Y., and Irv- 
ing J., of Chicago, III. He died at his home in Honeo)'e Falls, N. Y., 
August 29, 1892. 

William Dean Shuart was born in the town of Mendon, Monroe 
county, August 11, 1827, received an academic education, and at- 
tended Genesee Wesleyan seminary at Lima, N. Y. He read law with 
D. G. Shuart, George P. Townsend, and Smith & Cornwell, of Lyons, 
N.Y., and afterwards entered the law school at Ballston Spa, from 
which place he was graduated and was admitted to practice in Schenec- 
tady, N. Y., in 1850. The following year he opened a law office in 
Rochester, and in 1863 was elected city attorney by the Common 
Council. In June, 1864, he was commissioned in the army as pay- 




A. E. SUTHERLAND. 



JUDGES AND ATTORNEYS. 447 

master, with rank of major, served until the close, and mustered out at 
Louisville, Ky., in November, 1865. He returned to Rochester and 
resumed his practice, and in 1867 was nominated and elected surrogate 
of Monroe county, twice re-elected, and served in all sixteen years. 
January i, 1884, he formed a partnership with Hon. William A. Suth- 
erland, under the firm of Shuart & Sutherland, to which Hon. Arthur 
E. Sutherland was subsequently admitted, but has since withdrawn. 
Mr. Shuart is a very successful practitioner, is authority on all cases in- 
volving the settlement of estates, and his decisions while surrogate were 
seldom reversed b}^ higher courts. He is one of the most popular men 
and promising lawyers in Western New York. 

Arthur E. Sutherland was born at Geneva, N. Y., September 20, 
1862, and is the youngest son of Rev. Andrew Sutherland, a prominent 
clergyman who for many years was presiding elder of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church in the western part of this state. He attended the 
Genesee Wesleyan Seminary at Lima, and in 1885 was graduated from 
Wesleyan University at Middletown, Conn., after which he read law in 
the office of Shuart & Sutherland in Rochester. Admitted to the bar 
in October, 1887, he filled for a time the position of managing clerk for 
his preceptors and then became a member of the firm. This partner- 
ship continued until his appointment as county judge of Monroe county. 
In November, 1893, ^^^ ^^^ elected special county judge on the Repub- 
lican ticket for a term of three years beginning January i, 1894, and on 
January 10, 1895, was appointed county judge by Governor Morton to 
fill the vacancy caused by the elevation of County Judge William E. 
Werner to the Supreme court bench. On September 21, 1895, he was 
unanimously nominated by the Republicans for the office of county 
judge for a term of six years, beginning January i, 1896. 

In June, 1888, he was married to Miss Nellie Reed, daughter of 
Frederick Reed, of Nunda, N. Y. They have three children. 

Judge Sutherland occupies a foremost position among the younger 
members of the bar of Western New York, while the firm with which he 
has been associated holds a prominent place in the jurisprudence of the 
state. The senior member, W. Dean Shuart, was for many years sur- 
rogate of Monroe county, and the other partner, William A. Sutherland, 
elder brother of the judge and the present Republican national com- 



448 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

mitteeman for New York, is widely known as one of the leading lawyers 
of the commonwealth. Judge Sutherland's professional connection 
with these eminent counsellors has afforded him unusual opportunity for 
practice in the courts and given him a wide experience in litigation of 
all kinds, which has been invaluable to him in presiding at the trial of 
causes. As a judge he has officiated with dignity and ability ; his 
services on the bench have been characterised by sound judgment, 
thorough knowledge of law, and careful research. He has always 
manifested considerable interest in public matters and political affairs, 
taking an active part in movements that concern the general welfare and 
promote the material advancement of the city. He is a prominent 
member of various social, athletic, and fraternal organisations, and with 
many of them has held important and responsible official relations 

Thomas Raines was born at Canandaigua, Ontario county, N. Y., 
August 13, 1842. His father, John Raines, was born at Hull, England, 
in 1818, but came to Philadelphia in his infancy; later he was a farmer 
until his twenty-seventh year, when he entered the Methodist Episcopal 
ministry and became widely known in Western New York among the 
foremost of his religious brethren. Mrs. Raines, the mother of Thomas 
Raines, was Miss Mary Remington of Canandaigua. The subject of 
this sketch received his early education in the common schools. He 
began his business life as a clerk in a store at Lyons, Wayne county, 
N. Y. At the age of twenty-one in connection with a number of capi- 
talists, he organised a national bank at Geneva, which was one of the 
first institutions of that kind in the country. In 1867 he came to Roch- 
ester, and at twenty-four became the cashier of the Farmer^' and Me- 
chanics' National bank. At the Republican stale convention, held in 
Rochester in the autumn of 1871, Mr. Raines was nominated for state 
treasurer, and in the election following he ran largely ahead of his 
ticket, particularly in Monroe county. He was re-elected in 1873 as a 
Liberal Republican, on the Democratic ticket. He was vice-president 
from New York of the Cincinnati convention which nominated Horace 
Greeley in 1872. He was a member of the Canal board from 1872 to 
1876, and as state treasurer was a commissioner of the land office and 
commissioner of the canal fund. Retiring from political life at the close 
of his second term of office, Mr. Raines took up the study of the law. 



JUDGES AND ATTORNEYS. 449 

at an age beyond that in which the calling is usually entered upon, and 
was admitted to practice at the bar in 1879. Soon after he formed a 
partnership with his brother George, which continued for fifteen years. 
His rise in his profession was rapid, and he was frequently engaged in 
the argument of important cases in the appellate courts. In 1884 he was 
appointed byGovernor Cleveland speciiil countyjudge of Monroe county. 
He was appointed byGovernor Hill, in May, 1890, a member of the com- 
mission created b}' the legislature to revise the judiciary article of the state 
constitution. In the early part of this present year he became associated 
with ex-Judge P. H. Van Auken, formerly of Seneca Falls, under the 
firm name of Raines & Van Auken. But with all his devotion to the 
profession of the law and his compliance with the demands made upon 
him by his extensive practice, Judge Raines is not willing to divorce 
himself from the service of the public. Having been appointed by Gov- 
ernor Cleveland, in 1883, one of the managers of the Western House of 
Rufuge, a child's prison, situated in this city, he became one of the 
most active members of the board and a powerful advocate of the 
advanced methods which have caused the institution under its new name 
of State Industrial School, and as a military and trade school, to become 
one of the model establishments of its kind and a potent instrument for 
the well being of the community. 

Pierson B. Hulett was born in Brighton, Monroe county, N. Y., No- 
vember 17, 1837. He became a student of law and was admitted to 
the bar December 18, 1858, at the general term in Rochester, where 
he has been a successful practitioner. In 1875 Mr. Hulett was elected 
special county judge and served in that capacity for three years, and 
was re-elected in 1879. In the fall of 1884 he formed a partnership 
with Vincent M. Smith, as Smith & Hulett, which terminated with Mr. 
Smith's death in May, 1886. About two years ago the present firm of 
Hulett & Gibbs was formed. Mr Gibbs was a student of Mr. Hulett's. 

George Alexander Carnahan was born in Ravenna, Ohio, May 21, 
1862. He received his early education in his native town, and was 
graduated from the Wesleyan university of Middletown, Conn., in the 
class of 1884, after which he entered the office of Morgan & French, of 
Rochester, for the study of law. He was admitted to the bar in this 
city in 1886, and immediately afterward opened an office here. In 1894 
57 



450 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

he was elected judge of tlie Municipal court of the city of Rochester, 
and served on that bench until January, 1895, when he resigned to 
accept the appointment by Governor Morton of special county judge of 
Monroe county, to fill the xacancy caused by the resignation of Judge 
Arthur E. Sutherland. Judge Carnahan is also a member of the board 
of managers of the State Industiial school of Rochester. 

George E. Warner was born in New Haven, Cayuga county, N. Y., 
November 7, 1855, came to Rochester when an infant, and was edu- 
cated in the public schools of this city. He afterwards entered the 
office of H. H. Woodard as a student at law, and was admitted to the 
bar at the general term in Syracuse, in January, 1877, and opened an 
office in Rochester for the practice of general law. In 1881 he was 
elected judge of the Municipal court, and re-elected in 1887 and again 
in 1893. Mr. Warner is one of the best known attorneys in the county. 

John Martin Murphy was born in Lima, N. Y., March 24, 1859, 
and received his education at the Genesee Wesleyan seminary, from 
which he was graduated in June, 1870. The same year he began the 
study of law in the office of D. C. Feely, of Rochester, and was ad- 
mitted to the bar in October, 1883, when he at once commenced the 
general practice of his profession. Mr. Murphy has built up a good 
reputation as a lawyer. In 1895 he was appointed a judge of the Mu- 
nicipal court, at a meeting of the common council, to fill the vacancy 
caused by the death of the late Judge Craig. 

Charles B. Ernst, police justice of the city of Rochester, is a son of 
the late Col. Louis Ernst and was born here August 16, 1854. Re- 
ceiving a liberal education in the schools of Rochester and graduating 
from Mount St. Mary's college of Maryland in 1878, he was graduated 
from the Albany law school in 1880, and entered the office of Judge 
Angle. After his admission to the bar he formed a partnership with 
Frank J. Hone, under the style of Hone & Ernst, which still continues. 
He has always taken an active interest in politics. For two terms 
he represented the old Fourth ward on the board of supervisors, and 
in 1888 was appointed city attorney by the common council and 
reappointed in 1890. In March, 1893, he was elected by a large 
majority to the office of police justice, which he still holds. In all these 
positions Judge Ernst has won the commendation and esteem of all 



JUDGES AND ATTORNEYS. 451 

classes and parties. He is zealous member of the C. M. B. A. and I. 
O. R. M., and one of the best known and most popular young attor- 
neys of Rochester, 

The preceding have held judicial office in this county or city. The 
following have not. 

William F. Cogswell was born in the town of Perinton, Monroe 
county, September 26, 1824, was admitted to the bar in May, 1846, and 
has practiced his profession in Rochester ever since. William N. Cogs 
well, son of William F., was born in this city July 9, 1858, was gradu- 
ated from the university of Rochester in 1878, and studied law with his 
father. He was admitted to the bar in 1881, since which time he has 
practiced in partnership with his father, the firm being Cogswell & 
Cogswell. 

Theodore Bacon, senior member of the firm of Bacon, Briggs, Beckley 
& Bissell, was born at New Haven, Conn , May 6, 1834, and received the 
degree of B. A. from Yale college in 1853 and that of M. A. in 1856. 
He studied law at Clarkson, Monroe county, with the late Hon. Henry 
Rogers Selden and was admitted to the bar in September, 1856. In 
1861 he entered the Union army as captain in the 7th Conn. Vols., one 
of the famous regiments of the rebellion. Since 1865 he has practiced 
law in Rochester, and for many years has been recognised as one of 
the most eminent lawyers of Western New York. 

John Van Voorhis is a direct descendant of Stephen Coerte Van 
Voorhees, who was born in Hego, Holland, in 1600, and came to America 
with his wife and seven children in the ship Boutekoe (spotted cow) 
in 1 660, settling at Flatlands, L. I., where he purchased of Cornelius 
Dirksen Hoogland thirty- one " morgens " of land for 3,000 guilders. 
He also bought a house and lot with a brewery in the village of "Ames- 
foort en Bergen" (Flatlands), and died in 1702. A grandson, Johannes 
Coerte Van Voorhis, in 1730, settled inFishkiH, Dutchess county, on a farm 
of 2,700 acres, for which he paid ^^70, and died in 1757. A great-grand- 
son of the latter was the father of John Van Voorhis and a farmer and 
local Methodist preacher, and settled in Decatur, Otsego county, N. Y., 
where the subject of this sketch was born October 22, 1826. The 
family later resided in Scott, Cortland county, and Spafiford, Onondaga 



452 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

county, and in March, 1843, located in Mendon, Monroe county, where 
the father died March 26, 1867. John Van Voorhis was reared on the 
farm, completed his education at Genesee Wesleyan seminary, and 
taught district school in Victor until 1840, when he entered the law 
office of Hon. John W. Stebbins. He also taught Latin and mathe- 
matics in the East Bloomfield academy till the spring of 1852 and was 
admitted to the bar in December of that year. The following spring 
he opened a law office in Elmira in partnership with Hon. Gilbert O. 
Hulse and on July 4, 1854, removed to Rochester, where he has ever 
since resided and practiced his profession, having been for many years 
one of the leaders of the bar of Western New York. He was a member 
of the board of education from the Fifth ward in 1857, city attorney in 
1859, internal revenue collector of this district in 1862, delegate to the 
National Republican convention at Baltimore in 1864, and elected rep- 
resentative in congress in 1878, 1880, and again in 1892. For thirty- 
five years he practiced law in partnership with his brother, Quincy Van 
Voorhis, the firm name being J. & Q. Van Voorhis, and for the past 
few years with his sons Eugene and Charles, under the style of John Van 
Voorhis & Sons. In 1858 he married Frances Aristine. daughter of 
Martin Galusha and granddaughter of Jonas Galusha, governor of Ver- 
mont for nine consecutive terms. 

Nathaniel Foote, son of Nathaniel Foote, was born in Morrisville, N. 
Y., November 15, 1849. ^^ received his early education in his native 
town, after which he entered the Cazenovia seminary, where he remained 
for two years, when he entered the Genesee Wesleyan seminary at 
Lima, N. Y., and was graduated in 1866; in 1870 he was graduated 
from Hamilton college as bachelor of arts ; he then became instructor 
of classics at the Monticello academy, where he remained one year, 
after which he began the practice of law in his native town and formed 
a partnership with John E. Smith, which continued until July, 1873, 
when he came to Rochester and opened an office Mr. Foote is recog- 
nised as one of the leading attorneys of Western New York. January 
10, 1872, he married Charlotte, daughter of the late James C. Campbell, 
of this city. Mr. Foote was for three years a member of the law firm 
of Foote & Haven, with offices in the Granite building of Rochester. 
He was one of the delegates from this senatorial district to the con- 



JUDGES AND ATTORNEYS. 453 

stitutional convention, which made and submitted to the people the 
revised constitution of the state which was adopted in 1894. On the 
organisation of the Rochester Bar association in 1893, Mr, Foote was 
chosen as its president and was re-elected to the same office the follow- 
ing year. 

Charles S. Baker, who was born February 18, 1839, at Churchville, 
Monroe county, N. Y., received his early education in the district 
schools of this county, at Oakfield, Genesee county, Gary Gollegiate 
seminary, and Genesee Wesleyan seminary at Lima. During 1857 he 
taught school, at the same time studying law, preparing himself for his 
future profession. For several years prior to his admission he pur- 
sued his studies in the ofhce of Judge Danforth up to i860, when he 
was admitted to the bar and immediately commenced practice in Roch- 
ester. At the opening of the war he entered the service and served 
during the first year as first lieutenant of Go. E, 27th N. Y. Vols. He 
was disabled at the first battle of Bull Run, in consequence of which he 
was compelled to resign from the service. Returning to Rochester he 
resumed the practice at which he has been successfully engaged ever 
since. 

Mr. Baker has always taken an interest in affairs of state. He was a 
member of the board of supervisors for 1879, 1880 and 1882, elected 
to the state senate and served with distinction during 1883-4, and then 
elected to congress, serving through the 48th. 49th, and 51st sessions, 
winning additional fame and honors. In 1861 he married Miss Jane E., 
only daughter of Silas A. Yerkes, of Lima, formerly of Rochester. 
They have five sons: Charles A., a graduate of Rochester university ; 
Leigh Y., a graduate of Michigan university and a practicing physi- 
cian in Washington as a specialist of the eye and ear ; Cornelius B., of 
Kansas ; and William J. and Harold Hill. 

Martin W. Cooke, son of William W. Cooke, was born in the village 
of Whitehall, N. Y., March 2, 1840, attended the Whitehall academy 
and a grammar school in Rochester, and at the age of fifteen entered 
the university in this cit)', from which he was graduated with degree 
of A.B. in i860, and from which he received the degree of A.M. in 1863. 
He studied law under the late Judge Henry R. Selden, was admitted 
to the bar in 1863, and in 1865 formed a partnership with Hon. Sanford 



454 LAND^^ARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

E. Church, wliich continued until 1870, at which time Mr. Church was 
elected chief judge of the court of Appeals. In 1880 he was appointed 
one of the examiners of applicants for admission to the bar, a position 
he held by reappointment for fourteen years, being chairman of the board 
most of the time. He is a member of the executive committee of the 
New York State Bar association, of which he has been treasurer and 
president. He is the official attorney of the university of Rochester and 
for many )'ears a member of its board of trustees and of the Phi Beta 
Kappa society ; a close student of art, literature, and science, and a 
member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. 
In 1888 he published a book entitled " The Human Mystery in Hamlet," 
and has contributed numerous other writings meeting with much favora- 
ble comment. In the fall of 1889 he was nominated by the New York 
Republican convention for the office of state comptroller, and, although 
defeated, his vote greatly exceeded that of the head of his ticket. Mr. 
Cooke has successfully practiced his profession in Rochester since 1863, 
and has long been recognised as one of the prominent members of the 
New York state bar. In 1866 he married Miss Augusta W. Buell, 
daughter of Mortimer Buell, of Rochester. 

David Hays was born in Rochester, N. Y., November 28, 1858. At 
an early age he attended the grammar schools in New York city, and 
in 1 874 the Free academy of Rochester, and graduated from the Roch- 
ester university in 1878, after which he took a course in political science 
at the university of Berlin, and was a graduate of the Columbian law 
school in the class of 1881, at which time he was admitted to the bar. 
In January, 1883, he became a partner of James B. Perkins, which 
partnership continued until the removal of Mr. Perkins to France in 
August, 1890, and was renewed in August, 1895, o" the return of Mr. 
Perkins to Rochester. 

Walter S. Hubbell was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, December 24, 1850, 
and is a son of Charles Hubbell, now of San Diego, Cal., and Anna M., 
his wife, who was a daughter of Oren Sage, formerly of Rochester. 
When he was three years old his parents moved to Keokuk, Iowa, 
where he lived until 1866, when he came to Rochester and entered the 
university, from which, after winning a number of prizes, he was grad- 
uated in 1 87 1, being first in his class. A few years later he received 



JUDGES AND ATTORNEYS. 455 

the degree of A. M. He studied law with Hon. George F. Danforth, 
late judge of the court of Appeals, and was admitted to the bar in Jan- 
uary, 1876. He practiced his profession alone until December i, 1890, 
when he formed his present partnership with Horace McGuire. Mr. 
Hubbell was elected member of assembly in 1884 and again in 1885, 
and next to General Erwin was the strongest candidate for speaker of 
the session for the latter year. By Speaker Erwin he was made chair- 
man of the committee on general laws, and also placed upon the judi- 
ciary committee. He has always taken a firm stand upon the important 
questions of municipal reform, taxation, and high license, of which he 
was the recognised leader in the assembly of 1885, and through which 
he has since received such universal accessions of strength. He is a 
trustee of the university of Rochester, the New York Baptist union for 
ministerial education, the Rochester Orphan asylum, and the First 
Baptist church of Rochester. In June, 1877, he was married to Leora, 
daughter of Judge D. B. De Land, of Fairport, and they have five 
daughters. 

George Harvey Humphrey, son of the late Judge Harvey Humphrey 
(which see), was born in Rochester on March 21, 1830, and received 
his rudimentary education in the public schools under Professor Perry. 
He studied law in the office of his father, for whom he acted as manag- 
ing clerk, and was admitted to the bar in 185 i. The same year he 
formed a partnership with his father, which continued until his father's 
death in 1877; since then he has practiced his profession alone. Mr. 
Humphrey has attained considerable distinction as an author, and is a 
frequent contributor to magazines and other periodicals. He is the 
author of "The Law of the Protestant Episcopal Church and other 
Prominent Ecclesiastical Bodies," which was first issued in 1887, and is 
now in its fourth edition. As an essayist and poet he has won no little 
fame at home and abroad. 

John Charles O'Brien was born in Rochester, N. Y., May 8, 1838. 
In June, 1856, he was graduated from Hobart college with the degree 
of B. A., and in 1881 received the degree of Master of Arts. He read 
law with Judge Cliarles J. Folger, of Geneva, N. Y., and in 1863 was 
graduated from the Albany law school, where he received the degree 
of LL.B., and also passed the general term examination, and subse- 



456 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

quently was admitted to the United States District and Circuit courts. 
He was acting assistant district attorney under William II. Bowman and 
C. C. Davison. He was the first supervisor of the Fifteenth ward, and 
for the S'.cond term was nominated on both the Democratic and Repub- 
lican tickets, but declined to accept the office January 31, 1867, he 
married Agnes E. O'Leary, of Ontario, by whom he had six children. 
Two of his sons have been graduated from the university of Toronto, 
and one from Cornell university. The oldest son is to be associated 
with his f.ither in the practice of law in this city. Mr. O'Brien's prac- 
tice has been chietly in the drawing of wills, the settlement of estates, 
and as referee. 

Daniel Beers Beach was born in Temple street, New Haven, Conn., 
November 14, 1822, and received his preliminary education in his 
native city. Reared under the influences of that historic seat of learn- 
ing, he became a private tutor in families in Brunswick county, Va , and 
Rockingham county, N C. He was graduated from Yale college in 
the class of 1842 and from the law department of that institution in 
1845, being admitted to the bar of that state in August following. 
The same year he removed to Rochester, N. Y., and was admitted to 
the New York state bar at Albany in January, 1847. ^^^ began the 
practice of his profession at Rochester immediately afterwards. In 
1867 he temporarily returned to his old home in New Haven and prac- 
ticed law there till the spring of 1871, when he again came to Roches- 
ter, where he has ever since resided and followed his chosen profession. 
He served as supervisor of the then Seventh ward of Rochester in 
1865, being elected on the Republican ticket. Except this, he has 
given his attention almost exclusively to his business. June i, 1853, 
Mr. Beach married Miss Loraine Rogers, of Lockport, and has had two 
sons and four daughters, of whom three daughters are living. 

John Hampden Hopkins was born in Rochester, June 20, 1852, and 
in 1872 was graduated from Hamilton college. He read law in the 
office of Cox & Avery, of Auburn, N.Y., and later entered the Albany 
law school, from which he was graduated in 1875 Returning to 
Auburn he practiced law until 1877, when he came to Rochester, where 
he has since followed his chosen profession. 



JUDGES AND ATTORNEYS. 457 

John N. Beckley was born in Clarendon, Orleans county, N. Y., De- 
cember 30, 1848, and was educated at the Brockport Collegiate insti- 
tute, the Genesee Wesleyan seminary, and Genesee college. After 
leaving college he became principal of the public schools of Lanesboro 
and Rushford, Minn , where he remained two years. In 1872 he began 
the study of law with Wakeman & Watson at Batavia, N. Y., and was 
admitted to the bar at Buffalo in June, 1875. He returned to Batavia, 
where he practiced his profession two years, and then removed to Roch- 
ester. In 1882 he was appointed city attorney and was reappointed in 
1884 and again reappointed in 1886, and after the last reappointment he 
became a member of the law firm of Bacon, Briggs & Beckley. He was 
one of the prime movers in the reorganization of the street railroad 
system in this city and upon the incorporation of the Rochester Rail- 
way company was elected its first vice-president and secretary. In 
1890 he became president of the company and still holds that position. 
In 1875 he was married to Miss Belle, , daughter of Stephen M. Corwin 
of Brighton, N. Y. Mr. Beckley has proven his ability as one of the 
most able attorneys in Rochester. 

Adolph J. Rodenbeck, corporation counsel, was born in Rochester, and 
has always lived in the old Twelfth ward. He was graduated from the 
Free academy in 1 88 1, and from the university of Rochester in 1885, 
taking at the latter institution the Dewey prize in declamation in his 
sophomore year, and the first oratorical prize and first scholarship upon 
graduation. He then began the study of law in Rochester in the office 
of Henry G. Danforth, and finished in an office in New York city, and 
was admitted to the bar in Brooklyn in 1887. After an extended trip 
abroad he settled permanently in Rochester, where he has since prac- 
ticed his profession with signal success. He is one of the most brilliant 
young lawyers of the city, and has achieved no little distinction. Prom- 
inent and popular in political and social circles, he was appointed second 
assistant under city attorney Ernst, and first assistant under C. D. 
Kiehei, and on April i, 1895, received the appointment of corporation 
counsel a position he fills with rare ability. He is a member of the D. K. 
E college fraternity, Genesee Falls lodge F. & A. M., Aurora lodge I. O. 
O. F., Down Town Republican club, the Genesee Valley, Monroe, and 
Rochester Whist clubs, the Monroe County Historical society, and the 

58 



458 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

New York State and Rochester Bar associations, a trustee of the 
Memorial Lutheran college, and secretary of the Central RepubHcan 
club. 

Charles M. Wilhams was born in Rochester, N. Y., April 30, 185 i, 
eldest son of Charles H., and grandson of Rev. Comfort Williams, the 
first settled pastor of Rochester, N. Y. Mr. Williams received his early- 
education at the Free academy of this city and was graduated from the 
university of Rochester in 1871, at whicii lime he entered the office of 
E. A. Raymond, as a student at law ; he was afterward in the law office 
of Hon. John Van Voorhis, and was admitted to the bar in 1875, ^^ 
which time he entered into co-partnership with J. R. Fanning, for the 
practice of general law. In 1879 he was elected school commissioner 
of the Sixth ward, being nominated by both parties. In 1888 Mr. 
Williams was elected a member of the board of trustees of the univers- 
ity of Rochester, and has been its secretary and treasurer since 1891. 

Horace G. Pierce, son of Samuel Pierce, was born in Webster, Mon- 
roe county, August 24, 1853. Samuel Pierce, a native of Penfield, was 
a son of Seth Pierce, who came here from Vermont and died suddenly 
in the old New England House about 1840 ; he was a farmer and con- 
tractor, and constructed the Dugvvay roads near Irondequoit. Samuel 
Pierce resides in Webster, where he formerly took a very active interest 
in political affairs. Horace G. Pierce prepared for college at the old 
Doolittle institute, at Weathersfield Springs, N. Y., and at Wilson's 
Collegiate institute, in Rochester, from which he was graduated in 1870. 
Graduating from the university of Rochester in 1874, he read law with 
A. J. Wilkin, and was admitted to the bar at the Rochester general term 
in April, 1877, after which he formed a partnership with Thomas D. 
Wilkin, as Wilkin & Pierce, which continued for ten years. Since tiien 
he has practiced his profession alone. Mr. Pierce is an active Republi- 
can, and since 1878, excepting two years, has been a member of the 
county committee, representing the Fifteenth (formerly the Eleventh) 
ward, and serving as chairman in 1890, 1891, and 1892. He is also a 
member of the West Side Sewer commission, and has always mani- 
fested a deep interest in the prosperit}- of the city. July 25, 1889. ^^^ 
married Miss Nettie, daughter of George M. Sellinger, of Rochester. 



JUDGES AND ATTORNEYS. 459 

Elbridge L. Adams is a son of Hon. William H. Adams, of Canan- 
daigua, N. Y., a justice of the Supreme court and one of the eminent 
lawyers of the state, and was born in that village September 17, 1866. 
He was graduated from Canandaigua Academy in 1882 and from Will- 
iams College in 1887, and is a member of the Delta Psi Fraternity. 
He read law in the office of Smith, Oliver & Smith in Rochester 
and was admitted to the bar in this city in 1889. The same year he 
began the practice of his profession and has since successfully con- 
tinued it. He is a member of the New York State Bar association 
and one of its committee on law reform ; was a charter member of the 
Rochester Bar association, its first secretary, and one of its com- 
mittee on judiciary and legal reform ; and a member of the Genesee 
Valley club and the examining board of Civil service of Rochester. 

Anson Stuart McNab was born in Toronto, Canada, July 17, 1863, 
of Scotch American parents. His parental grandfather was for many 
years prior to his death attorney- general for the province of Nova 
Scotia, and his mother's father was a native of Middlebury, Schoharie 
county, N. Y. His parents both died when he was very young, and he 
was reared and educated by his maternal grandfather. In 1878 he 
moved to Saratoga Springs, N. Y., where he read law in the office of 
Hon. John R. Putnam, now justice of the Supreme court for that dis- 
trict. He subsequently studied with Hon. Amasa J Parker, formerl}' 
judge of the court of Appeals, at Albany, and in the latter part of 1883 
came to Rochester, where he finished his legal studies in the office of 
Hon. John S. Morgan, then county judge of Monroe county. He was 
admitted to the bar October 17, 1884, ^"d has since continued in the 
practice of his profession. His most active attention has been given in 
criminal law. Since his admission he has won five homicide ca-^es, two 
of which were won this year (1895), namely, the Covert murder trial at 
Spencerport, and tlie trial of Patrick Gavin, who was held for the mur- 
der of Howard I. Abbott, at Charlotte. 

Mr. McNab is a member of the Supreme lodge Knights of Pythias of 
the world, and of the Supreme Castle Knights of the Golden P^agle of 
the world, and the present representative of that order for the state of 
New York. He is also a member of Cyrene commandery, K. T., and 
Rochester consistory, 32° .-. of the Masonic fraternity. On March 21, 



460 LANDMARKS OP MONROE COUNTY. 

1888, he married Miss Cora Eliza, youngest daughter of Henry S. 
Hebard, of Rochester, who died August 15, 1895, leaving an infant son, 
Henry Anson. 

Mr. McNab has the reputation of being one (^f the brightest criminal 
lawyers in Western New York, on a number of occasions having been 
called away from home to defend important cases. His power is due 
to oratorical ability, easy manners, fine ph}sique, and great command 
of language, which carry his hearers with him on themes that he 
debates, and makes him a dangerous opi)onent in any contested legal 
proceeding. 

Philetus Chamberlain was born in Rose, Wayne count}', N. Y., April 
14, 1854, and received his education at the Genesee Wesleyan semi- 
nary, of Lima, N. Y., and Syracuse university. Choosing law as his 
profession he began his studies in the office of Martindale 81 Oliver, of 
Rochester, and was admitted to the bar at the general term in October, 
1870. He began practice in this city, and has been more than success- 
ful. He is a leading factor in and a hard worker for the Republican 
party, and is actively identified with a number of charitable societies 
and various other organisations of the city, where he is well and popu- 
larly known. 

Richard E. White was born in Mansfield, Mass., June 12, 1848, and 
in 1855 removed with his parents to the town of Wheatland, Monroe 
county. He received his education in the district schools of that town, 
at Ealley seminary in Fulton, Oswego county, and at the Brockport 
Normal school. He read law in the office of Joseph A. Stull, of Roch- 
ester, and was admitted to the bar at the general term of the Supreme 
court in Buffalo in June, 1875. He immediately began the practice of 
his profession in Rochester, where he has since been eminently success- 
ful. While George A. Benton was district attorney of Monroe county 
Mr. White was associated with him in partnership. He has been an 
elder of St. Peter's Presbyterian church for the past fifteen years and 
clerk of the session for six years. 

Charles Roe is a native of Long Island. He received an education 
at Oberlin college and Johns Hopkins university. He read law in the 
office of Theodore Bacon and J. B. Perkins, attended the Columbia law 
school and was admitted to the bar at New York city in 1883 He 



JUDGES AND ATTORNEYS. 461 

returned to Rochester in 1884 and commenced the practice of law, 
which he has since followed. 

Jacob Spahn was born in the city of Wartzburg, kingdom of Bavaria, 
Germany, February 24, 1849, ^^ military stock and the second son of 
Andrew Spahn, soldier and revolutionist, who was compelled to flee 
from his native land the same year and was himself the son of a veteran 
under Napoleon who survived the retreat from Moscow. He received 
his primary education in the public schools of New York city. The 
elder Spahn was for many years a manufacturer of mouldings, in busi- 
ness with the late overseer of the poor, Joseph Schutte, on State and 
Water streets, prior to 1 875. He settled in Rochester in 1862, where 
Jacob Spahn entered college and graduated from its university in 1870, 
having made his mark to some extent in literature, for in liis junior year 
a sketch, "The Prince Suwarow," which he had written, appeared in 
the Galaxy Magazine. Like his brother, Louis Spahn, of the Chicago 
bar, he secured the first Davis medal of his year for oratory in his class 
on commencement day. During his college course he joined the Theta 
Delta Chi fraternity and was its orator twice in 1873 and 1883. He 
was appointed major and engineer of the 25th Brigade National Guard 
April 21, 1877, by Governor Lucius Robinson. Upon leaving college 
he became a journalist, working successfully upon the staffs of the Union 
and Advertiser and the old Chronicle, whose city editor he became and 
remained until that paper's consolidation with the Democrat in 1872. 
He was admitted to the bar in Buffalo, N. Y, June 21, 1871, after read- 
ing law with Hon. Francis A. Macomber, afterward a justice of the 
Supreme court. In 1878 he became one of the organisers and secre- 
tary of the big Genesee Brewing company at Rochester. At about the 
same time he began to take an interest in local politics and was nomi- 
nated unanimously for member of assembly by the city convention, 
but declined the honor. The same year he was appointed to write and 
deliver the poem before the associate alumni of the university of Roch- 
ester. From 1878 to 1881 he ofificiated as military editor of the Sun- 
day edition of the Democrat and Chronicle. As such he allowed many 
criticisms upon the local military to appear and was in consequence 
court-martialed and cashiered from military rank after a long trial, cov- 
ering thirty sessions of the court, prosecuted against him by Hon. George 



462 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Raines, then the judge advocate ; but he secured a review of the case by 
writ of certiorari froni tlie Supreme court, which reversed tlie sentence 
and reinstated him. From this decision an unsuccessful appeal was 
taken by the adjutant-general. Major Spahn had for a short period 
theretofore ofificiated as temporary judge advocate of the local military 
and is still an officer in the National Guard S. N. Y., having been hon- 
orably retired from active service by order of Adjutant- General Josiah 
Porter in 1886. His court- marshal case now constitutes a precedent 
in military law. He has a commission as colonel. Since his retirement 
from journalism he has written many sketches and done general literary 
work for the magazines, among others the Galaxy, Harper's, Green Bag, 
Albany Law Journal, &c., besides the local papers. His law practice 
is general and mainly confined to Germans, among whom it is very 
extensive and must have been successful because he is a large tax-payer. 
As the oldest practitioner of German extraction in Monroe county he is 
the dean of that nationality among the lawyers. One of his principal 
cases was to defeat the Rochester and Glen Haven Railroad company 
from condemning the premises of Ferdinand Grisbel under the right of 
eminent domain in a proceeding begun in the Supreme court, which is 
always a rare victory under the railroad law. The case is reported in 
14 N. Y. Supplement 848. He also established the pioneer precedent 
in the state with reference to the police powers of cities as to shade 
trees on streets and their removal under city ordinance, in the case of 
Ellison vs. Allen reported in the 6"] State Reporter 274. h'or man}' 
years he has been a discriminating book buyer, and now possesses not 
only a law library containing with one exception every decision pub- 
lished in the state, but one of the largest collections of standard miscel- 
laneous literature in the city. As a tax- payer his frequent denuncia- 
tions of alleged municipal extravagance and mismanagement have fur- 
nished him quite a political following Nominations for office are from 
time to time tendered him by his friends and neighbors, but up to date he 
has shown no inclination for public life. At present he figures as cliair- 
man of a permanent good government club irrespective of party, formed 
from among the leading citizens in the 6th, 8th and i6th wards, and as 
such he was authorised to call a meeting any time for action at tiie 
election polls in these wards. 



JUDGES AND ATTORNEYS. 463 

James S. Garlock was born in Parma, N. Y., January 4, 1836. He 
attended the public schools and later became a student at the Genesee 
Wesleyan Seminary at Lima, N. Y., then entered the Genesee College, 
and later attended the Satterlee & Dexter Collegiate Institute in Roch- 
ester. Upon choosing law as his profession he entered the office of 
Joseph A, Stull, and was admitted to the bar in i860, at which time he 
began to practice in Rochester. In 1863 Mr. Garlock raised a company 
of cavalry for the 24th Regt. New York State Vols., and was mustered 
in as first lieutenant and commissary of the regiment. In 1864 he re- 
signed his office and resumed the practice of his profession. He is re- 
garded as one of the leading attorneys of the county. 

William Butler Crittenden was born in Deerfield, Mass., August 5, 
1 861, at the Memorial hall, which was then Deerfield academy, of which 
his father. Cotton M. Crittenden (formerly librarian of the court of ap- 
peals library at Rochester), was principal. He received his education 
from his father, who moved to Rochester in 1853. He studied law in 
the Boston University law school, was upon the reportorial staff of the 
Boston Journal from 1872 to 1874, and was admitted to the bar in 
1875, at Rochester, N. Y., where he has since practiced his profession. 

Frank J. Hone was born in Rochester, August 9, 1857, ^"d is a son 
of Alexander B. Hone His early education was received in private 
schools of this city ; in 1879 he was graduated from Seton Hall college, 
of South Orange, New Jersey, at which time he began the study of law 
in the office of Rowley & Johnson, of Rochester, and was admitted to 
the bar at the general term in October, 1 881. In 1884 he formed a co- 
partnership for the practice of law with Charles B. Ernst, which has 
since continued, and upoti Mr. Ernst being appointed city attorney Mr. 
Hone was associated with him as assistant city attorney, and while 
holding that position he was acting counsel for the board of park com- 
missioners of Rochester, and of the board of health of this city. Upon 
retiring from the office of assistant city attorney he was appointed at- 
torney of the board of health, which position he still retains. 

John A. Barhite was bom in Auburn, N. Y., January 11, 1857, and 
when quite young moved with his parents to Hopewell, N. Y. He at- 
tended the Canandaigua academy and was graduated in June, 1876. 
Remaining at home until the fall of 1877, he then entered the tini- 



464 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

versity of Rochester, from whicli institution lie was graduated in I 88 1. 
He then read law in the office of Theodore Bacon, of Rochester, and 
was admitted to the bar at the Buffalo general term in 1883. Mr. ]5ar- 
hite is an active worker for the Re[)ublican party and was a delegate to 
the national convention in Minneapolis in 1892. He has held a nuni 
ber of prominent offices and many positions of trust, which, by his ex- 
tensive knowledge of public affairs, he has honorably and efficiently 
filled. lie was a delegate from the old Twenty- eigiith senatorial dis- 
trict, comprising tlie county of Monroe, to the constitutional convention 
in 1894 and is a member of Frank R. Lawrence lodge, F. and A. M., 
Hamilton chapter, and Monroe commandery, KisHngbury lodge. No. 
257, K. of P., the Rochester Whist club, etc. 

Myron T. HI\', son of John E. Bly, was born in Henrietta, Monroe 
county, N. Y. He pre[)ared for college at the Genesee Wesleyan sem- 
inary, and entering the university of Rochester in 1876 was graduated 
in June, 1880 He paid the expenses of his education by his own 
labor. During the first part of his collegiate course he filled a reporter's 
position on the Rochester Morning Herald. Later, he became editor 
of the Sunday Morning Herald, which post-he continued to hoUl unti' 
his graduation. Immediately after graduation he began tiie study of 
law, and was adnn'tted to the Monroe count}' bar in 1882. He began 
to practice in Rochester immediately afterward, and has built up a large 
and lucrative business. Mr. Bly's journaHstic work, originalls' entered 
upon for the purpose of paj'ing college expenses, has produced other 
results. During his senior year in college, besides attending to his col- 
lege work and editing a weekly pa{)er, he contested for and won the 
highest literary prize of the university. While studj'ing law he pre- 
pared a series of articles on " Milling Law and Legislation," which were 
published in the American Miller during the year 1881. In the same 
year he wrote for the American Tanner a serial story entitled " My Tan- 
nerville Client" During the four years from 1885 to 1889 he wrote 
monthly articles for the Boston Fath-Jinder, under the title: "Legal 
Hints for Travelers." He has written two text-bo(jks for use in acade- 
mies. The first, " A Treatise on Business Law," was publish.ed in 1891. 
In 1893 came " Descriptive Economics." The latter has attracted wide 
attention among educators. Mr. Bly is one of the esteemed business 
men of Rochester and is known as a careful, conscientious attorney. 



JUDGES AND ATTORNEYS. 465 

Zachary P. Taylor was born in Oneida county, N. Y., February 8, 
1846, removed with his parents to Clarendon, Orleans county, and was 
educated in the Brockport Collegiate institute, now the State Normal 
school, from which institution he was graduated in 1864. After teach- 
ing school one year he entered the university of Rochester and was 
graduated in 1869. He was then for two and one- half years instructor 
of classics in the Buffalo Central high school, and later held the same 
position in the Central high school of Cleveland, Ohio. In the mean- 
time he read law in the offices of Wadsworth & White, of Buffalo, and 
Judge Jesse P. Bishop, of Cleveland, and was graduated from the Cleve- 
land law school in 1872, being valedictorian of his class, which com- 
prised twenty six members. He was principal of the West and Central 
high schools of Cleveland until 1883, when he came to Rochester as 
principal of the Free academy, which position he acceptably filled until 
the fall of 1886, when he resumed the practice of his profession in Roch- 
ester. He is now senior member of the law firm of Taylor & Marsh. 
Mr. Taylor has been actively identified with the Prohibition party, 
working and speaking for its cause, and was its candidate for state sen- 
ator in 1887, when he received a very flattering vote. He was lay del- 
egate to the general conference of the M. E church held in New York 
city in May, 1888, and was a member of the committee of five which 
prepared a resolution to be submitted to the subordinate conferences as 
to whether women should be admitted as lay representatives to the 
general body. December 29, 1875, he married Miss Mary E , daughter 
of the late Hiram Davis, of Rochester, and they have had four children: 
Mortimer D. (who died August 2, 1892, aged fifteen), and Herbert R., 
Helen, and Marion, aged respectively fourteen, eight, and six years. 

Darius A. Marsh was born in Geneseo, N. Y., December 19, 1866, 
and is a nephew of the late Darius A. Ogden, of Penn Yan, N. Y., who 
was twice appointed minister to Honolulu under Democratic adminis- 
trations. He was graduated from the Geneseo State Normal school in 
1886, being president and valedictorian of his class as well as president 
of the Delphic society, the oldest fraternity of the school. He afterward 
took a special course at the university of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and 
then began the study of law in the office of Judge Solomon Hubbard, 

of Geneseo, and was admitted to the bar, shortly after he became of 
59 



466 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

,age, at Grand Rapids, Mich., where he practiced two years, when he 
came to Rochester and resumed his practice, holding the position of 
managing clerk in the office of Judge George F. Danforth and Henry 
Danforth until January i, 1894. He then became the junior member 
of the firm of Taylor & Marsh, doing business in the German Insurance 
building. Mr, Marsh is attorney for a number of large corporations, 
and is an extensive dealer in real estate. He is a member of Rochester 
lodge, No. 660, F. & A. M., the Rochester Whist club, and the Mon- 
roe County Bar association. Unlike his distinguished uncle, Mr. 
Ogden, Mr. Marsh is a staunch Republican. 

Christopher C. Werner, son of William and brother of Hon. William 
E. Werner, was born in Buffalo, N. Y. , November 27, 1859, and re- 
ceiv^ed his education in the public and select German schools of that 
city. In 1 88 1 he entered the law ofifice of his brother in Rochester and 
was admitted to the bar in January. 1885, at the Buffalo general term. 
He practiced his profession in partnership with Hon. William E. Werner 
until the latter's election to the Supreme court bench in the fall of 1894, 
when he formed his present copartnership with George H. Harris, a 
former student who was admitted from their ofifice, under the firm name 
of Werner & Harris. Mr. Werner is a prominent member of Yonondio 
lodge, No. 165, F. & A. M., Hamilton chapter. No. 62, R. A. M., Mon- 
roe commandery, No. 12, K. T., and Rochester City lodge K. P. 

Merton E. Lewis was born in Webster, Monroe county, Decem- 
ber 10, 1 86 1. He attended the Webster Union school and was 
graduated in 1882. He read law with James B. Perkins, of Rochester, 
and was admitted to the bar in this city in June, 1887. In 1890 he 
was elected alderman of the Sixteenth ward, to fill the vacancy caused 
by the resignation of H. G. Thayer; he was re elected in 1891 as alder- 
man of the Eighteenth ward, and in 1895 became mayor on the resig- 
nation of George W. Aldridge. In 1886 he married Adeline L. Moody, 
of Webster, N. Y, who died June 9, 1894, leaving two sons, Donald 
and Roscoe. He was elected president of the common council in 1894, 
and is also president of the Riverside Cemetery association. His father, 
who was born in New Jersey in 1 826, and now resides with his son in this 
city, was one of the early settlers of Wayne county. Merton E. Lewis 
was elected delegate to the national convention in 1 894, and is the 
senior member of the law firm of Lewis & Jack. 



JUDGES AND ATTORNEYS. 467 

Lewis H. Jack, born August 24, 1869, in Livonia, Livingston county, 
was graduated from Genesee Wesleyan seminary in 1889. In April, 
1890, he came to Rochester and began the study of law in the office of 
Sullivan & Morris, and was admitted June 9, 1-892, at the Buffalo gen- 
eral term. He practiced his profession alone in Rochester about one 
year, and in October, 1893, formed a partnership with Hon. Merton E. 
Lewis, as Lewis & Jack, which still continues. His practice has been 
successful and varied. The first year he defended his first criminal case 
and secured the acquittal of Patrick O'Hara, who was indicted for the 
murder of John Theiss. Since then he has successfully conducted sev- 
eral criminal and civil cases. Mr. Jack is a member of Yonondio 
lodge, No. 163, F. & A. M., Col. J P. Cleary camp. Sons of Veterans, 
and of Walioo tribe, L O. R. M. His father, John Jack, enlisted in Co. 
C, 36th N. Y. Vols., in 1861, and served until the war closed, being 
promoted second lieutenant after the battle at Gettysburg, and being 
transferred from the iith Army Corps, Army of the Potomac, to Sher- 
man's army, with which he marched to the sea. 

Charles A. Keeler was born in Rockford, 111., July 7, 1846, and when 
quite young came to Western New York with his parents, where he re- 
ceived a preliminary education. He entered the Genesee Wesleyan 
seminary at Lima, and took a special course preparatory to the study 
of law. He read law with Judge Homer A. Nelson, afterwards secre- 
tary of state, of Poughkeepsie, N. Y., and later with C. H. Holmes, of 
Albion, N. Y., and was admitted to the bar in Buffalo, general term, in 
1867. He began the practice of his profession at Albion the same year, 
and in 1870 he was appointed clerk of the Orleans county Surrogate's 
court, which position he faithfully filled for seven years, when he re- 
ceived the nomination for district attorney, and was elected by a large 
majority. He held that office until 1881, and in 1880 was appointed 
by Gov. Lucius Robinson a member of the board of managers of the 
Batav^ia Blind asylum, but never acted as such. He removed to Roch- 
ester in 1882, and in 1893 became the senior member of the law firm 
of Keeler & Marsh with offices in the Chamber of Commerce building. 
He was employed as special counsel in building the bridge across the 
Ohio river at Cairo, 111., and the bridge at Memphis, Tenn., across the 
Mississippi, and also the bridge at Alton, 111., and many other large 



468 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

public and railroad works in several states and Canada. He is a thirty- 
second degree Mason, being a member of Yonondio lodge, F. & A. M., 
and Rochester consistory and Damascus Temple. 

Ednor A. Marsh, son of Albert L., was born in West Sparta, Living- 
ston county, N. Y., and when an infant removed with his parents to 
Geneseo, where he received his rudimentary education. He was grad- 
uated from the Genesee Wesleyan seminary in Lima, in 1887, being at 
the time class orator and president of the Lyceum society. He read 
law in the offices of Judge Solomon Hubbard, of Geneseo, and Keeler 
& Salisbury, of Rochester, and was admitted to the bar in 1890. The 
same year he commenced the practice of his profession in partnership 
with C. J. Browning, in Rochester, with whom he remained until Janu- 
ary I, 1890, when he was appointed surrogate's clerk, and after accept- 
ably serving in that capacity for two years, he resigned to accept the 
appointment of deputy county clerk, which position he held until the 
spring of 1893, when he became a member of the law firm of Keeler, 
Salisbury & Marsh. This partnership was dissolved in April, 1895, by 
the retirement of Mr. Salisbury, and since then the firm has been styled 
Keeler & Marsh. Mr. Marsh is a prominent attorney, and is regarded 
as one of the leaders of the Republican party in Monroe county He 
was one of the organisers and the first president of the Young Men's 
Republican league, and held that office two terms. He is a member of 
Rochester lodge. No. 660, F. & A. M., the Rochester Whist club, and 
the Rochester Athletic club. 

James E. Briggs was born April 22, 1835, ^t Willianistown, Vt. His 
ancestors were of Puritan stock, coming to this country among the 
earliest emigrants to the Massachusetts Bay colony. His grandparents 
were Amasa Briggs, and Rhoda Wright, his wife. His father was 
James W. Briggs, recently deceased in Rochester, and among his 
relatives were Silas Wright, governor of New York and United States 
senator, and Governor Briggs of Massachusetts. The subject of this 
sketch was the oldest of nine children. His early education was in the 
common schools and at the Newbury seminary and Collegiate institute, 
where he fitted to enter college in the junior year. At this time, No- 
vember, 1856, he was induced to accept the position of principal of the 
Arsenal street school, VVatertown, N. Y. He was then twenty- one 



JUDGES AND ATTORNEYS. 469 

years of age, and filled the position for five years, devoting all his spare 
time to the study of law. When, in the fall of 1861, the second call for 
volunteers was made, Mr. Briggs resigned his position in the high school 
and raised Co. H, 94th N. Y. Vols., and was mustered in as captain. 
In March, 1862, after passing the winter in drill at Sackett's Harbor, 
N. Y., he left with his regiment for the front. The train conveying the 
regiment jumped the track at Tivoli on the Hudson river division of the 
N. Y. C. & H. R. R. R., and fell into the river. Captain Briggs was 
among the injured, and was left at the New York city hospital. He 
soon joined the regiment at Washington, which had then been ordered 
to Alexandria to guard that city, of which he had been appointed 
provost marshal. McClellan's army was then reorganising and moving 
to Fortress Monroe via transports from Alexandria, and the captain's 
duties were without cessation night or day until he was taken with 
typhoid fever in April, 1862, and recovered consciousness in the general 
hospital ten days later. After his partial recovery he again joined the 
regiment in the Shenandoah valley, and was put on regimental and 
general court martial duty until August, 1862. Then he was obliged 
to resign, chronic diarrhoea and ulceration of the bowels following the 
fever. In October, 1863, still suffering from the disease, he attended 
Albany law school, graduated in May, 1864, when he went to Newark, 
Wayne county, and entered upon the practice of law, which he con- 
tinued with uniform success until 1883. In 1879 he was appointed gen- 
eral manager and treasurer of the Ontario Southern railroad, of which 
he had been the attorney for seven years, from its construction. After 
the sale of the railroad he organized the Lawyers Co-operative Publish- 
ing company, of which he became president. This company has ex- 
pended over $200,000 per year in the publication of law books for the 
last twelve years. 

In 1858 he was married to Marcia Hebard, of Randolph, Vt., who 
died in September, 1884. They had five children, of whom four are 
living, all in Rochester, viz.: William H., John S., Benjamin R., and 
Susan M. Harlan H. died in 1878, aged six years. 

In September, 1886, he married Mrs. Susan B. Seeley, his present 
wife. With his wife and three younger children he lives at No. ^2 
Lake View Park, Rochester, N. Y, 



470 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Mr. BrigL,fs has never accepted political office, although often offered 
it, and notwithstanding a constant and lively interest in all that pertains 
to good government. His close attention to business and uniform per- 
sistence and success in what he has undertaken has resulted in the 
accumulation of a competence which consists largely in real estate. He 
is actively engaged in the development of the International, North and 
South American Tran.sportation and Express company organised in 
Maine in January, 1895, but with headquarters established in Roches- 
ter, and of which he has been elected president. Its capital stock is 
five million dollars and its offices are in the new Chamber of Commerce 
building. 

Charles M. Allen was born in Rochester, X, V., October 9, 1845, and 
was graduated from the Rochester High school in 1863, at which time 
he entered the univer.sity of Rochester, from which he was graduated 
with high honors in 1867. He then attended the law school of Phila- 
delphia for one j'ear, when he commenced the study of law in the office 
of Hon. William Farrer, of Rochester. He was admitted to the bar at 
the Rochester general term in December, 1868, and immediately began 
the practice of his profession. He has been in constant and successful 
practice in this city, and has been attorney for the Genesee National 
Savings and Loan association since March, 1892. This association was 
incorporated in March, 1891, and considering its age has developed into 
one of the most extensive and successful fiduciary organisations in the 
state, representing a subscribed capital stock of $2,000,000. Mr. Allen 
has passed all the chairs in the I. O. O. F , is a member of the Roch- 
ester Whist club and the Bar association, and has been treasurer of Ideal 
Union, No. 592 E. A. U., since its inception in 1887. He is the son of 
the late Newel Allen, D. D. S., the oldest dentist, at the time of his 
death in 1878, in Western New York. 

Daniel W, Forsyth was born in Caledonia, September 22, 1856. He 
received his early education in his native town and later became a stu- 
dent at the Geneseo Normal school, after which he entered the Bennett 
Medical college, where, in 1880, he received the degree of M. D. He 
practiced medicine at Hammond, Indiana, where he was coroner of Lake 
county in 1878-9, and afterwards at Dowagiac, Mich , where he was 
elected city treasurer. He then began the study of law, was in 1884 



JUDGES AND ATTORNEYS. * 471 

admitted to the bar in Michigan, and two years afterwards, upon ex 
amination, became an attorney and counsellor-at-law in New York- 
state, located in Rochester, where he has since practiced his profession. 
He is a member of the law firm of Forsyth Brothers, who have a wide 
reputation as lawyers. In 1887 he was appointed assistant district at- 
torney of Monroe county, under George A. Benton, district attorney ; 
in 1 89 1 he was nominated and elected school commissioner of the Eighth 
ward, which ofifice he held until the passage of the Twentieth ward bill 
by the legislature in 1892, which terminated his service as school com- 
missioner. In the spring of that year he was elected alderman of the 
Ninteenth ward and served one term. Owing to the inability of his 
brother, George D. Forsyth, district attorney, he was appointed special 
district attorne}-, and acted from January to July, 1895. During that 
period he had charge of two noted murder trials, that of Gavin, who 
was charged with the murder of young Abbott at Charlotte, and that of 
Gallo, the Italian murderer,, who was convicted and afterwards sentenced 
to death. 

Harvey F. Remington. — Prominent among the younger members of 
the Monroe county bar and well and favorably known in Western New 
York is Harve\' F. Remington. His ancestors emigrated from York- 
shire, England, in 1637, settling in Newbury, Mass., and the descend- 
ants of John Remington, the first settler, are very numerous; one of 
the number, Jonathan, was for many years a justice of the Supreme 
court of the state of Massachusetts. Others have held positions upon 
the bench and filled honorable places at the bar, in the pulpit, the press, 
the medical profession, in commercial pursuits, and in fact in ail worthy 
avocations. Frederic Remington, the artist, a son of a former editor of 
the Albany Express, is a cousin of the subject of this sketch. Mr. 
Remington was born in Henrietta, Monroe county, June 28, 1863, ^"^^ 
is a son of the late William T. Remington, who was born in a log house 
in, Henrietta that his father, Alvah Remington, erected when he emi- 
grated from Vermont in 1 8 17. Harvey F. Remington was educated in 
the common schools, at the Geneseo State Normal school, and at the 
law department of Union university, graduating in 1 887. He was at 
once admitted to the bar and opened an office in the Ehvood building in 
Rochester with the late Hon. Alfred Ely, which office he still occupies. 



472 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Having from boyhood had a taste for pohtics, Mr. Remington has fre- 
quently been a delegate to state and other party conventions, and often 
a presiding officer, and he has enjoyed the friendship and confidence of 
prominent officials irrespective of party for years. In 1891, during a 
warm local contest in the Sixteenth ward, then containing nearly one- 
fourth of the population of Rochester, he was induced to make a canvass 
for the nomination for supervisor, and after the most exciting caucus 
ever held in Rochester, lasting an entire day, at which over 1,500 votes 
were cast, he was nominated and later elected supervisor. He served 
one year, and was elected a member of the board of education, resign- 
ing this position to accept the apppointment of second assistant city at- 
torney under Hon. C. D. Kiehel. He filled this position for two years 
and upon the election of Hon. A. J. Rodenbeck as corporation counsel 
he was made first assistant, succeeding Mr. Rodenbeck in that position. 
Mr. Remington is largely interested in suburban property, and is actively 
engaged in church and mission work. He is a member of the First Bap- 
tist church and a trustee of the West Brighton Chapel society. He is 
also affiliated with the Masonic and other fraternal societies, and is a 
member of the State Bar Association and the Rochester Bar Associa- 
tion. He married Agnes, daughter of Thomas Brodie, of Caledonia, 
N. Y., in 1889, and four children are the result of this union. He resides 
on Reservoir avenue, in a residence which overlooks the city from the 
Highland Park range of hills, and it is evident that here in a happy home 
he finds the keenest enjoyment in life, for his is a home in its broadest 
sense. 

Edward W. Maurer was born in Rochester, N. Y., April 17, 1858^ 
was graduated from the university of Rochester in 1877, and in the fall 
of the same year entered the university of Goettingen, Germany, where 
he remained for over two years. In 1880 he returned to America and 
entered the law office of ex-Congressman (now justice of the Supreme 
court) John M. Davy, and was admitted to the bar in the spring of 
1882. He then formed a partnership with Mr. Davy, which continued 
until 1886, when he opened an office alone for the practice of the law. 
In 1887 he was elected member of assembly on the Republican ticket. 
He is a member of the Central Presbyterian church. His father was 
one of the oldest grocery merchants in this city, and died in 1892, his 



JUDGES AND ATTORNEYS. 473 

place of business being at 149 East Main street. His moiher is still 
living in the old homestead, 67 North Clinton street, in Rochester. 
Mr, Maurer's offices are at Nos. 416, 417 and 418 Ellwanger & Barry- 
building. 

Isaac R. Ellvvood was born at Herkimer, in the Mohawk valley, N. 
Y., in 1800, and received a common school education. He descended 
from an ancient German family, of which one branch settled in England 
many generations ago. To this branch belonged Thomas Ell wood, the 
Quaker, reader and friend to the blind poet, John Milton. Our sub- 
ject's grandfather, Richard Ellvvood, of German extraction, came to 
America from England in 1748, and soon afterward settled in the town 
of Minden, Montgomery county, in the Mohawk valley. He was a 
mason by trade, and an old stone house near St. Johnsville still stands 
to attest his handiwork. His son, Richard Ellwood, jr., father of Isaac 
R., was born in England, and had attained the age of six years when 
the family came to this country. He was a farmer in the Mohawk 
valley, and married a Miss Bell, by whom he had six children, Isaac R. 
being the youngest. John Elwood, a younger brother of Richard, jr., 
settled in Canada and changed the orthography of the name from Ell- 
wood to Elwood, which was originally EUwoode. 

The following incident relative to the mother of Mrs. Richard Ell- 
wood, jr., appears in the Documentary History of New York, Vol. I., 
p. 522. During the French and Indian war, when an attack from the 
Indians was imminent, Captain Herchamer issued orders calling upon 
all settlers to take refuge within Fort Herkimer. By an oversight 
Mrs Bell and her family were left unwarned. They were surprised, her 
husband and two children were killed, and an infant's brains dashed 
out, while she herself was scalped and left for dead, her nose being 
also nearly cut off. Her then unborn child became in course of time 
the mother of the subject in this memoir. Mrs. Bell suffered severely 
from the shock, and was several times at the point of death before she 
recovered. 

Isaac R. Elwood, who adopted the spelling of the name as modified 
by his uncle, was reared on the paternal farm amid the Dutch settle- 
ments of the famous Mohawk valley. About 1830 he came to Roches- 

60 



474 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

ter, where he not onlj' spent the remainder of his Hfe, but wliich was 
destined to become the scene of his active and useful career. After 
studying law and being admitted to the bar he practiced his profession 
in partnership with those two distinguished brother jurists, Samuel L. 
and Henry R. Selden, for several years, acquiring eminent success and 
a wide reputation. Possessing a profound knowledge of legal literature, 
and endowed with great ability and sound judgment, he was recognized 
as an able lawyer and trusty counsellor. Originally a Democrat and 
subsequently a Republican in politics he always manifested a keen inter- 
est in public affairs, and in 1838 officiated as clerk of the common coun- 
cil. Afterward he was clerk of the New York state senate for two 
sessions, and at the outbreak of the war of the Rebellion he took a 
prominent part in supporting the Union cause. But in the midst of 
this struggle, on February 27, 1863, he died at his home in .this city 
from injuries received in a runaway accident, widely respected and 
esteemed. To his memory his eldest child and only son, Frank Wor- 
cester Elwood, erected in 1879 the handsome and substantial Elwood 
building on the historic northeast corner of State and Main streets. 

It was as one of the founders of the Western Union Telegraph com- 
pany, however, that Mr. Elwood acquired a name which imperishably 
stands upon the annals of time. When this great corporation was 
formed by the consolidation of lines which then covered thirteen states 
of the union he was retained as an attorney, and in that capacity drew 
all the papers which started the enterprise and placed it upon a success- 
ful working basis. He was also made its first secretary and treasurer 
and held those positions until his death in 1863, his office being in 
Rochester. 

As a citizen Mr. Elwood was endowed with the highest qualifications, 
and in both public and private life he was esteemed for his many noble 
characteristics. He was a public benefactor. All movements of a 
worthy nature met with his generous support and encouragement. He 
traveled extensively, and being a close observer acquired a large fund 
of valuable information. In 1839 he made an extended tour of Europe 
and kept a journal of rare interest. In 1849 ^^^ was married to Miss 
Elizabeth Handy Gold, third child of William Erskine and Caroline 



JUDGES AND ATTORNEYS. 473a 

(Handy) Gold, of Pittsfield, Mass. Her father was a lawyer. Her 
mother was a daughter of Abigail Rosewell Saltonstall and Dr. William 
Handy, of New York.. Abigail was a daughter of Rosewell Saltonstall, 
seventh son of Gurdon Saltonstall (son of Governor Gurdon Saltonstall, 
of Connecticut) and Rebeckah Winthrop, of New London, who was a 
daughter of John Winthrop and Ann Dudley. Ann Dudley was a 
daughter of Governor Joseph Dudley, of Massachusetts, lieutenant gov- 
ernor of the Isle of Wight, and first chief justice of New York ; he was 
a son of Thomas Dudley, governor of Massachusetts, 1 576-1653, first 
major-general of Massachusetts, and a direct descendant of John Sut- 
ton, first baron of Dudley, and first of the Dudleys who were dukes of 
Northumberland and earls of Warwick and Leicester.' Mrs. Isaac R. 
Elwood was also a relative of the poet Longfellow's second wife. She 
died September 10, 1869, leaving three children, viz.: P'rank Worcester, 
of Rochester; Mrs. Arthur L. Devens, of Boston; and Mrs. Ludwig 
Klipfel, whose husband is a captain in the Prussian arm)-. Mrs. Klipfel 
died in January, 1895. 

Frank Worcester Elwood- was born in Rochester. N. Y., April 4, 1850, 
son of Isaac R. Elwood. He was educated in private schools. At the 
age of fourteen he went abroad and spent two years in studying Italian, 
French and German. Returning to America he continued his studies 
under various eminent teachers, entered Hobart college at the age of 
nineteen and left at the end of his sophomore year to enter Harvard' 
college, from which he was graduated as A.B. in 1874. During his stu- 
dent life he was a member of a nimiber of college societies. He re- 
ceived the degree of LL. B. from Columbia college in 1 877, was admitted 
to the bar the same year, and practiced law in tiie office of Judge Dan- 
forth in Rochester till 1879, when he erected the Elwood Memorial 
building as a memorial to his father. He was engaged in the stock 
brokerage business under the firm name of Frank W. Elwood & Co., 
from 1881 to 1884, inclusive, when he resumed the practice of his pro- 



1 Vide " .Sutton-Diulleys of Enschmrl," by Geoi^i-' .Arnold; London, John Russell Smith, 3(1 
Soho Square, 18()'2. 

2 For family ancestry, see preceding sketch of Isaac R. Elwood. 



474a LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

fession and the care of his real estate, which he has since continued. 
Mr. Elwood was formerly president of the Rochester club, and is now 
vice-president of the Rochester Historical society, a member of the 
board of managers of the Genesee Valley club, vestryman of St. Paul's 
Episcopal church, trustee of the Riverside Cemetery association and of 
the Chamber of Commerce, and member of the board of park commis- 
sioners. In 1835 ^1^ married Frederica H., daughter of Fr.derick 
Pumpell)', of Owego, Tioga county, and they have one daughter, 
Dorothy. 

William Martin Jones was born in Onondaga county, N. Y., July 24, 
1841, and is a son of Thomas P. and Lodoiska (Butler) Jones. He was 
a young child when his parents removed to Monroe county and a boy 
of tender years when they made a second removal to Orleans county. 
At an early age he attended the village schools and later entered Albion 
academy, where he began to fit himself for Yale college. He had been 
but a year in the academy, when he accepted a position in it as assist- 
ant teacher, and was engaged with his classes when the civil war opened. 
He finished his preparation for college at John Hopkins school in New 
Haven, Conn., but never entered upon a college course. He became 
acquainted with Major-General Edwin D. Morgan, "war governor" of 
New York, soon after |^his election to the United States senate, and 
for two years Mr. Jones was with him in Washington as his private sec- 
retary. His acquaintance with Secretary Seward ripened into intimacy, 
and after the adjournment of congress in 1864 he filled the position of 
private secretary to William H. Seward and his son, PVederick A. Sew- 
ard, in the department of state for several weeks, and until his efficiency 
won for him the promotion to the post of chief clerk of the consular 
bureau. In 1866 Mr. Jones resigned his position and was immediately 
appointed by President Johnson to be United States consul at Clifton, 
Canada. He remained in the consulship exactly five years. During 
the comparative leisure of these five years he read law, and upon his 
retirement from office established himself at Rochester, was admitted 
to the bar, and has successfully practiced his profession ever since. 



JUDGES AND ATTORNEYS. 475 

Fred Ebert Drake, born in Ravenna, Ohio, November 17, 1857, i^ ^ 
lineal descendant on his mother's side from Rev. Thomas Hooker, a 
celebrated New England divine, and the founder of the city of Hart- 
ford, Conn., who was born in England about 1586, emigrated with his 
congregation to Hartford in 1636, and died July 7, 1649. The line of 
descent is, (i) Rev. Thomas Hooker, (2) Samuel Hooker, (3) Joseph 
Hooker, (4) Joseph Hooker, jr., (5) Mary Hooker (who married Rev. John 
Eastman), (6) Elias Eastman, (7) Jane A. Eastman (who married Prof. 
John A. Drake), and (8) F, E. Drake. The family was prominent in 
New England history, and numbers among its members the Ingersolls, 
Fowlers, and many other notable representatives. When an infant F. 
E. Drake moved with his parents to Medina, Mich., where he received 
his earlier education at the Oak Grove academy, of which his father, 
Prof. John A. Drake, was principal. In 1870 he removed with his 
parents to a farm in the town of Howard, Steuben county, N. Y , and 
later attended the Canisteo and Haverling (Bath) academies. In 1879 
he entered the law office of William Rumsey, now justice of the Supreme 
court, at Bath, and remained there until August, 188 1, when he became 
managing clerk for Judge William E. Bonham at Hornellsville, where 
he finished his legal studies. Admitted to the bar at the Buffalo gen- 
eral term in June, 1882, he began practice in partnership with Perrj' J. 
Hallett, at Canisteo, N. Y., and continued one year, and October i, 
1883, he came to Rochester, an entire stranger, and for six months 
occupied offices with the late Joseph A. Eastman. Following this he 
was for two years managing clerk for George H. Humphrey, and in 
April, 1887, formed a partnership with George T. Parker, as Parker & 
Drake, to which G. Force Parker was admitted in 1891, when the firm 
became Parker. Drake & Parker. G. F. Parker retired in 1894. The 
firm was dissolved by the death of G. T. Parker, May 31, 1895. ^^ 
August, 1895, he associated with himself George E. Milliman, a prom- 
ising young lawyer, who had been managing clerk in his fjffice a lew 
years before, forming the firm of Drake & Milliman. Mr Drake is a mem- 
ber of the West Side Improvement association, the Rochester Chess 
club, the Columbia Rifle and Pistol club, and the Church club. Sep- 
tember 25, 1888, he married Fannie B. Gregory, daughter of Capt. John 
Gregory, of Rochester, and they have one son, John Eastman Drake. 



476 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Willis K. Gillette was born in Milford, Otsego county, N. Y., April 25, 
1866. His father, Rev. Charles Gillette, a Presbyterian clergyman, 
held pastorates in New York city, Fort Co\'ington, Franklin county 
(fourteen years), Mannsville (four years), and Red Creek (three years), 
and in 1877 moved to Rochester, where he died December 9, 1887, 
aged seventy- four. Willis K. received his rudimentary education in 
No. 3 and 15 schools of this city and was graduated from the Rochester 
Free academy in 1884. After filling a position as reporter on the Post 
Express for a short time he began the study of law in the office of Sulli- 
van & Morris and finished with Hon. Alfred Ely, and was graduated 
from the law department of the university of Michigan at Ann Arbor 
in 1891. He was admitted to the bar of this state at Rochester in Oc- 
tober of the same year and immediately commenced the practice of his 
profession in the offices of Hon. Alfred Ely and H. F. Remington, where 
he has since remained. He has been somewhat active in politics since 
attaining his majority, and since 1893 has represented the Third ward in 
the board of education. He is a staunch Republican and an able and 
conscientious worker for the welfare of his party. 

Selden S. Brown, son of D. D. S. 13rown, was born at Scottsville, 
Monroe county, October 23, 1855. By attending the public schools 
of his native village and the Rochester Collegiate institute he was well 
fitted for the higher studies of the university of Rochester, from which 
he graduated in 1879. After a course of legal study in the law office 
of Messrs. Hubbell & McGuire, of Rochester, Mr. Brown was admitted 
to the bar in 1882, and the same year opened an ofiice in that city. 
He has since been an active worker in his profession, being prominent 
both as an ofiice attorney and as a speaker before a jury. Mr. Brown 
continues to reside in Scottsville, where he is school trustee and senior 
warden of Grace church. He resides in a house recently built by him 
on a part of the Brown homestead farm on the northwest corner of 
Ikown's avenue and Maple avenue. Mr. Brown is also one of the 
railroad commissioners of the^ town of Wheatland, having been ap- 
pointed to succeed his father at the time of his father's death. 

Frederick F. Church, of the law firm of Church & Church, of Washing- 
ton, D. C, and Rochester, N. Y., was born at Alexandria, Va., May 4, 
1864. About 1 87 1 he moved with his parents to Washington, where 



JUDGES AND ATTORNEYS. 477 

he received his preparatory education. In 1886 he was graduated from 
the Columbian law school with the degree of LL. B., and the same 
year was admitted to the bar of the Supreme court of the District of 
Columbia. In 1887 he took a post-graduate course in that institution 
and received the degree of LL. M.; in 1889 he was admitted to prac- 
tice in the courts of this state, the previous year having opened an office 
in Rochester, where he has since resided. In 1894 he was admitted to 
practice in the Supreme Court of the United States. His practice is 
confined exclusively to the U. S. courts and comprises patent and trade 
mark law. He is a member of the legal ffaternity of the Phi Delta Phi, 
the Genesee Valley and Rochester Athletic clubs, and the Rochester 
Bar association. He is also standing examiner of the U. S. Circuit 
court. 

William T. Plumb was born in Lewis county, N. Y., September 14, 
1867, where he received his rudimentary education. He removed with 
his parents to Rochester and entered the Free academy, and upon 
graduation received a scholarship to the university of Rochester, from 
which he was graduated with honor in 1887, taking the Townsend 
scholarship. Choosing law as his profession, Mr. Plumb began his 
studies in the office of Shuart & Sutherland, and was admitted to the 
bar at the general term at Rochester in October, 1893. He has suc- 
cessfully built up a large and lucrative practice. In January, 1895, 
Mr. Plumb was appointed by Mayor Lewis secretary of the Civil 
Service board. He is a member of the Psi Upsilon and Phi Beta Kappa 
fraternities and the Rochester Athletic club. 

Alvin Block was born in Rochester, N. Y., April 30, 1862, where he 
attended the public schools and later became a student at the Rochester 
Free academy, from which he was graduated in 1880. He then en- 
tered the office of Fanning & Williams for the purpose of studying law, 
and later the office of Charles M. Allen, from which he was admitted to 
the bar in 1885. In 1885-86 Mr. Block represented the Twelfth ward 
as a member of the board of supervisors, which has won for him a 
large practice. 

Everett O. Gibbs, son of Warren S., who came to Rochester about 
i860, was born in this city April I, 1870. He was educated in the 
public schools of Rochester and Syracuse, and later was under the 



478 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

private tutelage of Prof. E. M. Sparling. In September, 1887, he en- 
tered the office of ex-Judge P. B. Hulett for the study of law, and was 
admitted to the bar at the Rochester general term, March 30, 1893. 
The same year he formed a partnership with his preceptor, under the 
firm name of Hulett & Gibbs, which still continues. He is a member 
of the Flour City J^emocracy, and one of the rising young attorneys of 
Rochester. 

Edward Arthur Keenan was born at East Bloomfield, Ontario 
county, N. Y., August i, 1861. Receiving his rudimentary education 
in his native town he became a student at the Genesee Wesleyan semi- 
nary, from which institution he was graduated with honor in June, 1877. 
He engaged in teaching in the public schools, and in the spring of 1889 
entered the office of William W. Mumford, of Rochester, N. Y., as a 
student at law. He was admitted to the bar at the general term in the 
fall of 1892, and immediately afterwards formed a co-partnership with his 
brother-in-law, Judge John M. Murphy, for the practice of general law, 
which still continues. 

George W. Lamb was born in New London, Conn., in August, 1840. 
His early schooling was received at Pcnfield, Monroe county, after 
which, on account of an accident, he was obliged to finish his education 
at home under the instruction of his sister. He became a law student 
in the office of John W. Willson, at Penfield, and was admitted to the 
bar in 1867. He is well known throughout this section of the state on 
account of his extensive practice as pension attorney. He practiced in 
Penfield and Fairport, N. Y., each two years, and since 1871 in Roch- 
ester. He is a Mason, and is prominently identified with various other 
organizations. 

Earl B. Putnam, son of the late George Putnam, was born in Water- 
ville, N. Y., where he resided until 1881, when he moved to Rochester. 
He was a graduate of Harvard college in 1879, and in 1880-81 studied 
law at the Columbia college law school, after which he read law with 
Hon. Martin W. Cooke, of Rochester, and was admitted to the bar in 
1882 from the office of Cooke & Pond, where he remained as managing 
clerk until 1883. Until 1888 he practiced alone, at which time he 
formed a partnership with George F. Slocum, which has continued up 
to the present time. During Mr. Putnam's residence in Rochester he 



JUDGES AND ATTORNEYS. 479 

was director and secretary of the Silver Lake Ice company, director of 
the Silver Lake railroad and of the Union bank of Rochester, trustee 
of the Society for the Organization of Charity, vestryman of St. Paul's 
Protestant Episcopal church, member of the New York State Bar asso- 
ciation. Genesee Valley club. Whist club and Kent club. October 17, 
1882, he married Grace Williams Tower, daughter of the late Charle- 
magne Tower, of Philadelphia. 

Aldice Gardner Warren was born in South Sodus, Wayne county, 
N. Y., February 17, 1862. Receiving a common school education in 
his native town he entered the Rochester Free academy, from which 
he was graduated in 1879. He then entered the university of Roches- 
ter and received the degree of A. B. in 1883. He read law in the 
offices of J. & Q. Van Voorhis, and was admitted to the bar at the 
Rochester general term in April, 1885. He has since practiced his 
profession in this city. He is a thirty-second degree Mason, being a 
member of Genesee Falls lodge, No. 507, F. & A. M., of Monroe 
commandery, No. 12, K. T., and^ of Rochester consistory, having been 
master of Rochester Council Princes of Jerusalem. He is also a mem- 
ber of the local chapter of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity and was 
for four years secretary of the D. K. E. club of the city of Rochester. 
He is president of the Mutual Life association of New York city. 

Andrew Ludolph was born in Rochester, N. Y., May 16, 1864. 
When a few months old his father died and Mr. Ludolph was adopted 
by the late Colonel Klinck, with whom and with other members of the 
family he lived until seventeen years of age. He attended No. 15 
school, and in 1887 began the study of law in the office of Satterlee & 
Yeoman. He was admitted to the bar at the Rochester general term 
in October, 1891. In the spring of that year he was appointed man- 
aging clerk in the city attorney's office and filled that position for two 
years, when he entered into partnership with Arthur Warren, under the 
firm name of Ludolph & Warren, for the general practice of law, with 
offices in the Granite building. He is a member of Yonondio lodge, 
No. 163, F. and A. M., and for several years was prominently con- 
nected with the Rochester Athletic club. 

John H. Chadsey was born in the village of Ballston Spa, Saratoga 
county, N. Y., March i, 184$, the eldest son of Dr. Alonzo J. Chadsey, 



480 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

a well known and eminent physician of that county. He was educated 
in private and public schools, and at eleven years of age removed to 
Schenectady, where he attended the preparatory school in the old 
Union college building, and graduated from the classical department at 
the age of sixteen years ; attending the county institute, he received a 
certificate to teach any common school in Schenectady county. The 
war of the Rebellion breaking out, he enlisted in Co. A, I32d Regt. 
N. Y. Vols., but was not mustered in the service on account of being 
under the required age. After leaving school he was a clerk in his 
uncle's store for two years, and then removed to New York city and 
entered the office of the famous lawyer, John Graham, esq., as a student 
at law, and at the age of twenty-one years was admitted to the bar, 
Hon. Elbridge T. Gerry being one of the examiners. He remained 
with Mr. Graham nearly five years thereafter, and was, in May, 1870, 
employed as an assistant to Messrs. John Graham and Elbridge T. 
Gerry, the counsel for the prisoner in the celebrated trial of Daniel 
McFarland, for the killing of Albert D. Richardson, in the Tribune 
office, in the city of New York, He took a course in political economy 
and debate at the Cooper institute, and was vice-president of the Cary 
Political Science society. In February, 1 871, he removed to St. Mary's, 
Kansas, and became a partner in the firm of Sedgwick & Chadsey, in 
the land, law and insurance business, and had exclusive charge of the 
law department ; returning east in December of the same year he was 
married to Miss Emma J. Covey, youngest daughter of Alva Covey, of 
Penfield, Monroe county. In 1873 he moved to Penfield and opened 
a law office at Fairport, which he afterwards removed to Rochester, re- 
taining his residence at Penfield until 1891, when he removed to the 
city of Rochester, He has been constantly engaged in the practice of 
law, is well known, and has an extensive practice in Monroe county and 
vicinity; he has been a member of the Masonic fraternity for years, 
and is past master of Penfield Union lodge, F. and A. M. In politics 
he is a Republican, casting his first presidential vote for U. S. Grant in 
1868; he was a member of the Republican county committee of 
Monroe county for four years, two of which he was treasurer of said 
committee. 



JUDGES AND ATTORNEYS. 481 

Herbert J. Menzie was born at Riga, N. Y., June 19, 1862. He at- 
tended the public schools of his native town and later became a student 
at the Brockport Normal school, from which he was graduated in 1881. 
He then entered the university of Rochester and was graduated from 
that institution in 1886, reciving the degree of B. A., winning the senior 
mathematical prize (Stoddard medal), being one of the commencement 
speakers, and being elected a member of Phi Beta Kappa fraternity. 
From 1886 to 1888 he was principal of the 17th district school of Mil- 
waukee, Wis., and while there received a state life certificate for teach- 
ing. He then entered the law department of Yale college and remained 
one year, when he came to Rochester and began the study of his chosen 
profession in the office of McNaughton & Taylor. He was admitted to 
the bar in 1890, and since then he has practiced law in this city, where 
he has been successful. He is a member of Rochester lodge. No. 
660, F. and A. M., the Alpha Delta Phi, and of the Phi Delta Phi legal 
fraternity. 

Scott Cummings was born in 1852 in Cattaraugus county, this state. 
His education was derived from the common schools, and a few terms 
at an academy, in connection with special courses of study. His father, 
John T. Cummings. was a man of excellent mind, character, and intelli- 
gence. The son inherited the disposition for general reading, and early 
acquired this wholesome habit, so that his education came largely from 
self-help. Mr. Cummings pursued a four years' course of legal study, 
and was admitted to the bar of this state at Buffalo, general term, in 
June, 1 88 1. For five years thereafter he practiced law in Erie county. 
In the spring of 1886 he removed to the city of Rochester, since which 
time he has been the attorney and counsel for the mercantile agency of 
Messrs. R. G. Dun & Co. 

George V. Fleckenstein was born in Rochester, N. Y., March 22, 
1868. His father, Valentine Fleckenstein, was also born here, a son of 
Valentine, sr., who came from Germany at a very early day. George 
V. attended SS. Peter and Paul's parochial school and from 1880 to 
1883 the Rochester Free academy. He then entered Canisius college 
of Buffalo, from which he received the degree of B.A. in 1888, standing 
the highest in his class and receiving the gold medal prize for mental 
and moral philosophy. Leaving college he read law in the office of 

61 



482 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Bacon, Briggs & Beckley, in Rochester, and finished his legal studies in 
the Columbia law school, being admitted to the bar in the First de- 
partment in 1890. Immediately after his admission he became manag- 
ing clerk for Morse & W'ensley, of New York city, which position he 
held two years. He then returned to Rochester and opened his present 
office. 

Benjamin B, Chace was born in Detroit. Mich., October 13, 1868. 
His maternal grandparents, Carlos and Olive B. Button, came to Roch- 
ester from Vermont on the Erie canal about 1830 and died here. Mr. 
Button's death occurred about 1874, from the effects of a wound 
received in the war of the Rebellion. He was a contractor and builder, 
and afterward became superintendent of the R., W. & O. railroad, and 
later of the Syracuse and Buffalo division of the Central-Hudson rail- 
road. He was always an active citizen, and during the Rebellion served 
as quartermaster with the rank of captain. Rev. George S. Chace, 
father of Benjamin B., was graduated from the university of Rochester 
in 1852, and from the Rochester Theological seminary in 1854. Bur- 
ing the civil u'ar he had a pastorate at Pittsburg, Pa., where he was 
active in raising troops and promoting the Union cause ; he also held 
pastorates in Columbus, Ohio, and Betroit, Mich., whence he was called 
to Boston, but was taken sick enroute and died at New Bedford, Mass., 
in June, 1870. Soon afterward his wife removed with her family to 
Rochester, where Benjamin B. Chace was graduated from Grammar 
school No. 15. He was also graduated from the Free academy in 1885 
and from the university of Rochester in 1889. In 1890 he entered the 
law offices of Satterlee & Yeoman, and was admitted to the bar at the 
Rochester general term in March, 1892. He remained with his pre- 
ceptors as managing clerk until the spring of 1893, when he assumed 
charge of the searching department of the Rochester Title Insurance 
company, which position he now holds, acting also as secretary for the 
corporation. 

V. J. Ruppert was born in Germany, where he received his education. 
He was graduated from an institution in his native coimtry in 1872 as 
LL.B , and immediately afterward came to America. In 1884 he was 
admitted to tlie bar in Rochester, where he has since practiced at his 
profession. 



JUDGES AND ATTORNEYS. 483 

Frederick W. Smith was born in South Granville, Washington county, 
N. Y., September 13, 1856, and was graduated from the high school 
of Ithaca, N. Y., in 1876. In the fall of that year he entered Cornell 
university and was graduated in 1880, receiving the degree of B. A. and 
being president of his class. He then came to Rochester and engaged 
in newspaper work. He was connected with the Evening Express in 
1880, the Morning Herald \\\ i88i-«2, and the Union and Advertiser 
in 1882-84. He was clerk of the Supreme court' from 1885 to 1890, 
and was admitted to the bar in 1887. From 1891 to 1892 he was man- 
aging clerk for Bacon, Briggs, Beckley & Bissell. Since 1892 he has 
been engaged in general practice of the law, with an office in the Ger- 
man Insurance building. In the fall of 1894 he was chosen Democratic 
state committeeman from the Monroe county district. 

Henry M. Hill was born in Buffalo, N. Y. He prepared for college 
at Arcade academy, attended Genesee college, and was graduated from 
Syracuse university in 1872. In the same year he was graduated from 
the Law school of Michigan university. He was teacher of mathe- 
matics and natural science in Ovid seminary and in Gouverneur semi- 
nary for one year each. In 1873 he began the practice of law at Ar- 
cade, N. Y., and remained there until 1881, when he removed to Roch- 
ester, where he has since practiced his profession. He is now the senior 
member of the law firm of Hill & Shaw. 

John Warren Castleman was born at Brighton, Monroe county, N.Y., 
July 9, 1868. After attending the common schools he entered the 
Rochester Free academy, from which he was graduated June i, 1889. 
He then began the study of law with the late Oscar Craig, and was ad- 
mitted to the bar at the general term at Buffalo, N. Y., June 8, 1891. 
Since then he began the practice of his profession in this city. 

John N. Drake was born in Clarkson, N. Y., February 2, 1854. His 
father, Elijah, was a native of Cayuga county, and came to Monroe 
county in 1832. He married Martha E., daughter of Rev. Morris Bull, 
D. D., and died January 26, 1889, in his sixty ninth year. The family 
trace their descent to Sir Francis Drake. Samuel Drake, his great- 
grandfather, was a colonel in the Revolutionary war. John N. was 
educated at the Brockport and Geneseo Normal schools, graduating in 
1872. He began the study of law in Rochester, and was admitted to 



484 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

the bar in 1S76. Removing to Brockport in 1S81 he established a gen- 
eral practice. In 1878 he married Louise K., daughter of Rev, Alfred 
A. Graley, and their children are Merle G , Henry J., Margaret L., and 
Catherine M. Our subject has served as justice of the peace ten years 
and clerk and attorney of the village of Brockport since 1883. He has 
compiled and published a volume entitled "The Village Charter," 
which is a complete compilation of the laws governing all villages in the 
state. 

Henry A. Walker, although but a recent comer to Fairport, is already 
rated high as a man and citizen as well as an attorney. He was born 
at Charlestown, Mass., in 1844. His father, George Walker, was a sea 
captain in the East India trade. Although but a boy at the outbreak 
of the war, he ran away from home and enlisted in Co. A, Fifth Maine 
Infantry, and during his service, which continued from April, 1861, to 
February 10, 1866, he was for personal bravery successively promoted 
to first lieutenant, captain, and brevet-major ; he was severely wounded 
at Malvern Hill, and while a member of General Sheridan's personal 
staff was again severely wounded at Cedar Creek. After the war he 
studied law at Harvard college, and in 1871 opened an ofifice at Boston, 
Mass., afterwards removing to West Medway, Mass. He was sent to 
the Massachusetts legislature in 1873 and 1874, and was for twenty-one 
years a justice, besides holding various other minor official offices. 

John D. Burns was born in New York city, March 9, 1854. His 
father, John, was a native of Bath, England, who came to this country 
in 1853, with his wife, Maria, daughter of John Marshall, and in 1855 
located in Brockport, He enlisted in Co. H, 108th Regt. N. Y. vols., and 
served four years. John B. was educated at the Brockport State Normal 
school, and afterwards taught school four years. In 1874 he began the 
study of law in the office of Major John Norris, of Buffalo, and was ad- 
mitted to the bar in 1877, beginning practice in Brockport, which he 
still continues. In 1883 he married Clara E., daughter of George H. 
Smith, and they have one son, George. Our subject is a leading mem- 
ber of the Monroe county bar, and takes an active interest in town 
affairs, having been a member of the local board of the Brockport State 
Normal school for the past si.x years. 



JUDGES AND ATTORNEYS. 485 

F. D. H. Cobb, of Fairport, was born at Fort Edward, N. Y., July 8, 
1866. His father, the late Amos H. Cobb, was at that time in the 
paper business in New York city. He established in 1881 a canned 
goods factory, which has grown into one of the most important indus- 
tries of Fairport. Mr. Cobb was, at the time of his father's death, en- 
gaged in the practice of law in Rochester, having been admitted to the 
bar in January, 1889. His preparatory studies were prosecuted at the 
Brooklyn Collegiate Polytechnic institute, the Fairport Classical Union 
school and at Colgate university, from which he was graduated in 1886. 
He is a member of the New York State Bar association. 

Theodore S. Dean was born in Syracuse, July 26, 1845. The father 
was R. S. Dean, a native of Oswego county, and the family trace their 
descent to one of that name that came from Scotland about 1750. 
Theodore S. was educated in the Walworth institute, and on August 
10, 1862, enlisted in Co. G, 138th N. Y. Vols , afterwards transferred to 
9th N. Y. H. Art. He participated in the several battles of the regi- 
ment at Cold Harbor, Petersburg, and the Shenandoah Valley, re- 
maining till the close of the war. Returning home he began the study 
of law in the office of James L. Bagg of Syracuse, and was admitted to 
the bar in 1867. He was also with the firm of Ruger & Jenney. In 
1868 he went to Chicago, and in 1871 came to Brockport, and engaged 
in practice, where he has since continued. He is attorney for several 
corporations, and has a large practice. He has served as justice of the 
peace sixteen years. In 1878 he married Alice Wood, who died in 
January, 1880. In 1883 he married Hattie B. Mc Arthur. Their chil- 
dren are Maria A. and Edith M. Our subject is identified in advanc- 
ing the best interests of his town and is prominent in Republican poli- 
tics in Western New York. 

Donald McNaughton, of Scotch origin, was born in Mumford, in the 
town of Wheatland, Monroe county, March 29, 1830, and received his 
education in the public schools of his birthplace. From a clerk in early 
life he prepared himself for the legal profession. During the civil war 
he was indefatigable in raising and fitting troops, and in recognition of his 
successful efforts in filling the town's quotas the citizens of Wheatland 
presented him with a law library. He was admitted to the bar in 1865 
and immediately entered upon the practice of his profession in Rochester. 



486 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

For eight >'car.s he was sent by his Republican town to represent it in 
the board of supervisors, the chairmanship of which was conferred upon 
him when it was Republican in majority. 

He was always a Democrat in politics and one of the hardest workers 
for the principles of that party. When first elected to the senate in 
1886 he received a plurality of 429, although the district gave over 
3,000 plurality for the Republican state ticket. When he was again 
returned in 1889 with a plurality of 371, notwithstanding that the dis- 
trict gave 4,000 plurality for the Republican state ticket, the news of 
triumph and the unmistakable evidence of his great popularity spread 
rapidly through the state and he was prominently mentioned as a pos- 
sible and highly eligible candidate for governor. As a legislator Sena- 
tor McNaughton achieved remarkable success in the number of bills he 
introduced and placed on the statute books. During his first term he 
served on the committees on cities, railroads, canals, and public build- 
ings, and was a member of the New York Aqueduct Investigation com- 
mittee. In 1889 he was appointed a member of the same committees 
and was one of the famous Senate Cities committee which investigated 
the municipal government of New York city. In the campaign of 1892 
he was the nominee of his party for congress, and although the district 
went 4,000 for Harrison he was defeated by but 367 votes. He was ap- 
pointed by Governor Hill general director of the World's fair exhibit 
from this state. He was a trustee of the Central Union Storage and 
Transfer company, trustee of the Rej'nold's library, president of the 
Scottish society of Rochester, and secretary of the Wheatland Historical 
society. He died in 1893. 

William H. Shuart was born September 21, 1852, at Honeoye Falls, 
N. Y,, and is the son of ex-Surrogate Denton G. Shuart. He was 
educated at Genesee Wesleyan seminary and Syracuse university and 
received the degree of A.B. from the latter institution in June, 1875. 
After his graduation he studied law with his father and later with Judge 
John S. Morgan of Rochester. He was admitted to the bar in 1877 and 
has since practiced his profession in this city. February 7, 1884, he 
married Nella Sumner Phillips of Springfield, Mass. 



JUDGES AND ATTORNEYS. 487 

ROLL OF THE ROCHESTER BAR. 

1812-2L John Mastick, Hastings R. Bender, Roswell Babbitt, Joseph Spencer, 
Jesse Dane, Enos Pomeroy. 

1831-37. Daniel D. Barnard, Rufus Beach, Selleck Boughton, Moses Chapm, Tim- 
othy Childs, Palmer Cleveland, John Dickson, Addison Gardiner, James H. Gregory, 
Ebenezer Griffin, Fletcher M. Haight, Isaac Hills, Anson House, Harvey Humphrey, 
Richard C. Jones, Charles M. Lee, Vincent Mathews, Richard N. Morrison, William 
W. Mumford, Charles Perkins, Ashley Sampson, Samuel L. Selden, Elisha B. Strong, 
Theodore F. Talbot, W. C. Van Ness, Ephraim B. Wheeler, Frederick Whittlesey. 

1834. William S. Bishop, Patrick G. Buchan, D. K. Cartter, Isaac R. Elwood, 
Simeon Ford, Horace Gay, Theodore B. Hamilton, Orlando Hastings, E. Smith Lee, 
Thomas Lefferts, D. C. Marsh, Selah Mathews, Samuel Miller, William R. Montgom- 
ery, George H. Mumford, John C. Nash, Henry E. Rochester, E. Darwin Smith, 
Hestor L. Stevens, A. W. Stowe, Ariel Wentworth, S. T. Wilder. 

1838. Graham H. Chapin, John C. Chumasero, Carlos Cobb, Mortimer F. Delano, 
James R. Doolittle, Joseph A. Eastman, Jasper W. Gilbert, Simon H. Grant, Sanford 
M. Green, Robert Haight, Alba Lathrop, Hiram Leonard, Abner Pratt, E. Peshine 
Smith. 

1841. Charles Ayrault, S. W. Budlong, Charles Lee Clark, B. W. Clark, Samuel 
B. Chase, John B. Cooley, John W. Dwinelle, I. S. Fancher, Washington Gibbons, 
Joseph D. Husbands, Ethan A. Hopkins, Elisha Mather, James M. Schermerhorn, 
E. T. Schenck, Hiram A. Tucker, Delos Wentworth, Henry M. Ward. 

1844. Leonard Adams, Joel B. Bennett, William Breck, Daniel Burroughs, jr., 
James C. Campbell, George F. Danforth, George Dutton, jr., Alfred Ely, Herman B. 
Ely, Lysander Farrar, Hiram Hatch, Thomas B. Husband, Henry Hunter, Nathan 
Huntington, Erastus Ide, Henry C. Ives, Hiram K. Jerome, Leonard W. Jerome, 
Alexander Mann, Belden R. McAlpine, Thomas C. Montgomerj^ Chauncey Nash, 
Martin S. Newton, John W. Osborn, Nicholas E. Paine, Stephen M. Shurtliff, L. 
Ward Smith, Sanford J. Smith, John R. Stone, Wilham C. Storrs, John Thompson, 
jr., James S. Trj^on, John C. Van Epps, Horatio G. Warner, David L. White, Daniel 
Wood. 

1845. James Abrams, James L. Angle, Charles Billinghurst, Seymour Boughton, 
Rufus L. B. Clark, Frederick L. Durand, Samuel B. Dwinelle, Almon Gage, Chris- 
topher Jordan, George E. King, Daniel Marsh, Lewis H. Morgan, Hiram C. Smith, 
James E. Squire. 

1849. Truman Abrams, Horace B. Adama, James Ames, Daniel B. Beach, Oliver 
M. Benedict, Samuel S. Bowne, Charles A. Bowne, James S. Bush, WilHam P. Chase, 
Charles H. Clark, James C. Cochrane, William F. Cogswell, Zimri L. Davis, Fred- 
erick Delano, Alexander Ely, Lorenzo D. Ferry, Edward W. Fitzhugh, Thomas 
Frothingham, Truman Hastings, Luther H. Hovey, Calvin Huson, jr., D. Cameron 
Hyde,Kasimer P. Jervis, Byron D. McAlpine, Benjamin G. Marvin, Alfred G. Mudge, 
Thaddeus S. Newell, Chauncey Perry, Charles T. Porter, Edward A. Raymond, 
WiUiam A. Root, Henry Sargent, Henry R. Selden, Ebenezer B. Shearman, Anson 
Sherwood, Eliphaz Tummer, Chauncey Tucker. 

1851. William L. Brock, Philander M. Crandall, John B. Curtiss, Charles R. 



488 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Davis, Gideon Draper, jr., William A. Fitzhugh, Albert M. Hastings, Jarvis M. Hatch. 
James G. Hills, Henry T. Johns, William H. McClure, John H. Martindale, George 
W. Miller, James M. Miller, George G. Muuger, Sylvester H. Packard, jr., William 
J. Parker, Charles H. Pierce, John N. Pomeroy, John L. Requa, W. Dean Shuart, 
John W. Stebbins, Matthew G. Warner, jr., Frederick A. Whittlesey. 

1853. John J. Bowen, Phederus Carter, Phihp I. Clum, Charles P. Crosby, Caleb 
S. Crumb, George Ely, George Gardner, Issachar Grosscup, George H. Humphrey, 
Charles G. Loeber, John McConvill, George E. Mumford, George Murphy, Oliver H. 
Palmer, George W. Rawson, George P. Townsend, Henry E. White, Robert A. 
Wilson. 

1855. (ieorge B. Brand, Isaac S. Hobbie, Charles W. Littles, D. W. Sherwood, 
Wells Taylor, Seth H. Terr3^ John Van Voorhis, Albert G. Wheeler. 

1857. Theodore Bacon, Michael Canfield,, William R. Carpenter, Byron G. 
Chappell, Andrew J. Ensign Edward Harris, John H. Jeffres, George W. Johnson, 
Edgar Knickerbocker, E. S. Llewellyn, Alexander G. Melvin, William J. McPherson, 
George T. Parker, Charles J. Powers, Charles K. Smith, Vincent M. Smith, T. Hart 
Strong, Joseph A. Stull, Seymour G. Wilcox, Charles C. Willson. 

1859. William H. Andrews, Daniel L. Angle, Almon B. Benedict, Henry C. Bloss, 
T. B. Clarkson, John Craig, Oscar Craig, S. C. Crittenden, George P. Draper, James 
S. Garlock, Pierson B. Hulett, Abram H. Jones, James W. Kerr, David Laing, 
Charles P. Landers, J. H. McDonald, John A. McGorry, B. G. Marvin, Henry S. 
Redfield, George E. Ripsom, William C. Rowley, T. D. Steele, John W. Tompkins, 
George Truesdale, Ouincy Van Voorhis, John B. Vosburg, Homer H. Woodward. 

1861. Charles S. Baker, Thomas K. Baker, Hiram S. Barker, James D. Brown, 
William S. Campbell, DeLancy Crittenden, Samuel J. Crooks, Joseph Deverell, Seth 
Eldridge, DeWitt C. Ellis, Henry B. Ensworth, Philip Hamilton, Bj'^ron M. Hanks, 
Frank W. Hastings, Harmon S. Hogoboom, Kneeland J. Macomber, Walter Hurd, 
William S. Ingraham, Henry B. James, Francis A. Macomber, Abel Meeker, William 
Powell, D. P. Richardson, William H. Rogers, Jesse Shepherd, Theron R. Strong, 
Andrew J. Wilkin. 

1863. Charles P. Achilles, William H. Bowman, Charles H. Cherry, Martin W. 
Cooke, William Graebe, W. W. Hegeman, Francis J. Mather, William F. Peck, 
Charles F. Pond, James Ran, Archibald Servoss, W. S. Staples, George S. Tucker- 
man. 

1865. William M. Bates, George W. Blackmore, Lyman W. Briggs, Sanford E. 
Church, James L. Clark, John M. Davy, Christopher C. Davi-son, Joseph Felix, C. 
Hopgood, A. C. Hogoboom, Ralph (). Ives, Joseph L. Luckey, John C. O'Brien, 
Samuel S. Partridge, Otis H. Robinson, Richard H. Schooley, William J. Sheridan, 
Othello II. Stevens, Homer Stull, Edward Webster, William H. Webster, Men/.o Van 
Voorhis. 

1866. C. W. Baker, Oliver M. Benedict, jr., M. Campbell, J. ^\■. Kerr, H. H. 
Mason, William S. Oliver, E. .S. Otis, Samuel Stevens, Joseph C. Well.s, Henry 
Widner. 

1867. W. G. Ashby, E. Burke Collins, G. S. Cutting, Dennis C. Feely, John M. 
Dunning, W. II. Fish, Frank B. Hutchinson, John W. I^elly, Donald McNaughton, 
Patrick Mclntyre, George Raines. 



JUDGES AND ATTORNEYS. 489 

1868. Alvin L. Barton, Josiah H. Bissell, Milton H. Davis. Charles G. Hapgood, 
James S. Mathews, Sherman R. Robinson, William H. Shepard. 

1869. John W. Deuel, Edward B. Fenner, Lewis J. Goddard, B. Frank Maxson, 
J. Buck Perkins, Edward Witherspoon. 

1870. Charles M. Allen, John Clark, jr., Ephraim C. Fish, James E. Cheney, jr., 
John E. Roe, J. P. Varnum, John W. Wilson, Lodowick M. Wooden. 

1871. Henry N. Allen, J. Sherlock Andrews, James M. Angle, William H. 
Crouchen, Charles F. Dean, Charles H. Gorham, Daniel L. Johnston, William H 
Mitchell, Milton W. Noyes, John C. O'Regan, Jacob Spahn, Darrell D. Sully, Arthur 

D. Walbridge. 

1872. William A. Combs, Joseph N. Crane J. Rowe Fanning, James A. Jordan, 
John J. Palmer, James B. Pike, George W. Thomas, William K. Townsend, Thomas 

E. White, William H. Yerkes. 

1873. Willliam E. Edmonds, George W. Fisher. John S. Morgan, George F. Jack- 
son, Charles J. McDowell, Edward F. Stilwell, George W. Sill, H. D. Tucker. 

1874. Nathaniel Foote, jr., William S. James, Merritt G. McKinney, Marcus 
Michaels, Eugene H. Satterlee. 

1875. Walter W. Adams, Luther C. Benedict, Horace L. Bennett, George A. 
Benton, Sardius D. Bentley, Marsenus H. Briggs, Samuel J. Budlong, Paris G. 
Clark, Pomeroy P. Dickinson, Edward B. Fiske, Lorin H. Gillette, Richard H. 
Lansing, Edwin A. McMath, Thomas P. O' Kelly, William W. Webb, Richard E. 
White, Solomon Wile, Isaac A. Wile, Byron C. Williams, Charles M. Williams. 

1876. George Armstrong, William H. Barker, William R. Carpenter, John A. 
Colwell, Henry R. Curtis, Frederick A. Hitchcock, Angus McDonald, W. Howard 
Olmsted, William H. St. John, John C. Simons, Henry J. Sullivan, Josiah Sullivan, 
Stephen Wheeler, George F. Yeoman. 

1877. J. Aaron Adams, Joseph A. Addmgton, John N. Beckley, Walter Buell, 
Darius L. Covill, Edward O. Dowd, John H. Hopkins, Walter S. Hubbell, Thomas 
A. Hungerford, W. Martin Jones, J. Horace McGuire, Herman W. Morris, Michael 

F. O'Dea, Horace G. Pierce, William G. Raines, Thomas F. Stark, Samuel H. Tor- 
rey, George E. Warner, Thomas D. Wilkin, William H. Whiting. 

1878. Louis A. Amsden, Frank M. Bottum, William L. Brock, George F. Bausum, 
Frederick L. Churchill, J. Ewing Durand, Frank W. El wood, Frederick Hebard, 
Marcus Hirschiield, Robert Jarrard, D. Edgar Parsons, Arthur C. Smith, John T. 
Pingree, Ivan Powers, Henry J. Sampson, George B. Selden, William H. Shuart, 
Herbert L. Ward, Charles E. Yale. 

1879. William Butler Crittenden, A. Norton Fitch, George W. Lamb, Edwin A. 
Medcalf, James H. Montgomery, William F. Rampe, Edward M. Redmond, Joseph 
Welling, William E. Werner. 

1880. James Briggs, John A. Burgess, Isaac W. Butts, Philetus Chamberlain, jr., 
Fred H. Church, Walter S. Coffin, Adelbert Cronise, Henry G. Danforth, J. Des- 
mond, Frank W. Dickinson, George D. Forsyth, Frank M. Goff, George W. Hall, 
Henry J. Hetzel, Joseph S. Hann, William W. Jacobs, Bartholomew Keeler, Con- 
stantine D. Kiehel, Henry M. McDonald, Samuel P. Moore, James B. Nellis, Fred 
P. Nutting, Wilber F. Osborn, Thomas G. Outerbridge, Thomas Raines, Charles B. 
Rebasz, Samuel L. Selden, Allen R. Sheffer, John G. Snell, George C. Wolcott, 

62 



490 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

1881. Adouirani J. Abbott, John B. Abbott, John II. Bishop, George M. Cone, 
William D. Elhvanger, Charles C. Herrick, John H. Keefe, Edmund Lyon, Spencer 
S. Markham, Frank W. Miller, "William S. Servis, John M. Steele, Holmes B. Stevens, 
Edward F. Turk, Edward F. Wellington. 

1882. Frederick H. Baker, Angus Cameron, Edward S. Clarke, William X. Cogs- 
well, Henry W. Conklin, William H. Davis, Edward W. Hall, William A. Hawthorn, 
David Hays, David Herron, Henry M. Hill, Frank J. Hone, James L. Hotchkiss, 
John D. Lynn, Edward \V. Maurer, William A. Sternberg, Horace J. Tuttle, Roy C. 
Webster, Charles S. Wilbur, Casterline Williams, John W. Wilson. 

1883. D. Clinton Barnum, John A. Bernhard, Myron T. Bly, Frank H. Bowlby, 
Selden S. Brown, Clarence J. Browning, Ralph Butler, Peter A. Costich, Raleigh 
Farrar, Seward French, William Johnson, Charles H. Kingsburj-, George R. Losey, 
Lemuel B. Marcy, Henry L. Osgood, Earl B. Putnam, Arthur J. Shaw, G. Fort 
Slocum, George J. Trenaman, Roberts B. Wickes, Charles H. Wiltsie. 

1884. Cassius C. Davy, Frank L. Gummer, Edwin McKnight, Nelson C. Watson, 
Milton A. Brown, Edward A. Martin, Anson S. McNab, Valentine J. Ruppert. 

1885. Aldice G. Warren, James O'Grady, William H. Sullivan, William F, 
Chandler. 

1886. Seth S. Terry, Frederick W. Sandborn. Henry Isbell, Frederick B. Hall, 
George A. Carnahan, James S. Havens, George M. W. Bills, John B. M. Stephens, 
Albert P. Gulbert, James M. Kerr. 

1887. Arthur E. Sutherland, Albert A. Davis, Eugene Van Voorhis, Stephen C. 
Truesdale, James H. Kelso, J. Frank Morse, George A. Gillette, Frederick W. Smith. 

1889. George F. Zimmer, Charles P. Lee, Ednor A. Marsh, Morris Bull, Joseph 
M. Allen (Brockport), Abraham Benedict, Martin Davis (Honeoye Falls), Erwin E. 
Shutt. 

1890. John F. Mitchell, William DeGraff, Fred. C. Hanford, George E. Milliman, 
Herbert James Menzie, Herbert J. Stull, Richard Van Voorhis, Edwin E. Wj-ckoff. 

1891. Herman Perry Blodgett. Darius A. Marsh, Andrew Ludolph, William L. 
Kiefer, William E. Carnochan, Edwin A. Woodward, Joseph H. Hill, Willis K. 
(iillette. 

1892. Benjamin B. Chace, William E. Davis, Franklin S. Hutchinson, Otto J. 
Stull, Charles F. A. Young, Isaac Adler, Simon L. Adler, Kendall B. Castle, Edward 
A. Keenan, Norman A. Macpherson, Edwin C. Smith, jr., Stephen J. Warren (W. 
Henrietta), George M. Williams. 

1893. Lovellc M. Grube, Everett O. Gibbs, H. Irving Gordon, Willis A. Matson 
(Brockport), Henry Bartholomay, jr., Charles A. Edgerton, William T. Plumb, Henry 
V. Woodward, Henry A. Walker (Fairport). 

1894. John Keanan, Herbert S, Wilbur, Leslie E. Hulburt, Ira L. Ward (Pitts- 
ford), John H. Daily. Charles R. Kreidler, Clyde W. Knapp, William H. Driscoll, 
John B. O'Connor, George B. Draper, Fred M. Whitney, Edward R. Foreman, Will- 
iam J. Hawkins, James Roscoe Davy. 

Mkmhers ok the Countv Bar in 1895. 

Charles M. Allen, Walter W. Adams, Joseph A. Adlington, J. Sherlock Andrews, 
Elbridge L. Adams, William W. Armstrong, Isaac Adler, Simon L. Adler, Robert 



JUDGES AND ATTORNEYS. 491 

Averill, Edwin P. Allen, Horace L. Bennett, Marsenus H. Briggs, Theodore Bacon, 
Charles S. Baker, Hiram L. Barker, William M. Bates, William H. Beach, Daniel 
B. Beach, Clarence J. Browning, John A. Bernhard, Myron T. Bly, Alvin Block, 
Abraham Benedict, J. P. Bowman, James E. Briggs, Morris Bull, John A. Barhite, 
George M. W. Bills, Ralph Butler, John N. Beckley, Luther C. Benedict, Sardius D. 
Bentley, Frederick H. Baker, George A. Benton, William H. Bowman, John A. 
Burgess, James Briggs, Selden S. Brown, H. T. Braman, Frank M. Bottum, Isaac 
W. Butts, Norris Bull, Charles J. Bissell, H. Perry Blodgett, Charles E. Bostwick, 
Willis H. Coon, Frederick L. Churchill, Paris G. Clark, Adelbert Cronise, Philetus 
Chamberlain, jr., William F. Chandler, Fred B. Crittenden, Peter A. Ccstich, Scott 
Cummmgs, Henry W. Conklin, William F. Cogswell, Frederick F. Church, Martin 
W. Cooke, Delancy Crittenden, W. Butler Crittenden, William N. Cogswell, George 
A. Carnahan, Darius L. Covill, J. Warrant Castleman, Frank Cummings, John H. 
Chadsey, John D. Coffey, Kendall B. Castle, Benjamin B. Chace, Martin Davis, 
William H. Davis, Christopher C. Davison, Charles F. Dean, Henry G. Danforth, 
George F. Danforth, Fred E. Drake, John F. Dorthy, John Desmond, George P. 
Draper, Pomeroy P. Dickinson, Frederick L. Durand, John E. Durand, Cassius C. 
Davy, George P. Decker, John H. Dailey, Frank W. Dickinson, William E. Davis, 
Eugene J. Dwyer, William H. DriscoU, George F. Danforth, Eugene C. .Denton, 
James R. Davy, William DeGraff, George B. Draper, William E. Edmonds, Frank 
M. EUery, Charles B. Ernst, Frank W. Elwood, William D. Ellwanger, Erastus U. 
Ely, Charles A. Edgerton, John R. Fanning, Dennis C. Feely, Edward B. Fenner, 
Nathaniel Foote, Edward R. Foreman, George D. Forsyth, Daniel W. Forsyth, Ed- 
ward B. Fiske, Raleigh Farrar, Porter M. French, George V. Fleckenstein, Seward 
French, Irving Gordon, James S. Garlock, Frank L. Gummer, George A. Gillette, 
James G. Greene, Willis K. Gillette, Lovelle M. Grube, Everett O. Gibbs, Amos H. 
Gardner, Henry M. Hill, Edward Harris, Albert H. Harris, Joseph H. Hill, Marcus 
Hirschfield, John H. Hopkins, Joseph S. Hunn, Walter S. Hubbell, David Hays, 
Frank J. Hone, Frederick B. Hall, Pierson B. Hulett, George H. Humphrey, Joseph 
D. Husbands, Franklin B. Hutchinson, James L. Hotchkiss, Hubert B. Hallock, 
William B. Hale, Walter H. Hill, George H. Harris, James S. Havens, Fred C. 
Hanford, George W. Hall, Franklin S. Hutchinson, Leslie E. Hulburt, William J. 
Hawkins, W. Martin Jones, William Johnson, Louis H. Jack, Bartholomew Keeler, 
Charles R. Kreidler, John H. Keef, Charles R. King, Martin H. Kennedy, Constan- 
tine D. Kiehel, John F. Kinney, Charles A. Keeler, John B. Kiley, William L. 
Kiefer, John S. Keenan, Edward A. Keenan, Clyde W. Knapp, H. S. Kline, J. L. 
Luckey, Edmund Lyon, John D. Lynn, William B. Lee, Emil Ludekens, George W. 
Lamb, R. H. Lansing, George R. Losey, Merton E. Lewis, Charles P. Lee, Andrew 
Ludolph, William J. McPherson, Charles I. McDowell, Horace McGuire, Patrick Mo- 
Intyre, Morrison H. McMath, Charles J. Madden, Anson S. McNab, William W. 
Mumford, John M. Murphy, Edwin A, Medcalf, James H. Montgomery, Thomas C. 
Montgomery, Heman W. Morris, Benjamin F. Maxon, Edward W. Maurer, Ednor 
A. Marsh, J. Frank Morse, Herbert J. Menzie, George E. Milliman, Edwin Mc- 
Knight, Francis S. Macomber, Frederick A. Mann, Darius A. Marsh, Charles F. 
Miller, Harold C. Mitchell, John J. Mitchell, Samuel P. Moore, Norman A. Macpher- 
son, Milton Noyes, Wilbur F. Osborn, James M. E. O'Grady, John C. O'Brien, 



492 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

'Ihomas G. Outerbridge, Howard L. Osgood, James P. O'Connor, James B. Perkins, 
George T. Parker, Earl B. Putnam, H. Nelson Peck, William T. Plumb, Irving 
Paine, Chauncey Perry, Force Parker, Horace G. Pierce, Ivan Powers, C. F. Pond, 
Robert V. Page, D. Edgar Parsons, Maurice F. Propping, Thomas Raines, George 
Raines, William F. Rampe, Henry vS. Redfield, Valentine J, Rupert, Harvey F. 
Remington, Edward M. Redmond, Sherman R. Robinson, Charles Roe, Adolph J. 
Rodenbeck, George D. Reed, Derrick W. Ross, Rolliu H. Reid, Charles H. Rebasz 
Henry J. Sullivan, William H. St. John, Frederick W. Smith, Arthur C. Smith, 
James C. Smith, Eugene Satterlee, William H. Sullivan, Edwin C. Smith, jr., Fred- 
erick J. Smyth, David X. Salisbury, W. Dean Shuart, Darrell D. Sully, Holmes B. 
Stevens, John W. Stebbins, Arthur E. Sutherland, George H. Smith, Jacob Spahn, 
Thomas iitark, Othello H. Stevens, Joseph A. Stull, Josiah Sullivan, William H. 
Shaffer, A. R. Sheffer, John M. Steele, G. Fort Slocum, Edward F. Stilwell, George B. 
Selden, William A. Sutherland, William H. Shuart, John B. M. Stephens, Erwin E. 
Shutt, Herbert J. Stull, Otho S.Stull, John M. Stull, George L.Smith, Charles M. Shaw, 
William H. Shaw, Clarence E. Schuster, Howard W. Sneck, Ernest Snook, George W. 
Thomas, Joseph Ward Taylor, Edward F. Turk, George J. Trenaman, George Trues- 
dale, Henry D. Tucker, Horace J. Tuttle, Joe L. Thistlethwaite, Zachary P. Taylor, 
Stephen C. Truesdale, James S. Thompson, John C.Toole, Menzo Van Voorhis, Quincy 
Van Voorhis, Eugene Van Voorhis, Charles Van Voorhjs, Jonas P. Varnum, Peter H. 
Van Auken, Herbert L. Ward, Charles L. Williams, Thomas E. White, George E. 
Warner, Willllam W. Webb, Edward Webster, William H. Whiting, Robert B. Wickes, 
Edward F. Wellington, Charles A. Widener, Charles H. Wiltsie, Aldice G. Warren, 
George C. Wolcott, Richard E. White, Frederick A. Whittlesey, Solomon Wile, Ira 
L. Ward, Thomas D. Wilkin, Cass Williams, Lodowick M. Wooden, Homer H. 
Woodward, Roy C. Webster, John A. C. Wright, Christopher C. Werner, William 
E. Werner, Howard H. Widener, Elmer E. Wyckoff, Arthur Warren, George Wil- 
son, Hiram R. Wood, George D. Williams, Stephen J. Warren, Edwin A. Wood- 
ward, George M. Williams, Henry V. Woodward, Herbert S. Wilbur, Fred M. 
Whitney, Charles. E. Yale, George F. Yeoman, William H. Yerkes, Charles F. A. 
Young, (ieorge R. Zimmer. 

From the County. — D. A. Adams, John Burns, T. S. Dean, John N. Drake, Daniel 
Holmes, W. A. Matson, H. J. Thomas, Brockport; Frederick D. H. Cobb, E. J. 
Fiske, K. L. Holmes, T. L. Hulburt, S. F. Randall, Henry A. Walker, Fairport ; 
W. H. Dusenbury, C. A. Shuart, Honeoye Falls; Frank M. Goff, Spencerport; Hugh 
McKay, Webster; W. M. Richmond, Charlotte. 



PART II. 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 



WILLIAM J. BABCOCK. 

William J. Babcock was a lineal descendant of James Babcock, the founder of 
the Babcock family in the United States. The latter was born in Essex, England, 
about the year 1580. He was one of the Puritans, and in 1630 removed with his 
family to Leyden, in Holland to emigrate with the Pilgrims to America. He em- 
barked in the ship Anne early in 1623 and arrived in July at Plymouth, Mass., where 
he lived the residue of his life and died. James Babcock, at the time of his immi- 
gration, had four children: James, John, Job, and Mary, who were born in England 
between 1612 and 1620, and who were brought over with their father. He was mar- 
ried again in Plymouth, about 1650, and had one son, Joseph. James, the first child. 
Job, the third, and Mary, the fourth, remained with their father in Plymouth ; 
Joseph, the fifth, removed to Connecticut, near Saybrooke, where he made a settle- 
ment. 

John Babcock, the second son, removed with a number of others about the year 
1648 into that part of Rhode Island now called Westerly township, where the com- 
pany began a settlement and named the place. Here he remained the residue of his 
life, dying July 19, 1719, aged over 100 years. He left ten children, whose descend- 
ants to the present time number more than 5,000. He was the first magistrate 
chosen in Westerly, and held the office a long time. He owned nearly all of the 
township and a part of South Kingston, and much of this land is now in the 
possession of his descendants, having been in the family nearly 200 years. 

Nearl}' all the offices of the township within the gift of the people were filled by 
members of this family for many decades. Many of the descendants of the Babcock 
family, like their progenitors, were among the earliest pioneers of the West. They 
were the first settlers of several towns in different parts of the Western States, and 
also took an active part in the American Revolution, many of them laying down 
their lives on the battlefield. Henry Babcock, born April 26, 1736, was a colonel in 
the British service before the war, commanded a regiment in the French war, and 
was wounded at the battle of Ticonderoga. During the Revolutionary war he was 
commanding general of the State troops of Rhode Island, and distinguished himself 
on many occasions. Oliver Babcock, another member of this family, was a captain 
in the Revolutionary army, was at the siege of Fort Washington on the Hudson, and 
was so indignant at the surrender by the colonel that he broke his sword across a 
cannon, declaring that it should never be yielded to the British. James Babcock, of 



4 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

the fourth generation, married Sarah Vose, of Milton, which is seven miles from 
Boston. They had nine children, one of whom, Isaiah, sr., is the direct ancestor of 
the subject of this sketch. One of his lineal descendants was Gen. O. E. Babcock, a 
graduate of West Point and chief of engineers on General Grant's staff during the 
war of the Rebellion. Isaiah Babcock, sr , moved to Partridgefield, N. "ii^^bout 
1743, and married Elizabeth Plumb, of Stonington, Conn. They had eight children. 
Their first son, Isaac Babcock, born in Fairfield, Conn., in IITG, married Elizabeth 
Wilbur, of the town of North East, now called Milan, in Dutchess county, N. Y. 
They moved to Monroe county, N. Y., about 1836, from Albany county. Isaac Bab- 
cock died in Greece, April 21, 1853, aged seventy-si.x years and four months, and his 
widow in Rochester, November 28, 1880, aged ninety-seven years and three months. 
They had twelve children : Sarah, James Morris, Phoebe, Jeptha, George, Isaac, Eliza, 
Henry, Stephen, Mary, William and Mary. With the exception of three of these — Will 
iam and Mary, who died in infancy, and Stephen, who was drowned in the Genesee 
River when nineteen years old — all lived to a good old age ; those who have died 
lived upright and prosperous lives and were respected by all who knew them. Those 
who are living are Gecn-ge Babcock, of Niles, Mich., a prosperous farmer, eighty-five 
years old; Mary Babcock, who married Cleveland Bradstreet, formerly mayor and 
still a resident of Rochester; and Phoebe Cornell, a widow, ninety years old, of 
Lockport, N.Y. 

James Morris Babcock, the eldest son of Isaac and Elizabeth Babcock, was born 
January 26, 1802, at Milan, Dutchess county, N.Y., and married Lydia E. Jackson, 
September 20, 1829. He was a man of sterling integrity. Having been brought up 
a firm believer in the doctrines of the Society of Friends, his daily life was a con- 
stant example of simplicity, decision of character, and life-long industry. Starting 
with nothing but his own mergre resources to depend upon, he won his way to suc- 
cess and prosperity by his individual efforts and died at his home on Clover street, 
in Brighton, October 24, 1886, aged eighty-four years. His widow, Lydia E^. Bab- 
cock, was born April 27, 1811, in Rensselaerville, Albany county, and died at her 
home on Clover street, Brighton, January 2."), 1890, aged seventy-nine years. She 
was a woman of noble character and disposition, a true and loving wife and mother, 
and having that great gift of charity for all she was not only missed from the home 
circle when she departed this life, but was missed by all who knew her. James M. 
and Lydia Babcock had three children: Elizabeth, born in Groveland, Livingston 
county, Augu.st 2, 1830, died in Rush, N.Y., January 14, 1844; Julia, born in Rush, 
March 28, 1841, married W. W. Hibbard, and now resides in Washington, D.C. ; and 
William J., born in Groveland, N.Y., September 22, 1832, died in Brighton at his 
home on Clover street, June 17, 1888. 

William J. Babcock married E. Augusta Collins, of Charlotte, N.Y., November 1, 
1859. On May 26, 1862, she died, leaving a son and only child, A. Emerson Babcock. 
William J. Babcock was a man whom to know was to love and esteem. Fitted by 
education to adorn any position in life, he chose the occupation of farmer, wherein 
his sturdy Quaker ancestry had toiled and triumphed. His farm was one of the finest 
in the county, and it was in scientific experiments in growing different kinds of crops 
that he spent much of his time and labor. I\Iany members of the Babcock family 
have long been prominent Masons and William J. was also actively connected with 
that ancient fraternity. Christopher A. Babcock, a surgeon at Newport, R. I., in the 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 5 

Revolutionary war and a descendant of John Babcock, previouslj^ mentioned, was a 
beloved member and past master of Union Lodge, Dan bury, Conn., of which General 
Wooster was the first master. William J. Babcock was also a disciple of gentle 
Isaak Walton. With advancing years his love for rural sports seemed to increase, 
and when he could find time for a day's sport afield in pursuit of the festive wood- 
cock or wily grouse he enjoyed it more if anything than his son. In purity of life, 
modesty of deportment, constancy of friendship, and sweetness of character, Mr. 
Babcock was at once an illustration and example. Those who knew him best in- 
timately loved him most. In politics he was a Republican and a warm supporter of 
Roscoe Conkling. His influence and time were often given for the interests of his 
party, and as he was not an office seeker he never held political office. His chief 
thought and desire during the latter days of his life were for the future care of his 
aged mother and his only son. 



A. EMERSON BABCOCK. 

A. Emerson Babcock, only son and child of William J. and E. Augusta (Collins) 
Babcock, was born in Charlotte, Monroe county. May 15, 1863. At an early age he 
attended the Greylock Institute at South Williamstown, Mass., and later became a 
student at the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary in Lima, N. Y. Still later he pursued 
his studies at Oak wood Seminary at Union Springs, N. Y. , and finished at Allegheny 
College in Meadville, Pa. In these various institutions he took special courses, 
which thoroughly fitted him for the complicated duties of life. Reared on a farm he 
early developed a vigorous constitution, and during his collegiate training acquired 
a noteworthy reputation as an all around athlete. He always took an active interest 
in athletic sports, winning several prizes and pitching for a time for the Allegheny 
College base-ball team. His enthusiasm in this respect has never waned, although 
his activit)' in athletics has largely given place to business cares. While a student 
at Allegheny he enjoyed the advantages of a military training, being a member of 
the militia company which was disciplined and drilled b}- a governm nt officer. 
Upon returning from college he entered into partnership with his father, and their 
relations continued until the latter's death in 1888; .since then he has successfully 
carried on the family homestead on Clover street in Brighton, keeping it up to a high 
state of cultivation and making it one of the finest and most attractive rural homes 
m Western New York, 

In politics Mr. Babcock has always been especially prominent, and in this connec- 
tion he is now recognized as one of the active and influential leaders of his party in 
the county. He is an unswerving Republican, ever working for the welfare and 
advancement of the public, and making a clean record and an honest name. Soon 
after attaining his majority he was made chairman of the Republican town commit- 
tee, a position he filled with ability and satisfaction. He was also chosen a justice 
of the peace, and after serving one year resigned to accept the office of supervisor 
of Brighton, to which he was elected March 7, 1893, being the first man voted for 
and elected in the town on a Myers ballot machine. Immediately after his election 
the Democrat and Chronicle said: 



6 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

'I It is a matter for congratulation by the tax payers of the entire county as well as 
the town of Brij^hton to know that one of the men who will occupy a seat in the next 
Board of Supervisors is A. Emerson Babcock, the nommee of the Republicans of 
the town of Brighton. His friends did a wise act, not only for their party, but for 
their town, when they induced him to emerge from the pursuits of private life and 
engage in the public affairs of the county. Mr. Babcock is one of the most respected 
and best known Republicans in his town, a large property holder and tax payer, and 
a man who is conversant with the government of the county." 

At the close of his first term he was unanimously renominated and endorsed by 
the Democratic as well as the Republican caucuses and polled the votes of both par- 
ties. As a result of the new State constitution he is now serving out the second 
year of his second term. Mr. Babcock's efficient labors in the Board of Supervisors 
have given him a wide and favorable reputation and placed him among the leading 
benefactors of his time. Among his first and more noteworthy efforts was the orig- 
inating of a bill giving the county road system a trial. As a result the committee he 
named was appointed, but owing to the enormous expense involved it was obliged 
to report adversely. As a result of this agitation in this and other counties of the 
State a special committee was appointed by the State Legislature in the winter of 
1895 to visit the States of Massachusetts and New Jersey and have hearings ia dif- 
ferent towns in New York with a view of amending the highway law in such a man- 
ner as to afford some permanent improvement to roads in this State. When the 
matter was first mtroduced in the Board of Supervisors it created a lively interest 
throughout the county. A epecial committee was soon appointed by the Rochester 
Chamber of Commerce, which was represented in the discussions before the board by 
William C. Barry. John A. C. Wright, secretary of the State Road Reform League, 
was also present and took part. Of the committee first mentioned Mr. Babcock was 
chairman, and in that capacity he drafted the report of their visit to the celebrated 
roads in Camden and Burlington counties, N. J. It was dated December 19, 1894, 
adopted without alteration, and received by the press and people with manifest 
favor and appnjval, the Post Express having an especially good editorial and the 
Union and Advertiser not only publishing it in full, but printing also a portrait of its 
author. As a public document it was critical, exhaustive, able, and instructive. This 
same committee reported on the improvement of post roads in the spring of 1895 
with equal credit and approval. In all these agitations Mr. Babcock has been a fore- 
most advocate of better highways, giving to the subject the results of patient study, 
the intelligence of a practical farmer, and the influence of a prominent, public spir- 
ited citizen. He has been recognized as the chief supporter of the good roads sys- 
tem throughout the county, while his position in the board has been that of an able 
leader. 

He is also a prominent sportsman, and is now first vice-president of the Genesee 
Valley Fish and Game Protective Association and a member of the Rochester Rod 
and Gun Club. In the Board of Supervisors he staunchly upheld the observance of 
the game laws, and introduced a resolution authorizing the appointment of a special 
committee of three, whose duty it was to report as to the advisability of appointing 
special fish and game protectors under the new statute.s. The resolution was 
carried, and upon the favorable report of the committee the protectors were named 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 7 

and recommended to the State Fish Commission for appointment. This effort 
brought forth the following official declaration, dated June 22, 1895: 

"The Genesee Valley Fish and Game Protective Association desire to thank its 
friends in the Board of Supervisors for their labors in the interest of game protec- 
tion, and especially Supervisor A. Emerson Babcock, who has been such a staunch 
advocate for the appointment of special protectors. 

" Frank J. Amsden, Secretary." 

Mr. Babcock inherited his love for rural sports from his ancestors, who took much 
enjoyment in shooting and fishing. Taking a lively interest in game of all kinds he 
has labored earnestly and persistently in preserving it for legitimate pastimes. 

His efforts for the general welfare have also been directed into other channels. 
When the annexation of Brighton village to the city of Rochester was seriously agi- 
tated he took an active part in defeating the project and defending the interests of 
the tax payers. At a public meeting in April, 1895, he made a stirring address, 
which had the popular approval. He has successfully looked after the rights of his 
constituents, and has always identified himself with the progress and advancement 
of not only his own town, but the entire county. 

On August 1, 1889, he was married in Christ's Church, Rochester, to Miss Blanche 
Sias, daughter of Daniel B. Sias, of Ogden, Monroe county. They have had three 
children : William James, born December 28, 1890 ; Ralph Burger, born September 
2, 1892; and Eleanor, born July 11, 1894. 



OLIVER CRIPPEN. 

Prominent among the earliest settlers of the town of Penfield, Monroe county, was 
Ashley Crippen, father of Oliver, the subject of this sketch. He was the second son 
and fourth child of Ezra Crippen, who was born in Massachusetts, February 1, 
1745, and died March 3, 1813. Ezra Crippen was a Baptist mmister in the Mohawk 
settlements, and married his cousin, Tabitha Crippen, whose birth occurred Decem- 
mber 21, 1749, and who died March 9, 1813. Their children were Tabitha, born 
March 16, 1770; Achsa, born June 15, 1772; Ransom, born June 27, 1776; Ashley, 
born February 1, 1780; Esther, born February 5, 1782; Bradley, born September 25, 
1783; Clarissa, born September 13, 1785; Sally, born January 30. 1787; and New- 
man, born June 3, 1789. Ashley Crippen married Rebecca Winnie, and in 1808 emi- 
grated with his family to the Genesee country, settling on the farm in Penfield, 
Monroe county, now owned and occupied by Oliver Crippen' s widow and her daugh- 
ter, Mrs. Clara (Crippen) Lane. At that time the country was an unbroken wilder- 
ness, and their pioneer home, a rude log cabin standing a few feet from the present 
dwelling, was m the midst of a dense forest, several miles from any other habitation. 
They were frequently annoyed by wild animals which infested the woods on all sides 
in large numbers, and in after years his wife, a true pioneer woman, related the 
story of often driving wolves from the door with brands of fire. The Indians also 
were frequent and sometimes unwelcome visitors. Mr. Crippen was a wheelwright 
by trade, and followed that occupation for many years in connection with his agri- 



8 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

cultural pursuits. He was a soldier in the war of 1812, serving at Buffalo on the 
Niagara frontier, and leaving his wife and two small children at home to look after 
the family's interests. After the war he resumed the work of clearing the farm and 
succeeded in accumulating a fair competency. He took a loyal interest in town 
affairs, and always bore the respect and esteem of his friends and neighbors. He 
died on the farm he had transformed from a wilderness, October 22, 1850. His wife, 
born March (i, 1784, survived until January, 29, 1874. Their children were Tabitha 
(Mrs. Isaac Merritt), Norion, Sally, (Mrs. Lucius Carter), and Oliver. 

Oliver Crippen, the youngest child of A.shley and Rebecca (Winnie) Crippen, was 
born on the farm at Penlicld upon which he spent his entire life, December 'SO, 1815. 
He inherited in full measure the thrifty characteristics of his Revolutionary ances- 
tors, his grandfather on his mother's side having been a soldier in the Revolutionary 
army, i rom necessity his education was limited to the district schools of his native 
town, but by close observation and general reading he acquired a fund of information 
and was well posted upon current events. Endowed with a rugged physique he 
assisted and finally succeeded his father on the farm, and made it a home upon which 
he looked with laudable pride, as many of its improvements were the result of his 
individual labor. » n February 8, 1838, he mai'ried Miss Mar3% daughter of John C. 
Loomis, of Penfield, who survives him. '1 hey began their wedded life in the old log 
house on the Crippen homestead, where Mr. Crippen erected the present frame 
dwelling in 1847, in which he died December 20, 1888, a little more than eleven 
months after the appropriate celebration of their fiftieth wedding anniversary, being 
at that time the second oldest native of the town, his brother Norton being the oldest. 
He left two .sons and a daughter: Heman N., of Henrietta; Henry N., of Penfield; 
and Clara (Mrs. Asher T. Lane), now living on the homestead. Mr. Lane was a 
soldier in Co. F, 3d N. Y. Cav. , enlisting from Niagara county, and being promoted 
corporal. He came w'ith his parents to the town of Penfield soon after 1870, and on 
May 27, 1879, was married to Miss Clara Crippen, who with an only daughter, Mary 
E., survives him. He died March 19, 1891, aged forty-six. 

Mr. Crippen was a man richly endowed by nature with qualities which mark the 
successful farmer and respected citizen. His greatest characteristic was an ardent 
love for home and all that word signifies. He took pride in continuing the labors of 
his pioneer father and cherished the fact that his was one of the oldest families in 
town. He was emphatically a self-made man. He steadih' pursued the even course 
of a private citizen, yet he always manifested a lively interest in public and town 
affairs, in the progress and development of local education, and in the maintenance 
of religion. In politics he was first a Whig and then a Republican. He was gener- 
ous and kind to the poor, and always commanded the respect of all who knew him. 



GEORGE SALMON. 

Gkokgk Sal.mon, one of the leading agriculturists of the town of IVnfield, was 
born at Treswell, Woodhouse Farm, Nottinghamshire, England, April 18, 1831, and 
is a son of William and Mary (Parnham) Salmon, farmers. He received such edu- 
cation as boys of his class usually obtained at that period, but to this necessarily 




' -^^"^ J- 




a-^i-<^ 




TiMyr^y.ffyficU^ 



Ji^n. 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 9 

limited knowledge of books he added continually a fund of varied information by 
closely observing the life with which he came in contact. Raised on the farm, he 
early developed a strong constitution and imbibed the habits of thrift and industry 
which have characterized his entire career. April 10, 1854, he was married to Miss 
Elizabeth Dunston, who was born at Leverton, Nottinghamshire, November 25, 1830. 
Two children, daughters, were born to them in England, viz., Mary (now Mrs. 
Charles E. Kelly, of Brighton), born at Leverton, July 17, 1855, and Annie (now Mrs. 
W. R. Corris, of Rochester), born at HoUinwood, Lancashire, March 31, 1857. With 
this family Mr. Salmon came to America in 1858 and settled in Brighton, Monroe 
county, where he followed the occupation of a farmer. With no no capital but native 
energy, perseverance and thrift, he entered upon the work of accumulating a com- 
petency and making a home. For the first few years he worked on salary. In 1863 
he removed to the town of Penfield and for the first time engaged in farming for 
hnnself. Four years afterward he returned to Brighton, where he successfully fol- 
lowed the business of farming and market gardening until 1880, when he again came 
to Penfield and settled upon his present farm of 140 acres, about two miles northeast 
from the village. 

Mr. Salmon has always devoted his attention to agricultural pursuits, and is recog- 
nized as one of the prominent farmers of the county. Attempting only what he 
could carry out, he has been eminently successful, a fact due entirely to his own 
efforts, and largely to his personal labor. As a farmer he has always made it a point 
to have all crops in rotation, thus keeping the soil up to its highest standard of fer- 
tility and cultivation. Politicallj' he has for several years been identified with the 
Democratic party, though not in the sense of an office seeker or politician. In edu- 
cational matters he has always taken a keen interest, serving as trustee both in 
Brighton and Penfield, while in religion his means and support have assisted in sus- 
taining all churches irrespective of denomination. 

To the family of two children previously mentioned, six more were added in ]\Ion- 
roe county, namely: Sarah Jane (Mrs. Orin Loyd), of Penfield, born in Brighton, 
January 28, 1860; William Henry, a milk dealer in Rochester, born at Irondequoit. 
May 12, 1862; George Parnham, blacksmith and carriage-maker in Penfield village, 
born in Penfield, September 27, 1864; Charles Henry, a farmer of Penfield, born in 
Brighton, February 11, 1866; Frank Thomas, at home, born in Brighton, December 
10, 1868; and Edward Grant, a grocer of Rochester, born in Brighton, June 24, 1872. 



HARVEY WHALEN. 

Harvey Whai.en was born in Milton, Saratoga county, N.Y., December 22, 1809. 
being a son of Abel and Rebecca (Van Ostrand) Whalen, who were endowed with all 
the attributes of a race that, transmitted, qualified their children for successful 
careers. When a youth of fifteen he was apprenticed to the carpenter's trade, which 
he followed until he attained his majority. In 1835 he removed to Penfield, Monroe 
county, and settled on a farm of eighty acres in the northeast part of the town. His 
parents accompanied him here. Here the first few years were spent in obtaining a 
foothold as a farmer, and many were the incidents and accidents which interrupted 
B 



10 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

his projrrc'ss. With rare judgment and perseverance, however, coupled with an un- 
tarnished reputation, he finally succeeded in making a start. In 1848 he removed to 
his present farm, where his mother died March 2, 1855, and his father December 6, 
1857, aged respectively sixty-nine years six months, and .seventy-one years six 
months. This farm originally comprised sixty-six acres, to which fifty more were 
added in 1800, and contains one of the finest and most valuable apple orchards in the 
county. Mr. Whalen's judgment of land has never erred, as is evinced by his selec- 
tion of this property at a time when it was generally considered a poor investment. 
He has made it one of the finest farms in Western New York, taking great pains and 
.sparing no expense to improve and beautify it, and erecting upon it commodious 
buildings and a handsome brick dwelling, the latter being built in 1875. Here at the 
age of eighty-six, living in comparative retirement, he is enjoying the accumulations 
of a well spent life — the fruits of a career replete with the labors incident to frugaUty, 
singleness of purpose, and constant perseverance. 

Originally a Whig, Mr. Whalen has been a Republican since the formation of that 
party, but in no sense has he ever sought public preferment. He was for many years, 
however, commissioner of highways, holding that office dui-ing the construction of 
the first iron bridges in town. He was also over.seer of the poor for some time, and 
was one of the originators of the old Penfield Plank Road, of which he was president 
and director. In these capacities he was often party to a suit at law, but never on 
his own account has he engaged in litigation. His career has been an eventful one, 
filled with hard labor, with successes and reverses; marked by a steady purpose, an 
unswerving adherence to convictions, by indomitable perseverance, and by the deeds 
of an honest, upright man. In 1840 he joined the Baptist church in Webster and 
for fifty-five years his attendance and support have been given to that denomination, 
his transfer to the Penfield Society occurring upon his removal to his present home. 
Conscientious to a fault he has ever sustained a reputation which posterity will re- 
spect, emulate and revere. 

His first wife, Lucinda W. Watson, died June 2, 1854, aged forty, leaving two chil- 
dren: Henry v., of Chicago, 111., and John B., of Sycamore, 111. His present wife 
was Mrs. Sarah A. Wheeler, daughter of Philo Curtiss. Her maternal grandfather, 
Daniel Wilson, was the first occupant of Mr. Whalen's present farm, his .settlement 
occurring March 4, 1806; his daughter Sally, mother of Mrs. Whalen, was born in 
Penfield in 1804 and died on this place October 10, 1879. Mr. Whalen's children by 
his second marriage are Charles C, H. Wilson, and Howard C. All reside at home 
and follow the example of their worthy father. 



CHARLES S. WRIGHT. 

Foremost among the older and more prominent residents of the town of Webster, 
Monroe county, is Charles S. Wright, who was born in Bennington, Wyoming 
county, N. Y., June 19, 1821. He descends from respected New England ancestry, 
whose sturdy and thrifty characteristics he inherits in full measure. His parents 
were Levi and Arathusia (Brigham) Wright, natives of New Hampshire, who emi- 




2, 



mU./AOj^^^ 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 11 

grated to Western New York at a very early day. Levi Wright was a soldier in the 
war of 1812, was taken prisoner at the battle of Fort Ticonderoga, and was ex- 
changed at Greenbush for an English trooper. At the time of his death he was in 
receipt of a pension, which now goes to his second wife, who was Esther Whitmore, 
and who resides in Illinois. Charles S. remained at home until he attained the age 
of thirteen, working on the farm summers and attending district school winters. At 
that time the mother died and the fatlier moved to Webster, where he married again. 
Young Wright then commenced the work of taking care of the family, laboring by 
the month, obtaining such schooling as the leisure of winters afforded, and engaging 
in various business until he reached his majority. Prior to this he was for two years 
with Turner & Grant and Dyer, Hollister & Amon Bronson in the lumber business 
in Allegany county, devoting his whole time and energies to his employers and re- 
ceiving remunerative wages. Dependent as he was from a youthful age upon his 
own resources his education was necessarily limited to the common schools, but to- 
the knowledge he acquired there he persistently added a rich fund of general in- 
formation by reading, observation, and practical experience, and these habits have 
characterized his whole life. Meanwhile his father had returned to Wyoming county 
and subsequently removed to Bethany, Genesee county, and from there, in 1842, the 
family, including Charles S., emigrated to Somonauk, 111., with a pair of horses, the 
journey occupying thirty-five days. They arrived on July 15, and the father re- 
mained, purchased land, and died in the possession of a handsome property at the 
age of seventy-four. 

Charles S. Wright engaged in staging until November, 1842, when, on account of 
severe illness in the settlement and the extreme tmhealthfulness of the place, he re- 
turned to New York State and settled permanently in the town of Webster, Monroe 
county. The first year he worked by the month. On October 3, 1844, he married 
Sabrina G. Robb, who for fifty-one years has been his faithful and efficient helpmeet. 
Reared a farmer and early inured to the arduous labors of a farmer's life, I\Ir. Wright 
has always followed agricultural pursuits. He has been eminently successful, a fact 
due solely to his indomitable perseverance, his unceasing activity, and his great 
business ability. In purchasing land his inflexible rule has been to never run in 
debt, and in this, applied also to other transactions, lies the secret and fundamental 
principles of his unqualified success. He settled on his present farm northeast of 
Webster village in 1849, and has made it one of the finest rural properties in the 
country, adorning it with substantial buildings, and prolific orchards. 

I'or nearly forty years Mr. Wright has been actively and prominently identified 
with the official life of both town and county. In 1858 he was elected commissioner 
of highways, and in 1859 he received the election of overseer of the poor. At this 
time the poor department of the town was in a very depleted condition, but Mr. 
Wright discharged the duties of both offices to the full satisfaction of the taxpayers. 
A few years previously he had left the ranks of the Free Soil Democrats and affiliated 
with the Republicans, signing the call to organize that party in the State, and ad- 
vocating the election of Fremont as president. Since then he has staunchly sup- 
ported the cause of Republicanism. In 1860 he was elected supervisor of the town 
of Web.ster and held that office for five years, or during the Rebellion. In this 
capacity the work he performed was invaluable. He was always at his post in the 
board, served on many important committees in regular session, and was associated 



ii Landmarks of monroe county. 

with the late Hon. Donald McNaughton in closing up much outside business caused 
by that memorable war. In 1804 he was appomted by Gov. Reuben E. Fenton to 
personally make a correct enrollment of all men in his town liable to a draft, and in 
the same year town bonds were issued to the amount of §24,000 to aid in furnishing 
soldiers and substitutes for drafted men. One-half of these bonds were payable Feb- 
ruary 15, 1865, and the remainder one year later. Substitutes were furnished to fill 
the quota, the §24,000 was raised on the taxable property, and the bonded indebted- 
ness was fully paid at maturity — all by Mr. Wright in the capacity of supervisor. 
In 1869 he was elected to represent the first assembly district of Monroe county in 
the State Legislature, and in 1870 was re-elected to the same office. In October, 
1871, he received the appointment of railroad commissioner of the town of Webster 
for the purpose of issuing town bonds to aid in constructing the then Lake Ontario 
Shore railroad (now the R., W. & O.). Several suits were commenced to test the 
legality of these bonds, but the bonding proceedings were declared legal, the bonds 
were issued, and payments have been made from time to time as they became due, 
which required a large amount of work on the part of the commissioner. Mr. Wright 
has continuously held this responsible position to the present time with entire satis- 
faction to all interested parties. On April 3, 1873, he was appointed notary public, 
an office he has efficiently filled ever since. After this he was again elected town 
overseer of the poor and efficiently discharged the duties of that position for several 
years, placing it once more upon a firm and satisfactory basis. 

It is as a conveyancer, guardian, and administrator that Mr. Wright is most widely 
and favorably known. June 19, 1866, he was elected a trustee of the Monroe County 
Insane Asylum and served in that capacity twenty-six consecutive years, during six 
of which he was president of the board. At the beginning of his service the asylum 
was in its infancy ; it has since been four times enlarged and its capacity increased 
fourfold, and much of its success is due to his practical economy and good judgment. 
He was one of the first to advocate the introduction of kind and humane treatment 
in the care of those deprived of liberty, and in various other directions his progres- 
sive ideas and great influence materially advanced the institution to its present 
standard of efficiency. While yet a trustee Mr. Wright was appointed a committee 
for eight persons of unsound mind, some of whom had property while others were 
entitled to pensions from the government. In every case the object for which he 
was appointed was a perfect success. The survivors among those eight persons now 
receive pensions and are no longer public charges. Nearly all the services in this 
capacity he has given gratuitously, and the loiig, constant work involved cannot be 
comprehended or appreciated. 

Mr. Wright is emphatically a self-made man, and as a public benefactor he stands 
among the foremost of his time. In the Legislature no man was more attentive to 
duty or acquired a better reputation as an earnest worker. Always depending upon 
his judgment, he took an active part in all great questions and served with marked 
ability on such important committees as banking, federal relations, agriculture, etc. 
This trait of fidelity has marked his entire life. He has always borne the respect, 
confidence, and esteem of every one who knew him, and for many years has been 
guardian, administrator, and conveyancer to a large number of interests. He has 
probably settled more estates than any other man in town, and ever since his legisla- 
tive service he has not only acted in this capacity but also in the capacity of drawing 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 13 

wills, conveyances, and other legal documents. Although not an attorney or a claim 
agent he has nevertheless successfully attended to numerous pensionary claims of 
veterans of the Rebellion, obtaining in every case attempted a pension for the appli- 
cant and giving valuable services in this connection almost without remuneration. 
This work, appreciated as it is by scores of old soldiers, has brought him frequently 
into close relations with the pension department, while his labors as an administrator 
have given him much practice in Surrogate's Courts. 

Mr. Wright has had born to him three sons: Ansel E., born May 2, 1848, super- 
visor of Webster since 1891 and for the past two years chairman of the board; Elwyn 
R., born September 22, 1850, of Avon, Livingston county; and Dufay, born Septem- 
ber 14, 1857, of Webster. 



ANDREW LINCOLN. 

Somewhere between 1633 and 1637 three brothers of the name of Lincoln emigrated 
from England to America. One of them settled in Massachusetts, and from him 
Josiah Lincoln, of Cape Cod, town of Eastham, Barnstable county, Mass., descended. 
His son, Andrew Lincoln, was born there September 27, 1784, and inherited all the 
sterling characteristics of his race. He enjoyed but meagre advantages in the youth- 
ful pursuit of knowledge except as they came to him in the form of hard work and 
practical experience. At the age of fourteen, with five dollars in his pocket, young 
Andrew left home and learned the trade of carpenter and joiner. In 1816 he came 
to the town of Perinton, Monroe county, where he followed carpentering one season, 
working al.so in Henrietta, Brighton, etc. In 1818 he removed to the farm in Perin- 
ton, near Penfield village, now owned and occupied by his son Josiah K., where he 
spent the remainder of his life. Engaging in farming he owned at the time of his 
death about 350 acres of land besides one of the most valuable mill properties in the 
count}^ In 1821 he formed a partnership with Samuel Rich as Rich & Lincoln and 
built the first merchant grist mill and the third mill of any kind in the town. It had 
three runs of stone and stood on Irondequoit Creek on the opposite side of the road 
from the present stone mill — on a site that has ever smce yielded a valuable income 
to its owners. His first mill pond embraced about twenty-five acres. About 1836 he 
became sole owner of the property, and for many years did the most of the milling 
business for miles around. In 1847 he built a new dam and the present stone mill, 
and in doing so doubled the area of the old mill pond. This mill originally had four 
runs of stone and two overshot wheels, employed constantly four millers, and was 
succes.sfully conducted by Mr. Lincoln until his death November 26, 1866, when it 
passed to its present owner, W. H. WoodhuU. This mill was designed principally 
for merchant work at a cost of $25,000, the stone for it being drawn by teams in win- 
ter from what is known as the 1,600-acre tract, six miles di-stant, in the town of Pen- 
field. It has since been converted into a modern roller flour mill and is now one of 
the best equipped establishments of the kind in this section. Mr. Lincoln did an ex- 
tensive business, which penetrated into remote sections of the country. He owned 
a canal boat and shipped large quantities of flour to Albany, New York, and else- 
where, whence it was sold throughout the east. On this same stream, near the grist 



14 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

mill, he conducted a large saw mill for about thirty-five years. With Benjamin 
Arey, under tlie style of Lincoln & Arey, he also carried on a tannery for a period of 
twenty years, furnishing in the three establishments employment for a large force of 
skilled artisans and doing a business which rivaled in magnitude any similar enter- 
prise in Western New York. For a few years he was also interested in a store m 
Penfield under the firm name of Harvey & Lincoln. 

Mr. Lincoln was originally a Whig and later a Republican, but never an office 
seeker. Ever true to his convictions he remained the quiet, enterprising citizen, and 
although not a church member yet he gave liberally of his means for the mainte- 
nance and promotion of gospel work, owning at one time a pew m each of the three 
edifices in his neighl^orhood. He possessed a fund of general information, which he 
acquired by diligent reading and close observation. In educational matters he was 
one of the leaders of his time. He was a founder of and a generous contributor to 
the old Penfield Seminary, and had the contract to furnish the lumber for its con- 
struction. 

His wife, Miss Sarah A., daughter of Jacob Kennedy, was born in Sherburne, 
Chenango county, N. Y., in 1801, and removed with her father's family to Brighton 
at a very early day. After her marriage to Mr. Lincoln in Henrietta, January 31, 
1827, she resided in Perinton until her death in 1883. She was of Scotch descent and 
well qualified for the duties of a pioneer woman in the then wilderness of Western 
New York. With a skill which would now be considered a talent she could take flax 
or wool in the rough and card, spin, weave, and make it into all kinds of wearing 
apparel for the family's use and comfort. She was one of the first members of the 
Baptist church at the Upper Corners prior to its removal to Penfield village in 1839, 
and throughout life maintained an active interest in Sabbath school work. Her 
grandfather, Andrew Kennedy, a sea captain, married Amy Wentworth and settled 
in Milton near Boston. Miss Wentworth was a lineal descendant of the titled 
family of the name in England, who trace their common ancestry to Reginald Went- 
worth in 1066, as is shown by the "Wentworth Genealogy," by Hon. John Went- 
worth, LL.D. They had six children: Harriet (Mrs. B. A. Baird), of Salt Lake City, 
Utah; Andrew W., Charlton U., and Josiah, of Perinton; Sarah A. (deceased); and 
Sarah A., 2d (Mrs. William Fellows), of Penfield. 



JOSIAH K. LINCOLN. 

JosiAH K. Lincoln, youngest son and fourth child of Andrew and Sarah A (Ken- 
nedy) Lincoln, was born on his present farm in Perinton, near Penfield village, Sep- 
tember 11, 1835. His education was limited to the district schools, supplemented by 
a brief attendance at the Clover Street Seminary near Brighton. At the age of four- 
teen he went to Boston, Mass., where he was employed for nearly three years in a 
wholesale flour commission house. Since then he has resided in Perinton, and upon 
his father's death succeeded to the homestead. He has always been a farmer, a vo- 
cation in which his success has been marked. For several years prior to the death 
of his father he was also actively engaged in the management of the extensive mill 
property. 




^i<kV. \\ .^^A^^VW^ 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 15 

Mr. Lincoln is a Republican, but like his father eschews public office. He is a 
liberal supporter of education and religion, takes a leading interest in the welfare 
and advancement of his neighborhood, and was a charter member of D. B. De Land 
Lodge, No. 536, L O. O. F., of Fairport. July 1, 1895, he married Miss Alice, 
daughter of John Ford, of Penfield. 

He is one of the representative men of the county and has ably conducted that 
portion of the extensive estate accumulated by his respected father which fell to his 
share, giving to it his entire attention. In town affairs and in local improvemnts he 
is one of the foremo.st promoters, and in all the relations of rural life sustains the 
reputation of a generous, plain, and substantial citizen. 



JOHN D. DUNNING, M. D., 

The oldest physician in Webster, Monroe county, was born in that town on the 28th 
of June, 1826, and traces his ancestry through many generations to colonial times. 
For nearly two hundred years the family has enjoyed the privileges of American 
citizens, and during that period a number of its members have been prominent in 
professional, civil, and business life. Their careers present an unbroken line of pat- 
riotism, honesty, courage, and self-respect, and their lives from first to last are 
exemplary to a fault, and worthy of emulation. Two brothers of the name, Benjamin 
and John, were among the original settlers of Newtown, Fairfield county. Conn., 
coming from the older towns of Fairfield and Strafford. In 1712 the former was 
chosen constable of Newtown, while the latter was elected fenceviewer. Benjamin 
Dunning was married about 1710 to Elizabeth, daughter of Capt. John Miner, and 
died in 1739. Their son, Michael, was born July 30, 1730, married Abiah Wheeler 
on July 19, 1750, and died February 28, 1811, in Pownal, Vt, where he had settled 
in 1762. He was an active patriot during the Revolutionary war, and assisted in 
raising the force with which Ethan Allen captured Ticonderoga. Among the soldiers 
was his son Josiah, afterwards a pensioner. Another son, Abel, was born at Pownal, 
Vt., July 12, 1763, and for a time lived in Amsterdam, N. Y. He was also a patriot 
in the Revolutionary war. At the age of fourteen he served as a camp boy, and when 
of proper age joined the Revolutionary army. He was a pensioner He married 
Maria Smith, of Clifton Park, Saratoga county, N. Y., in 1783. He died August 16, 
1841. His son Gerard, the father of Dr. John D., was born at Northampton, N. Y., 
January 23, 1785, and came to what is now the town of Webster (then Penfield), 
Monroe county, in 1811, setthng on a farm of 125 acres about a mile east of the vil- 
lage, where he died November 12, 1847. Gerard Dunning was a life-long farmer 
and Democrat, and took an active interest in local affairs, especially in the cause of 
education. He was one of the earliest members of the Webster Baptist church, and 
long its trustee. He married Polly, daughter of Lawton Hicks, of Saratoga county, 
who was born January 30, 1790, and whose death occurred January 9, 1864. She was 
one of the original members of the Webster Presbyterian church, and until her de- 
cease remained an active communicant of that society. Both husband and wife were 
prominent in religious circles, giving to the cause a strong faith and an unceasing 



16 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

support. They reared eight sons and two daughters: Abel, born February IT, 1811 ; 
Lawton, born April 3, 1813; Richard, born December 22, 1814, died at Toledo, Ohio, 
in April, 1895; Almy, born January 9, 1817; Philo, born March 23, 1819; Ruth, born 
March 7, 1821; Michael, born February 29, 1824; Dr. John D , our subject; Hicks, 
born September 23, 1828; and Gerard, jr., born November 20, 1831. All are deceased 
except Philo and Michael, of Madison, Wis., and Dr. John D., of Webster. 

Dr. John D. Dunning obtained his literary education in the district schools of his 
native town, at the old Webster High School, and at Walworth Academj' in Wayne 
county. Reared on the farm, his early life was not unlike that of other farmer boys, 
but inheriting the sterling characteristics of his New England ancestry and all the 
thrifty attributes of his race, he forged ahead with a rapidity which only a bright 
intellect can endure. He early developed a rugged constitution and studious habits, 
and from a youth inclined toward a professional life. Leaving the academy, he 
taught school for five winters and worked on the farm summers. He then began the 
study of medicine in the office of the late Dr. E. B. Potter, of Webster, and after 
thorough preparation there entered Dr. Camp's office in Buffalo, where he attended 
lectures at the Buffalo Medical College, from which he was graduated in the class of 
1852. Immediately afterward he commenced the practice of his profession in Web- 
ster, with his former preceptor. Dr. Potter, with whom he remained one year. He 
then practiced alone until 1891, when he formed his present partnership with Dr. 
Charles Reitz. For more than forty-three years Dr. Dunning has attended the sick 
in his own and adjoining towns, administering to their comfort day and night, in all 
kinds of weather, and regardless of poverty or affluence. At the bedside, in the sick 
room, in cases of life and death, his skill and counsel have cheered many a sufferer, 
and scores of patients are indebted not only to his remedies but to his genial pres- 
ence and eticouraging advice. He has always kept abreast of the times, and in doing 
so took a post-graduate course at the medical department of the University of Penn- 
sylvania in Philadelphia in 1871. In 1884 he was appointed one of the original Fel- 
lows, and consequently became a charter member of the New York State Medical 
Association, and in 1885 was sent by that society to the American Medical Associa- 
tion, which elected him a permanent member. In 1887 he was admitted a member 
of the Ninth International Medical Congress at Washington. He is also an honorary 
member of the Rochester Pathological Society, and for many years has been an 
active member of the Monroe County Medical Society. 

As a citizen Dr. Dunning has ev6r been intimately associated with the growth and 
progress of the community, and in this connection he may be justly considered a 
public benefactor. With a pride and patriotism born of love for native surroundings 
he has earnestly labored for the advancement and welfare of his village and town, 
both of which owe him a debt of gratitude. He has been a life-long Democrat, ever 
staunchly advocating the cause of his party, and supporting its candidates when the 
town contained but twelve other voters of that political faith. In 1871 he was 
appointed one of the first railroad commissioners of Webster, which position he has 
held ever since, and in which capacity he has served with rare fidelity to local inter- 
ests. He long advocated the construction of the Lake Ontario Shore (now the R., 
W. & O.) Railroad, and labored unceasingly in realizing its completion. He was one 
of the founders of the present Webster Union Free School and Academy about nine- 
teen years ago, and was president of its first Board of Education, serving in that 




-^^^^^^^H^ ^J^^^;-J.M^ 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 17 

capacity during the organization of the institution, the erection of the building, and 
until the school was firmly established. His efforts in founding an adequate educa- 
tional system in the village have placed him in the foremost ranks of local benefac- 
tors, and he has been a member of the board almost continuously since its inception. 
Through his influence and individual labors, also, the Webster Rural Cemetery 
Association was incorporated and acquired the old village burial ground, one of the 
oldest burial places in this section, together with adjacent land, which has been im- 
proved, platted, and beautified, making it one of the prettiest rural cemeteries in the 
county. Being the prime mover in securing this result he was president of the asso- 
ciation for several years, and has alwaj-s taken a lively interest in its development. 
Dr. Dunning is practically a self-made man. Public spirited, enterprising, and gen- 
erous, the cause of education, religion, and all worthy institutions find in him a firm 
friend and liberal supporter. He has accumulated a comxpetency, and owns not only 
a pleasant residence and farm in the village but also a valuable farm in the town. 

Dr. Dunning married, first, Miss Luna E., daughter of Lewis Stratton, of Webster, 
who died April 23, 1870, aged thirty-six. Their three children died in infancy. 
December 11, 1872, Dr. Dunning married his present wife, Hattie Curtice, daughter 
of Luther, was born in Webster, July 8, 1847. Their children are Polly Hicks, born 
January 30, 1883, and John Donald, born July S9, 1889. 



DAVID TODD. 

The Todd family is of Scotch origin a,nd dates back to the eleventh century, when 
its progenitors, who spelled the name "Tod," left the "banks and braes" of Old 
Scotia for Pontefract, England. In native lore the word signifies "fox," and on the 
family crest was a picture of that wily animal. In 1639 Christopher Todd and his 
wife, Grace Middlebrook, emigrated to America, being among the earliest settlers of 
New Haven, Conn. Samuel Todd, their son, married Mary Bradley, and their son 
Jonah wedded Hannah Clark. Abram Todd, sr. , son of Jonah, was born February 
18, 1710, and on November 13, 1727, married Hannah Dickin.son. He preached in 
the Congregational church at Greenwich, Conn., about forty years. His son, Abram 
Todd, jr., was born December 21, 1738, and subsequently settled in Lewisboro, 
Westchester county, on a farm which is now owned by his lineal descendants. On 
August 24, 1757, he married Lydia Husted, and their son David was born July 29, 
1776. David Todd was married December 24, 1793, to Hannah Sutherland, and in 
1795, settled in Westchester county on a farm that is still in possession of the family. 
Wright Todd, son of David and father of the subject of this sketch, was born Feb- 
ruary 14, 1798, and in 1826 removed to the Genesee country, settling in the town of 
Greece, Monroe county, on a farm of eighty acres, now owned and occupied by his 
.son, Orin W. Wright Todd was a man of considerable native ability, inheriting 
the characteristics of a long line of worthy ancestry. He spent his long life in farm- 
ing, and always took a lively interest in town und public aflfairs. In old age he 
retired and removed to Rochester, where he died April 12, 1875. He married Betsy 
Denike, whose death occurred January 17, 1876. Her father QSkXne over in the 
c 



18 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY 

British army during the Revokitionar>' war, but deserted, and was afterward a gar- 
dener on Long Island. Mr. and Mrs. Todd had born to them six sons and one 
daughter, namely: David, of Rochester; John, Sylvester, Jackson, and Mary Ann, 
who died young; Albert, of Ypsilanti, Mich. ; and Orin W., who occupies the home- 
stead in Greece. 

David Todd was born in Peekskill, Westchester county, N. Y., April 15, 1320, and 
removed to the Genesee country with his parents in 182G He was educated in the 
district schools of Greece, and remained on the paternal farm until he attained the 
age of twenty-three. His early life was not unlike that of other farmer's boys. 
Inured to hard labor on the tree-covered acres of what was then little better than a 
frontier, he developed a rugged constitution and acquired the habits of thrift which 
characterize old-time inhabitants. In 1843 he married Eliza, daughter of Abram 
Speer, an early settler of Greece, and engaged in farming for himself on a seventy- 
acre tract near the homestead. After three years he purchased a wood lot of about 
eighty acres of his father, and soon added to this an adjoining sixty acres. He con- 
tinued to buy and sell adjacent real estate until he finally owned some 340 acres of 
as fine farming land as can be found in Western New York. It was situated on the 
famous Ridge Road, about seven miles from Rochester, and contained substantial 
buildings, prolific orchards, and every modern improvement — all the result of Mr. 
Todd's individual labors and active management. In 1888 he sold this hand.some 
property for §40,0(JO, and moved to the city of Rochester, where he has since lived a 
retired life, enjoying the fruits of a profitable career. 

Mr. Todd has always affiliated with the Democratic party, and for two years rep- 
resented the town of Greece on the Board of Supervisors. Public spirited, ever 
manifesting a deep interest in local affairs, supporting with marked liberality all g(X)d 
movements, and lending his influence in the cause of progress and advancement, he 
has always borne the respect and esteem of his townsmen and enjoyed the intimate 
friendship of a wide circle of acquaintances. His estimable wife died May 11, 1884, 
leaving two daughters: Mary Frances, at home, and Sarah Elizabeth (Mrs. Thomas 
Pryor), of Greece. 



CHARLES H. CARROLL. 

John Cakroi.i., the great-grandfather of the subject of this memoir, descended 
from one of the most ancient and honorable families of Ireland, and was born in 
Philadelphia, Pa., in 1752. With his brother Daniel, the wealthy shipowner of that 
city, he was very active in the cause of American Independence, contributing both 
labor and means for freedom from Engli.sh tyranny. He was a cousin of Charles 
Carroll, of Carmlltou, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and 
manifested great patriotism throughout the Revolutionary war. Before the close of 
that struggle he came to New York State and married Marie Van Alstyne, daughter 
of the famous Mohawk Valley patriot of that name. Their son William married 
Appylonia, daughter of Col. Charles Ingersoll, of Great Barrington, Mass. Hamil- 
ton Merritt Carroll, son of William, wedded Martha Kenwood, dciughter of an officer 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 19 

of the British army, who inherited a large estate in Canada, where Charles H. Car- 
roll, their son, was born in 1851. 

Charles H. Carroll was educated for the law, but his father, through bad invest- 
ments, lost all his property, and he turned his attention to mercantile pursuits. He 
entered the dry goods house of G. Doeltz & Brother in Detroit, Mich., and remained 
four years, when he went to the establishment of Barnes, Bancroft & Co. in Buffalo, 
N. Y., and remained five years. He then (1881) came to Rochester and established 
business for himself under the firm name of Carroll, Beadle & Mudge. which still 
continues, and of which he has always been the senior member. This concern is now 
one of the largest, best known, and most prosperous in the city, and carries a com- 
plete line of dry goods, millinery, cloaks, upholstery, etc. As a business man Mr. 
Carroll has been very successful. He is a member of the Rochester Club and the 
Rochester Yacht Club. 



HENRY E. vSTANLEY. 

Henry E. Stanley, the second son and child of Erastus and Lucy Ann (Dicken- 
son) Stanley, worthy representatives of an English ancestry, was born in New Hart- 
ford, Oneida county, N.Y., February 18, 1808. His parents, who were liberally en- 
dowed with all the habits of thrift and energy which characterized old-time New 
Englanders, removed to that town from Hartford, Conn., at a very early day. There 
the lad received his education, which was necessarilj' confined to the district schools, 
the advantages for obtaining a knowledge of common English at that period being 
few and meagre. While yet a youth his father removed with the family to Monroe 
county and settled on a farm on Allen's Creek, in the town of Brighton, where Mr. 
Stanley, pere, built one of the first saw mills in the neighborhood. There the father 
died in 1852 and the mother in 1864. Both were prominent and active members of 
the old Brighton Congregational church, and well qualified for the duties of pro- 
gressive pioneers. Their abundant traits of native energy were transmitted in full 
measure to their five children, of whom four were sons. Erastus Stanley took a 
quiet but effective interest in town affairs, lending to every good movement an in- 
fluence and public spirit which placed him among the leading men of his time. He 
was long connected, with the old State militia and ever foremost in annual trainings. 

Upon the death of his parents Henry E. Stanley succeeded to the homestead, pay- 
ing off the other heirs and living there until 1870. He also conducted the saw mill 
previously mentioned, and successfully maintained and improved the business inter- 
ests his father had founded. He was always a great worker and a life-long farmer, 
and for many years assisted in the support of the family, being virtually its head and 
manager. In 1870 he purchased and removed to the farm of seventy-five acres on 
the same stream in Penfield, which his heirs now own, and which is situated about 
two miles northeast of the old homestead. This he greatly improved and beautified, 
making it one of the best farms in the county. It was bought by C. W. Austin in 
1847 and conducted by him for twenty-three years. Early in 1877, his health failing, 
Mr. Stanley moved to Brighton village, where he died on the 7th of September fol- 
lowing. 



20 Landmarks of monroe cotJNTy. 

In all the relations of life Mr. Stanley sustained the confidence, respect and esteem 
of every person who had ever enjoyed his acquaintance. His word was as good as 
his bond. Charitable, kind and generous to a fault, his deeds and acts of benev- 
olence are imperishable monuments to a just man. The poor were special objects of 
his goodness and always testified their gratitude in marks of respectful admiration. 
His character and reputation were above reproach. His tastes were emphatically 
domestic. In the bosom of his family he found that sweet happiness and celestial 
enjoyment which a refined and trustful nature invariably craves. There all his 
aspirations centered, and there he was best known and most appreciated. He was 
an earnest and constant Christian, but never made a parade of his religion. His 
habits, his whole life, were unostentatious, yet from them there emanates a lasting 
influence for good. He was a life-long member of the CongregaMonal church and 
for many years one of its honored trustees. He always manifested a keen interest 
in town affairs and favored every movement which had for its object the advance- 
ment and good of the community. Educational, religious, social, business and public 
matters constantly received his encouragement and assistance. Being a great reader, 
he was well posted upon general topics. He lived the life of a quiet citizen, and, 
dying, was mourned by a large circle of friends and acquaintances. 

On Decembers, 1862, Mr. Stanley married Miss Mary A., daughter of C. W. 
Austin, who survives him. She was born in 1841, and moved with her parents from 
Ontario county to Penfield in 1845. They had born to them three daughters: Addic 
E. (Mrs. W. E. Burrows), w-ho resides with her husband on the farm in Penfield ; 
Minnie A., of the same place; and Cora L. (Mrs. W. H. Salmon), of Rochester. 



ICHABOD LEONARD. 

IcHAiiou Leonard, jr., the subject of this memoir, was of the seventh generation 
in direct descent from Solomon Leonard, the founder of the family in America, who 
emigrated with the Puritans from England in 1020. Ichabod Leonard, sr., youngest 
of thirteen children of Dan Leonard, originally .settled in Eastern Massachusetts, 
w^hence he subsequently removed to Pittsfield, in that State. He was born July 11, 
1771, and on October 15, 1795, married Sarah Stearns, whose birth occurred April 9, 
1775. Their children, all natives of Pittsfield, were Samuel, born July 27, 1796, died 
in Michigan; Ichabod, jr., born April 2 J, 1798; Friend, a carpenter and bridge 
builder, born September 28, 1800, died in Indiana, January 20, 1850; Nathaniel W., 
born February 27, 1804, died June 25, 1834; Mary Ann, born September 4, 1808, died 
April 11, 1840; and Chauncey, born June 19, 1816, died in Michigan in 1893. Samuel, 
the eldest, served in the War of 1812, while his uncle, Dan Leonard, jr., partici- 
jjated in the American Revolution. 

In 1816 Ichabod Leonard, jr., removed to the then wilderness of Western New 
York and thus became the pioneer of the family in the Genesee country. Soon after- 
ward his parents and brothers and sister joined him, and all settled on a farm in the 
town of Brighton, Monroe county. Friend, Nathaniel W., and Chauncey engaged 
in carpentering and building while the others followed farming. Ichabod, jr., also 
found employment in hauling stone from the quarries near the falls of the (ienesee 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 21 

for the first court-house in Monroe county, which was erected in 1821, and in after 
years he was fond of relating his experiences with rattlesnakes, then so plentiful 
among the rocky banks of the river. In 1823 the family removed to Penfield, where 
Mr. Leonard purchased of Samuel Rich the farm on which his son George R., 
now resides. There the parents Hved the residue of their lives. Ichabod Leonard, 
sr., died August 30, 1856, surviving his wife a little more than twenty-three years, 
her death occurring February 27, 1833. 

Ichabod Leonard, jr., was a life-long farmer. Receiving only the limited educa- 
tion which the public .schools of his day and generation afforded, he was nevertheless 
possessed of a large fund of general knowledge, and always sustained the reputa- 
tion of being well posted upon current events. He was emphatically a self-made 
man. Youthfully inured to the hard and wearying labors of a frontier farmer, and 
endowed with the strong constitution and rugged physique that characterized old- 
time New Englanders, he was thoroughly equipped for the career he so successfully 
followed, and in which he accumulated a comfortable competency. Coming into 
this section at a period when the forests were in their primitive condition he im- 
bibed a love and reverence for nature, and throughout life advocated with shrewd 
foresight the preservation of natural timber. This was long before any organized 
effort had been inaugurated for the purpose. He was first and last a private citizen, 
preferring the quietude of home to the strife and turmoil of public preferment, yet 
he ever manifested a lively interest in town aft'airs and in the general progress of 
the community. Charitable, kind and public spirited, he sustained the reputation 
of an honest, upright citizen, and at his death, February 18, 1867, was mourned by 
a wide circle of warm friends and acquaintances. In politics he was an old-time 
Whig and afterward a Republican. During the days of the old State militia he was 
prominent in general trainings and received a lieutenant's commission. He was an 
influential factor in local education and was one of the originators of the old Pen- 
field Seminary, of whose board of trustees he was for several years a member. His 
activity in sustaining this worth}' institution placed him among the leading advo- 
cates of advanced education in the county. 

July 3, 1834, Mr. Leonard married Miss Laura H. Northrup, who was born in Smith- 
field, Madison county, N. Y., in 1798. She was endowed with rare qualities of head 
and heart, and was an active member of the Penfield Presbyterian church, with 
which the whole family have been connected either as communicants or attendants. 
She died March 10, 1846, leaving four children: Charles N., Laura E. (since de- 
ceased), George R. (residing on the homestead) and Sarah E. The three living re- 
side in the town of Penfield. 



JAMES HARRIS. 

James Harris has been a life-long resident of the town of Penfield, Monroe 
county, where he was bom July 7, 1821. His paternal ancestors were Scotch, and 
.possessed all the rugged and thrifty characteristics of their race. William Harris, 
sr., a man of great native ability, married Mary Kilpatrick, whose family were prom- 
inent in the highlands of Scotland and date back to the times of Wallace and Bruce 



22 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

In 1802 they came to America and settled with their children in Fulton county, N.Y. 
William Harris, jr., their eldest son, was married in April, 180(5 (at the age of twen- 
ty-two) to Sally Shoecraft, oldest daughter of John Shoecraft. .Mr. Shoecraft entered 
the continental army from Ulster county and served in the Revolutionary war under 
General Washington. At the close of the war he married in Washington county, N. 
Y., Betsey McKee, whose family were among the most prominent and earliest settlers 
in that section. They subsequently settled in Fulton county. In June, 1806, Will- 
iam Harris, jr., and his newly wedded wife and John Shoecraft with his family em- 
igrated to the Genesee country and made settlements in what is now the town of 
Webster, where Mr. Shoecraft and two sous were participants in the State militia 
during the war of 1812, There Mr. Harris taught the iirst organized school in 1810. 
A few years later he removed to a farm in the town of Penfield, where he resided the 
residue of his life, dying in December, 1842. He was possessed of an excellent ed- 
ucation, which he had received amid the. "banks and braes" of old Scotia. Endowed 
with the attributes of a line nature and gifted with an unusual amount of intellectual 
ability he was a man of rare judgment, of deep penetration, and of great energy. 
He was often consulted on difficult problems and his opinions were seldom questioned. 
Although a Scotch Presbyterian he was at all times a liberal mindedand conscientious 
believer in the doctrines of universal freedom and ever maintained the right of in- 
dividual convictions. He industriously got at the truth by studying and reading 
both .sides of a subject. In politics he was a Whig, a strong Clintonian, an ardent 
admirer of Henry Clay, and a staunch supporter of General Harrison, and his aid 
and influence were constantly given in the promotion of public movements, both 
State and local. He always took a prominent part and an active interest in town 
affairs, and although in no sense an office seeker yet he served for several years as 
assessor. Of his eleven children the eldest, a son, died in early manhood, and the 
youngest, a daughter, in infancy; the others lived to maturity and old age, viz.: 
Mary K. (Mrs. Abncr P. Osborn), Betsey M. (Mrs. John M. Watson), Sally, (Mrs. 
Albert Raymond), William, (a successful farmer and owner of the homestead upon 
which he died in September, 188(5), and Martha (Mrs. Hiram W. Allen), all deceased ; 
and James, George F., Robert, and Peter, all substantial farmers in Penfield. 

James Harris, the subject of this memoir, was educated in the district .schools and 
finished with two terms at a select school in Penfield village. His opportunities in 
this connection were limited, but by per.sisteut study, back of w-hich was a worthy 
ambition, he succeeded in acquiring a thorough knowledge of the ordinary English 
branches. His father was an able teacher, and through him the youth attained a 
fair degree of proficiency. At the age of nineteen he taught a district school, and 
continued teaching for seven winters, working on the paternal farm summers. The 
two vocations gave him a good opportunity for development, which he improved to 
the fullest extent. Before he was twenty-two, and while yet engaged in teaching, 
he was elected a justice of the peace and held that office four years. Afterwards he 
served as town clerk and town superintendent of schools. In 1843 he was appointed 
by William C. Bouck, governor of New York, as captain of a uniformed company of 
militia attached to the 52d Regiment, and in that capacity made many valued ac- 
quaintances. His experience as a teacher abundantly qualified him for an able ad- 
vocate of local education, in which he has always manifested an active interest, and 
for the progress of which he has been a generous benefactor. He was an incorpo- 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 23 

rator of the old Penfield Seminary in 1857 and served as trustee during the existence 
of that institution, being the first president of the board and holding that office many 
years. When the seminary had outlived its usefulness he was made a member of 
the committee to procure the passage of a legislative act authorizing the sale of the 
property to the Penfield graded school. Prior to this, between 1850 and 1857, he was 
successfully engaged in general merchandising in the village, where he conducted a 
large trade. 

In the political arena of the town Mr. Harris was long a prominent and influential 
factor. Originally a Whig and then a Republican he has given his party and his 
constituents the service of a conscientious, faithful, and honest citizen, working for 
both with a fidelity born of true public spirit and patriotism. No man sustains a 
better reputation. Earnest, active, and consistent, advocating and supporting the 
cause of his party and its candidates, and taking the keenest interest in the general 
welfare and advancement, he has always been recognized as one of the able and 
trusted leaders. In 1853 he was elected supervisor of Penfield by a large majority 
and satisfactorily held that office by successive elections for fifteen out of the fol- 
lowing twenty-two years. When the war of the Rebellion broke out in 1861 himself 
and brothers took an active part in promoting the Union cause. Immediately after 
the fall of Fort Sumter a special town meeting was called for the purpose of adopting 
suitable measures and appointing a committee of public safety, of which Mr. Harris 
was one of the three members, a position he held until elected supervisor again in the 
spring of 1864, when the business of that organization was placed entirely in his hands 
and so contintinued until the close of the war and during the " reconstruction period " 
which followed. His valuable labors in this connection are worthy of more than a 
passing notice. Supported and aided by a majority of the leading citizens of the 
community he filled the town's quotas without a single inhabitant being drafted, save 
a few who were drafted early in the war under the act conferring option of service or 
payment of $300 each. His method was purely a business transaction. The call had 
been for one year men, and the town offered a bounty of §500 to each vohmteer. 
Realizing that men could be had for three years without increasing the bounties if 
the bonds were converted into cash, he wisely discriminated in favor of the longer 
term of enlistment, raised the necessary money, and filled the quota with three years' 
men to the number of sixty- three and bonds were issued to the amount of $31,500, 
and when the war closed the State, under the law equalizing bounties, paid back 
nearly two-thirds of this .sum, or about §20,000, to the town. All this occurred while 
Mr. Harris was in charge of the business as supervisor, and reflects ju'st credit upon 
his ability and shrewd management. He was continued in the office for several 
years afterward and satisfactorily carried out the plans and obligations he had in- 
augurated during those "times that tried men's souls." As a member of the board 
of supervisors and chairman of its finance committee he was prominent among the 
instigators of the law which changed the system formerly pursued in the county treas- 
urer's office to its present status, and which involved not only the disposition of pub- 
lic moneys but of returned taxes as well. And he was the first treasurer of the county 
to promulgate and place in operation the new law he had been instrumental in fram- 
ing, being elected to that office by a handsome majority in the fall of 1875, taking it 
October 1, 1876, and serving acceptably and efficiently a term of three years. Upon 



24 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

the expiration of that term he retired permanently to private life, and has ever since 
devoted his time to his property interests. 

Mr. Harris was never in any exclusive sense a politician, but has ever taken a 
lively interest in public affairs, and in every capacity has added lustre to his reputa- 
tion as an able and upright citizen. Charitable, fair minded, and honest, imbued 
with all the sterling characteristics of his race, and possessed of a keen discrimination 
for right and justice, he is an illustrious example of a self-made man, and has lived 
a life worthy of emulation. He has always been a liberal contributor to the cause of 
education and religion, sustaining and encouraging every movement which had for 
its object the welfare and advancement of humanity. With his family he sustains 
regular relations to the Baptist church of Pen held. Having been practically a life- 
long agriculturist he has ever given to rural interests an enthusiasm formed in early 
boyhood, and in matters of good government, good roads and good morals his aid 
and support is always foremost. He settled upon his present farm a little east of 
Penfield village on April 1, 1866; he also owns two other farms nearby, or a total of 
2.0 acres, upon allof which are substantial buildings and fruitful orchards. He takes 
a great interest in matters of local history and is a member of the Monroe County 
Historical Society. He was a charter member of the Association of Supervisors and 
ex-Supervisors of Monroe County, and at its annual meeting on Augnst 7, 1895, was 
unanimously elected its president. 

December 1, 1847, Mr. Harris married, first, Martha M., daughter of William Pope, 
of Penfield. She died January 1, 1880, leaving four children: James Darwin, a far- 
mer living in Fairport village; Robert, who died in November, 1887, aged thirty-one; 
George H., junior member of the law firm of Werner & Harris, of Rochester, who 
resides at home; and Mary K., at home. Mr. Harris's present wife, whom he mar- 
ried February 21, 1883, was the widow of Horace P. Lewisandadaughter of Charles 
Lacey, formerly of Poughkeepsie, N. Y. They have two children, Charles Lacey 
and Angie K. 



W. H. STOKES. 

W. H. Stokes, second child and oldest son of Jonathan A. and Maria (Van Valk- 
enburg) Stokes, was born m the town of Ontario, Wayne county, within four miles 
of his present residence at Union Hill in Monroe county, on August 26, 1859. His 
great-grandfather, Jonathan Stokes, a native of Scotland, was a commissioned officer 
in the Revolutionary war and was taken prisoner by the British. He settled in 
Dutchess county. N. Y., where his son Richard was born on the 2 st of February, 
1800. Richard Stokes was a man of great intellectual ability. About 1824 he emi- 
grated to Western New York and settled in the town of Ontario, Wayne county, 
where he died June 10, 1878. He was a life-long farmer, and being a constant reader 
was well posted on current events. He married Eliza, daughter of Augustus Norton, 
by whom he had four children. Mr. Norton came to Ontario from Greene county, 
N. Y., in 1810. and died there in 1859. Jonathan A. Stokes, the eldest child of Rich- 
ard and Eliza, was born in Ontario September 13, 1827, and lived there a farmer, 
during his active life, dying at Union Hill, Monroe county, March 2S, 1S!M. Origi- 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 25 

nally a Whig and afterward a Republican lie was long- a prominent fator in local pol- 
itics, and upon attaining his majority was elected town superintendent of schools, 
which in those days was an important office. He was subsequently as.sessor, high- 
way commissioner, deputy sheriff, etc., and in every capacity bore the reputation of 
an honest, upright, and influential citizen. In February, 1862, he enlisted as a pri- 
vate in Co. H, 22d N. Y. Vol. Cav., and served until the close of the Rebellion, par- 
ticipating in all the engagements of his regiment. He was the first commander of 
Myron M. Fish Post, G. A. R., of Ontario, of which he was one of the originators. 
November 8, 1856, he married Maria Van Valkenburg, of Walworth, N. Y., who sur- 
vives him and resides with her son at Union Hill. They had seven children, as fol- 
lows; Jennie E. (Mrs. James D. Parker), deceased; W. H., of Union Hill; George, 
Frank A. and Carrie, deceased; Minnie F. (Mrs. James Olbright), of Ontario Center ; 
and Anna E., of Union Hill. 

W. H. Stokes, after attending the district schools of his native town, finished his 
education at Walworth Academj' in Wa^me county. Inheriting the sterling charac- 
teristics of a long line of sturdy Scotch ancestry, and endowed by nature with a good 
constitution, he early developed all the attributes which make the successful man. 
After leaving the academy he engaged in teaching school, a vocation he contmued 
for five terms. His tastes and inclinations, however, were of a business trend, and 
resolving to enter mercantile trade he came, in 1884, to Union Hill, in the town of 
Webster, where he became a clerk in the store of F. M. Jones. In the fall of 1886 he 
purchased the stock and leased the premises, and entered into active business for 
himself. Four years later he bought the store property, and in 1894 enlarged the 
building to its present proportions, making it one of the largest, neatest, and best 
general country stores in Western New York. Besides this and the residence ad- 
joining he owns an attractive lot and dwelling in Union Hill which he purchased 
and built in 1893. Being a Republican he has always taken an active interest in town 
affairs, and is popular not only in his own community but wherever he is known. 
As a general merchant he has been very successful, attaining through strict attention 
to business a wide and favorable reputation. On June 25, 1889, he was appointed 
postmaster at Union Hill, which office he still holds. 

October 6, 1886, Mr. Stokes was married to Miss Mattie L., daughter of John and 
granddaughter of Byron Woodhull, both of Webster. Byron Woodhull was one of 
the earliest settlers of the town. He had a grist and saw-mill on the lake road 
for many years, and at the time the old court house was built he was judge of Monroe 
county. He was long a prominent Whig in political affairs, and was known 
throughout Western New York. Of his five sons four are living, three of them, Benja- 
min, William and John, in the town of Webster. John Woodhull was born here 
October 11, 1824. An only daughter died young. 



JAMEvS II. THATCHER. 

James H. Th.xtciier, a veteran of the Rebellion, was born in the town of Ontario, 
Wayne county, N.. Y., September 17, 1840. His grandfather, Peter Thatcher, a na- 
tive of Rhode Island, served along Lake Champlain during the KevoUuionary war. 



26 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

and about the beginning of this century settled with his wife, Phebe, on a farm in 
Ontario, where both lived and died. He also participated in the war of 1812, serving 
on the Niagara frontier. They had twelve children, of whom Cyrus was the third. 
Cyrus Thatcher was bom in Ontario and spent his entire life there, dying July 23, 
1890, aged seventy-six. He w-as always a farmer and succeeded to a part of the 
original homestead, but during some thirty years preceding his death resided on a 
farm an the Ridge road, where his widow now lives. He married Mercy, daughter 
of John Gage, of Ontario, and had five children Ellen Sophronia (wife and widow 
of Dr. Edson J. Whitcomb, now Mrs. Oscar F. Whitney), of Ontario; James H., the 
subject of this memoir; Riley L., who enlisted in the 146th N. Y. Vols, and died in 
the army in 1865 at Warrenton, Va. ; Amelia Lurissa (Mrs. Albert Hathaway), of 
Lansing, Mich. ; and Frank P., who died aged twenty-two. 

James H. Thatcher was reared, on the paternal farm, and inherited the thrifty 
characteristics and noble patriotism of his worthy ancestors. He attended the dis- 
trict schools of his native town and finished at the old Webster Academy, which was 
long ago destroyed by fire. In the outdoor life of agricultural pursuit he acquired a 
strong, robust constitution, while the educational advantages he enjoyed equipped a 
naturally bright intellect for the various duties of life. On the 8th of August, 1S62, 
following a strong patriotic impulse to aid his country m her hour of peril, he enlisted 
at Ontario in Co. B, 138th N. Y. Vol. Inft., which w-as afterwards changed to the 9th 
N. Y. Heavy Artillery. In this he served until the close of the war, being honorably 
mustered out of service at Syracuse as first sergeant on July 24, 1865. His army life 
from first to last was characterized by faithful adherence to duty and the highest 
and noblest patriotism. He participated in all the battles and engagements of his 
regiment, notably Cold Harbor, both Petersburgs, Sailor's Creek, Winchester, Cedar 
Creek, and Appomattox, being present at the final charge at Petersburg, at Lee's 
Surrender, and at the grand review in Washington. 

Returning from the war Mr. Thatcher settled permanently in Webster, Monroe 
county, where, on November 15, 1865, he married Miss Frances E., daughter of 
James L. Fox, of that town. He engaged in farming on his present farm of seventy- 
five acres a little west of LTnion Hill, and continued until about 1889. For fifteen 
years he had been extensively engaged in buying and selling fruit. In 1890 he formed 
a partnership with E. W. Bancroft, under the firm name of Bancroft & Thatcher, 
and not only continued the established fruit business but also carried on a hardware 
and furniture store at Union Hill. In February, 1895, he sold his interest in these 
enterprises to his partner and retired to private life. 

Mr. Thatcher has ever taken a lively interest in public affairs, lending his aid and 
influence in the cause of every good movement, and heartily promotmg the progress 
and advancement of his community. He is an unswerving Republican, a staunch 
advocate of the principles of his party, and a prominent factor in local politics. He 
was collector of the town one year, assessor for seventeen and a justice of the peace 
for the past seven years. He is deacon and trustee of the Webster Presbyterian 
church, and in religion as well as education takes an abiding interest. He is also a 
prominent member of Thomas Farr Post, No. 275, G. A. R. of Webster. In a pleas- 
ant and attractive home in the hamlet of Union Hill, he and his estimable wife are 
enjoying in retirement the accumulations of profitable, successful, and honorable 
careers. 




.yCyH^'^rf^!^f 



BlOGRAPfllCAL. 2? 

CHARLES F. LIGHTHOUSE. 

There are not a few gentlemen of Rochester who by their own efforts have risen to 
prominence in business, political and society circles, and one of them is Charles F. 
Lighthouse. Through the enterprise of which Mr. Lighthouse is the originator this 
city is represented in every city, county and hamlet having a post-office in the United 
States. He is a native of Rochester and was born April 24, 1855. He is one of the 
younger men of the city, and yet one of the best known. In early life he received a 
training in the best schools of the Flower City, and soon after entered upon a most 
successful business career. He is a tanner of. extensive experience and wide repu- 
tation. In 1879 Mr. Lighthouse established himself in business as a manufacturer of 
horse collars, and was very successful. In 1889 the Post-office Department at Wash- 
ington awarded him a contract for the exclusive manufacture of gevernment mail 
bags made of leather only. In August, 1893, he was awarded another contract for 
canvas mail bags, and at once began the manufacture of them also. His work has 
met the requirements of the government in each instance and he has to-day an ex- 
tensive manufactory on Court street near Washington Park as the result of his un- 
tiring efforts, which is a pride to the city. An average of twenty-five skilled hands 
are employed in this establishment and over 1,000 mail bags per week are manufac- 
tured for the government service. The products of the house meet every demand of 
the mail service, being light, hand}', safe and durable, and are the pefection of utility 
and convenience. 

Socially Mr. Lighthouse is a genial gentleman. He is very prominent in Masonic 
circles and as a business man his standing is most excellent. He is a member of the 
Chamber of Commerce, has a large circle of acquaintances and friends, andmanifests 
a deep interest in the welfare and advancement of his native city. 



RUFUS ADAMS SIBLEY. 

RuFLis Adams Sibley was born at Spencer, Mass., December 3, 1841, being a lin- 
eal descendant of John Sibley, who came from St. Albans, England, and settled at 
Salem, Mass., in 1629, about ten years later than the settlement of Plymouth. He i.s 
also a lineal descendant of that Henry Adams who arrived from Devonshire, Eng 
land, and settled at Quincy, Mass., in 1632, to whom President John Adams erected 
a monument in the old burying ground at Quincy, Mass., which bears this inscription 
— " In memory of Henry Adams, who took his flight from the dragon persecution i i 
Devonshire and alighted with eight sons near Mt. Wollaston." Also he is a lineal 
descendant of John Livermore, who arrived in New England in 1634, and settled in 
Watertown, Mass., in 1642. At the age of fifteen Mr. Sibley taught the winter term 
in a district school, and a second term the year following. At seventeen he entered 
a general store as clerk and bookkeeper, where he remained five years, leaving this 
situation for the purpose of completing his studies in civil engineering at the Law- 
rence Scientific School of Harvard College. He decided, however, to accept a posi- 
tion in the office of Hogg, Brown & Taylor, at Boston, remaining there three years, 



28 Landmarks of monroe county. 

when he resigned in order to commence the dry goods business in Rochester, N. V., 
under the firm name of Sibley, Lindsay & Curr, in March, 1868. Mr. Sibley was 
married. October 11, INTO, to Martha, daughter of Rev. John Hav6n,, of Charlton, 
Mass., who died in 1883, leaving a son, Edward R. Sibley. He married Elizabeth 
Sibley Conkey, in 1885, by whom he has two children. Since the foundation of the 
business house referred to, Mr. Sibley has been closely identified with the growth 
and prosperity of the city of his adoption, and has large interests in other portions 
of the United States. The twelve story fire-proof structure, known as the Granite 
building, in Rochester, erected by the firm of Sibley, Lindsay & Curr, in 1893, is an 
important contribution to the growth of the city. Mr. Sibley is a trustee of the 
Rochester Savings Banks, of the Rochester Trust and Safe Deposit Company, of the 
Security Trust Company, the Industrial School, the City Hospital, and the Univer- 
sity of Rochester, and a director in several corporations, and is, at the present time, 
actively engaged in the dry goods business with his partners in Rochester, New 
York city, Erie, Pa., Minneapolis, Minn., with offices in England, France, Germany, 
and Switzerland. 



STEPHEN W. RANDALL. 

Stki'HF.n Willari) Randall is a great-grandson of Rev. Stephen Randall, a native 
of Massachusetts, who was born June 1, 17(5:5, and died April 16, 1828. Stephen 
Randall 2d, the eldest son in the family of seven children of Rev. Stephen, was born 
April 5, 1786, and on Februar\- 9, 1809, was married to Lois Lord. In 1827 they 
emigrated from their New England home to the then wilderness of Western New 
York — the far famed Genesee country — and purchased in the town of Hamlin, Mon- 
roe county, what has ever since been the family homestead, where he died July 20, 
1861. Of their six children, Andrew Jackson Randall, the third son, was born April 
24, 1815, and at the age of twelve came with his parents to this section. On Septem- 
ber 14, 1837, he married Juliette King, who.se birth occurred July 5, 1815. Enduring 
many of the hardships of pioneer life they, bj* untiring industry and good manage- 
ment, continued to improve and add to the ancestral acres until the farm became 
what it now is, one of the most beautiful and productive of the many in this world- 
famed fruit garden of Western New York. They were liberally endowed with the 
sterling characteristics of old-time New Englanders, and with commendable zeal 
firmly and enduringly implanted those worthy attributes in the community. In 1861 
he erected the large family residence, in which he died August 28, 1879. His widow 
survived him until March 24, 1892, when her death occurred at the home of her 
daughter, Mrs. Augusta Northrop, in Reading, Mich. Mr. Randall was not without 
political honor. He always took an active interest in local affairs, lending his aid 
and influence in the cause of all worthy movements, and m 1869 represented the 
western district of Monroe county in the State Legislature. He left four children: 
Louisa L., born May 14, 1841, married to David W. Couklin on June 19, 1861 ; Har- 
rison L., born May 4, 1845, married, September 8, 1868, Juliette Elliott; Augusta, 
born April 10, 1855, married to W. Burr Northrop on September 21, 1882; and 
Stephen Willard, born January 26, 1847. 



BIOGRAPHICAL. , 29 

Stephen W. Randall has been a life-long occupant of the old homestead in Ham- 
lin. Possessed of a liberal education he is one of the very few who have always 
"stuck to the. farm." He inherited all the lofty principles of manhood and the 
worthier attributes of nature which characterized his New England ancestry, and 
has applied them effectively to the practical career of an agriculturist. Coming into 
possession of the paternal acres by purchase, and subsequently the adjoining farm, 
he has given his attention to fruit growing, and by advanced methods of horticul- 
ture, improved machinery, and high grade stock has kept well abreast of the times. 
He takes a hvely interest in town affairs, seeking always the advancement of the 
community, and every worthy project tinds in him a firm friend and substantial sup- 
porter. 

September 10, 1873, Mr. Randall married Ella B. Watson, who died February 21, 
1879, leaving an only child, Clayton B., born January 1:?, 1875. His second wife, 
whom he married September 28, 1880, was Lottie A. Watson, who died December 1, 
1882, leaving also an only child, Lottie A., who was born November 16, 1881. Sep- 
tember 12, 1889, Mr. Randall married, third, Lizzie A. Genung, whose death occurred 
December 5, 1893, at the age of thirty-three. Their children were Lewis Willard, 
born August 26, 1890, and Mary Edna, born January 29, 1893. 



HENRY H CRAIG. 

Henry H. Craig, one of the largest lumber dealers in Western New York, was 
born in Cobovirg, Canada, November 15, 1841, was reared on a farm, and was edu- 
cated in the public schools near his native city. In 1858 he came to Rochester, where 
he entered the employ of E. H. Hollister, lumber merchant, with whom he remained 
ten years, rising to the position of foreman. In 1866 he engaged in a similar busmess 
for himself in partnership with the Crouch brothers under the firm name of Craig & 
Crouches. This firm continued for ten years and carried on an extensive wholesale 
and retail lumber trade. Mr. Craig then established his present business under his 
own name, which is the largest in the city and extends throughout New York State 
and into New England. 

Outside of his lumber operations Mr. Craig has been one of the most enterprising 
citizens of Rochester and for many years was prominently identified with a number 
of leading corporations, etc. He was one of the organizers of the Lake Ontario 
Beach Improvement and Vulcanite Paving Companies and served as president of 
both until 1895 and 1894 respectively. He was also a director in the German Ameri- 
can Bank and one of the directors and consolidators of the Rochester Gas and Elec- 
tric Light Company. He was one of the originators of the present Rochester Railway 
Company, which was formed by the consolidation of the old Rochester City and 
Brighton Railway and Crosstown South Park Railroad Companies, in the latter of 
which he was a director. He is a 32d degree Mason, being a member of Rochester 
Consistory A. A. Scottish Rite as well as of Genesee Falls Lodge, No. 507, F. & A. 
M., and Monroe Commandery Knights Templar. He was heavily interested in the 
coal and elevator business and formerly owned a half interest in the elevator at 



30 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Charlotte, which he built. For many years he was also interested in the coal firm of 
H. F. Drake & Co. He was the prime mover in securinj^; the 'elevation of the N. Y. 
C. & H. R. R. R. tracks through the city and himself drafted the act which passed 
the Legislature and effected that important work. Always manifesting an active in- 
terest in public affairs he has taken a prominent part in local politics and represented 
the Eighth ward in the Common Council for four years, where he labored faithfully 
for the welfare of his constituents and the city at largvi. 

In 1864 Mr. Craig married Miss Harriet Knox and they have three sons and six 
daughters, all living. 



GEORGE J. OAKS. 

Gkorce J. Oaks was born in Rochester February 9, 1843, the son of George Oaks, 
who came to this city from Germany in IS^i'd. His mother, Mary Ann, was a daugh- 
ter of Jean Pierre Pronguey,who arrived in this country with his family from France 
in May, 1823, being among the first settlers of Irondequoit. Mr. Oaks was educated 
in the pubHc schools of Rochester and at St. Charles College in Maryland. In 1861 
he enlisted in Co. G, 13th N. Y. Vol. Inf., and in the following September was trans- 
ferred with his company to the 3d N. Y. Vol. Cavalry. In September, 1862, he was 
commissioned second lieutenant of Co. E, 151st N. Y. Vol. Inf. ; in November of the 
same year he was made first lieutenant of Co. D; and in June, 1863, he was pro- 
moted to captain of that company. During this period he served as aide-de-camp to 
Gen. William H. Morris, 1st Brigade, 6th Army Corps, and later, in August, 1863, 
was transferred as aide-de-camp to Major-Gen. James B Ricketts. In the Septem- 
ber following he was appointed ordnance officer of the' 3d Division, 6th Army Corps, 
Major-General Ricketts commanding. Captain Oaks participated in every battle 
and skirmish in which his regiment was engaged, including first Bull Run, Culpep- 
per Court House, Bristoe Station, Mine Run, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Tolopo- 
tomy. Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Weldon Railroad, Monocacy, Charleston, Winches- 
ter, Fisher's Hill, Cedar Creek, the Fall of Petersburg, Sailor's Creek, and Appomat- 
tox. At Monocacy, where a part of the 3d Division fought Early's army and saved 
Washington, he was wounded, but after ten days returned to his command; at 
Cedar Creek he saved the 6th Army Corps ordnance train from being captured; and 
at the Fall of Petersburg on April 2, 1865, he was brevetted major for gallant and 
meritorious service. On March 27, 1865, he was granted a twenty days' leave of 
absence, but while in Washington learned of the battle of Five Forks. Hastening 
to the front he arrived about dusk on April 1 ; at 4 i: m. on the 2d of April the 6th 
Army Corps broke through the enemy's lines, and, with other corps of the army, 
pressed Lee's armv to the final surrender at Appomattox. 

He returned to Rochester with his regiment July 1, 1865 and in the following 
September entered the employ of S. Rosenblatt c^- Co. , of which firm he became a 
member in 1876. Upon the death of Mr. Rosenblatt the firm name was changed to 
Oaks & Stern, and in Jul}', 1877, the present firm of Oaks & Calhoun was formed. 

Mr. Oaks is prominent in musical. Masonic and G. A. R. circles, and in 1894' was 
elected deputy commander of the Union Veterans Union of New York State. In 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 31 

1893 he was chosen first deputy conimauder-in-chief at the G. A. R. encampment in 
Boston, and in August, 1894, he received the unanimous election as commander-in- 
chief of the national organization. He is also a companion of the Commandery of 
the Loyal Legion ; a member of the Genesee Falls Lodge, No. 507, F. & A. M. ; of 
Rochester Consistory 32d degree of the Scottish Rite Masons; of Damascus Temple, 
Nobles of the Mystic Shrine; and of the Rochester "Chamber of Commerce. He has 
always taken on active interest in the progress and welfare of the city, and is promi- 
nently identified with its business and social life. 



JOHN D. WHIPPLE. 

The subject of this sketch was born in the town of Duanesburg, Schenectady 
county, N. Y., February 28, 1826, hisgrandfather, David, having settled there in 1796, 
locating on a farm. Two of the brothers of this ancestor participated in the Colonial 
and Revolutionar}' wars; one of them, William, accompanying General Montgomery 
in his Canadian expedition, and, like his general, losing his life at the attack upon 
Quebec. The other, Samuel, served throughout the Revolution and at its close 
moved to the Western Reserve, finall}^ settling upon the land granted him by the 
government on the Maumee River, near the present city of Toledo, where the family 
is still represented. The three brothers were natives of Rhode Island. David 
Whipple married Joanna Jones of Dutchess county and oneof their children, William, 
born in Dutchess count}' August 22, 1785, a farmer by occupation throughout his life, 
married Elizabeth Tallman of Schenectady county and became the father of seven 
children, viz., David, Grifhn, Tallman, John D., Sorinda, Joanna and Margaret. 
William Whipple died July 14, 1851, having survived his wife who died May 15, 1840. 
John D. Whipple was educated in the district schools and a select school and spent 
his early life upon his father's farm, but came to Rochester in 1854 and soon moved 
to Irondequoit, where he raised produce on his farm for four years and then engaged 
with produce dealers as accountant and manager for about four years. In 1862 he 
engaged in that business for himself and followed it successfully for twenty-nine 
years when he retired from active operations therein and came to Irondequoit with 
view to enjoy his pleasant home associations more fully and cultivate his extensive 
fruit orchard. In 1878 he became warmly interested in a movement directed to the 
building a railroad connecting his town with Rochester, and, with a fewothergentle- 
men, secured the right of way between that city and Sea Breeze, completing the 
Rochester and Lake Ontario Railway during the following year. Mr. Whipple was 
elected director of the road upon the organization of the company and served in that 
capacity until 1893 when it was sold to the Rochester & Brighton Railroad Company. 
He is a consistent Republican and his value has long been recognized by his towns- 
men, who, for two terms, kept him in the office of town clerk, and have now re- 
elected him to serve his fourth term as supervisor. In 1850 he married Jane A. 
Marsh of Duanesburg, and they had four children, Isabel, Marsh, Florence A., and 
Carrie E. Isabel married Joseph Walzer of Irondequoit and they have fourteen 
children; Marsh married Susie J. Bumpus of this town and they have one daughter, 
Almeda. This gentleman continued the business founded by his father in Rochester 



32 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

and is well known and active in the line. Florence A. married Allison J. Potter of 
Rochester and they have two children, Florence and Carl; Carrie E. married Louis 
Gerber also of Rochester and they have three children, Reta, Frances and Ward. 
Mrs. Whipple died March 16, 1882. For his second wife Mr. Whipple married, in 
1884, Mrs. Maria Walzer, formerly Mason, of Irondequoit. 

Mr. and Mrs. Whipple are members of the First Universalist church of Rochester, 
and he has been a trustee for a number of years. In 1891 they became mipressed 
with the need for religious instruction in their town and after much effort on their 
part succeeded in their jiroject of erecting the present Irondequoit Union Sunday 
School chapel. 



• HENRY STEAD HEBARD. 

CoNsricuoLS among among the more prominent business men of the city of Roch- 
ester during the period of its development and growing prosperity stands the name 
of Henry Stead Hebard, who was born in Saugerties, Ulster county, N. Y., March 
10, 1827, and moved here with his parents when four years of age. He received his 
education in the public schools of the city and at the old Collegiate Institute, where 
he studied under Dr. Chester Dewey, the most famous of Rochester's early teachers. 
Reaching his majority at a time wheh so many young men were rushing to Califor- 
nia in the pursuit of gold, he too, was attracted by the tales of untold wealth and 
prepared to make a journey westward, but his father, who had long conducted an 
extensive marble business, dissuaded him from casting his lot with the human stream 
of "forty-niners" and offered him an interest in the marble works. The offer was 
accepted and his vocation fixed, and the Hebard Marble Works, enlarged and de- 
veloped by the son, became well known throughout the State and Nation. He con- 
tinued the business until his death, making it one of the largest of the kind in the 
country, and acquiring a reputation which only years of faithfulness and shrewd 
management will establish. He was practically a life-long Republican and few men 
took more active interest in the progress and welfare of his party. From 1857 to 
1862 he served as a member of the Common Council, representing the old Fourth 
ward, in which he always resided. His valued services in that body placed him 
among the leaders of the time and found expression of popular approval in his nom- 
ination for mayor in 1862, for which he was defeated by only thirty-seven votes. 
(The city ihen was overwhelmingly Democratic and for manj- years before and after- 
ward was in control of the Democratic party.) Two years later he was a candidate 
for the same position but again was defeated by a small majority. In 1805 he became 
a member of the first Police Commission, Jacob Howe being his colleague, and to- 
gether they laid the foundation for the present police department of the city. Mr. 
Hebard continued in that capacity until 1872. Upon the organization of the East 
Side Savings Bank in 1869, he was made its vice-president and in 1876 became its 
president, a position he held till his death. In 1873 and 1874 he was a member of the 
old Board of Public Works, and in 1875 was elected supervisor of the Fourth ward, 
declining a renomination the next year. He was for fifteen years a volunteer fireman 
and for many years a trustee of the fire department. He was long one of the man- 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 33 

agers of the Western House of Refuge, now the State Industrial School, and for one 
year was president of the board. In 1880 he was a presidential elector and voted for 
Garfield and Arthur, and subsequently President Arthur offered him the postmaster- 
ship of Rochester, which he generously declined in favor of D. T. Hunt, who held 
the office at the time. On March 4, 1890, he was commissioned postmaster by Pres- 
ident Han-ison, but died on the 11th, widely respected and esteemed. 

He was a member of several societies, a Scottish Rite Mason, a member of Valley 
Lodge F. & A. M., and of Monroe Commandery K. T. ; for many years a trustee of 
the First Methodist Episcopal church and president of the board, and a member of 
the club bearing his name. The Hebard Club is composed of well known Rochester 
men, and for one of its recreations makes an annual excursion as a body, to some lo- 
cality of interest. 

In 1853 Mr. Hebard married Miss Harriet M. Hazen, a niece and adopted daughter 
of Benjamin Shipman, for many years treasurer of the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary 
at Lima, N. Y. Their children were Emma Jane, wife of John P. Weston of Roch- 
ester; Harriet Eloise wife of Charles O. Weston of Washington, D. C. ; Benjamin 
S. of Rochester; and Cora Eliza (Mrs. Anson S. McNab), who died in Rochester 
August 15, 1895. 

In all the positions and relations of life Mr. Hebard distinguished himself as a man 
of considerable attainments, of singular executive ability, and of great energy and 
foresight. He labored faithfully for the good of the city, and zealously promoted its 
interests. He was a man of steadfast integrity, and, endowed by nature with con- 
spicuous business talent and with keen insight into human nature, he stood in the 
community as a type of the upright citizen and man of affairs. 



ARTHUR G. YATES. . 

Arthur G. Yates, second son of Judge Arthur Yates, was born at Factoryville, 
(now East Waverly) N. Y., December 18, 1848. His grandfather. Dr. William Yates, 
was born at Sapperton, near Burton-on-Treut, England, in 1767, and studied but 
never practiced medicine ; being the eldest son he inherited a large estate and the 
title of baronet, and throughout life was distinguished as a philanthropist. Dr. Yates 
was a cousin of Sir John Howard, the philanthropist, and Sir Robert Peel, statesman, 
and was himself one of the most noted benefactors of his age. At his own expense 
he built and conducted an asylum for paupers and the treatment of insane at Burton- 
on-Trent. In 1799 he came to Philadelphia, Pa., and was the first to introduce vacci- 
nation in this country, a w^ork to which he devoted much time and money. In 1800 
he returned to England but soon came back to America and from Philadelphia, in 
company wath Judges Cooper and Franchot and General Morris, ascended the Sus- 
quehanna River to the Butternuts Valley, where he met the daughter of a prominent 
settler, whom he married. The couple went to England, but two years later returned 
to the United States, where they thereafter resided. Having disposed of Sapperton 
to his brother Harry, Dr. Yates purchased a large estate in Butternuts (now the town 
of Morris), Otsego county, N.Y., where he died in his ninetieth year, widely respected 
and esteemed. He spent his fortune in carrying out his benevolent ideas. 



34 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY 

Judge Arthur Yates, his eldest son, was born at Butternuts, February 7, 1807, and 
received a common school education. In 1832 he settled at Factoryville, N. Y., and 
engaged in merchandising and lumbering, which he carried on extensively for thirty 
years. He was an active, enterprising citizen, and did much to build up and beau- 
tify the village. In 1838 he was appointed judge of Tioga county. He was promi- 
nent and influential in the educational, religious, social, banking and business life of 
the community and bore the respect and regard of every one with whom he came in 
contact. In January, 1836, he married Jerusha, the daughter of Zeba Washbon of 
Otsego county, and they had seven children. His death occurred in 1880. 

Arthur G. Yates, the fourth child of the above, was educated in his native town, 
finishing at various academies. In March, 1865, he came to Rochester and accepted 
a position with the Anthracite Coal Company, but after two years engaged in the 
coal business, in which he has ever since been interested. He developed it to a re- 
markable degree, pushing his trade into all the Northern and Western States and 
Canada. His headquarters have, for some thirty years, been at Rochester, although 
having offices in various other cities. He built immense shipping docks at Charlotte. 
In 1876 the Bell, Lewis and Yates Coal and Mining Co. was organized for the pur- 
pose of mining and shipping bituminous coal from Pennsylvania, and proved a 
marked success from the start. Its productions have reached upwards of two millions 
(2,000,000) tons per year, making it the largest producer of its class in the United 
States. Mr. Yates has continuously served as its vice-president. In 1890 he was 
elected president of the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh Railway Company, which 
office he still holds. Under his management during the past five years, the railway 
has nearly doubled its coal and coke tonnage as well as its annual gross earnings, 
while the extension of tracks operated aggregate sixty-four (64) miles, making a total 
of four hundred and forty-eight (448) miles. The road has been greatly improved 
in all its departments, and it is now one of the important factors in the prosperity of 
the city. Mr. Yates is also a director in various coal and other corporations. 

Although an active participant in public affairs, and ever having the welfare of his 
city at heart, he has never accepted political preferment; from the first he has given 
his undivided attention to business. Honorable, high principled and generous, he is 
in the broadest sense oue of the foremost business men of Rochester, where he has, 
as stated, developed the coal industry to enormous proportions, and where, as presi- 
dent of an important railroad, he ranks among the leading financiers of the country. 
He has always encouraged every good movement, and for many years has served as 
warden of St. James Episcopal church. 

December 26, 1866, Mr. Yates married Miss Virginia L., daughter of Roswell 
Holden, of Watkins, N. Y- They have had six children, as follows: Frederick W., 
Harry, Florence, Arthur (deceased), Howard L. (deceased), and Russell P. 



J. J. BAUSCH. 

In the works of the Bausch & Lonib Optical Company, located at No. 515 to No. 
543 North St. Paul street, Rochester, is represented one of the leading manufacturing 
industries of this city. Starting from a retail establishment forty years ago the busi- 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 35 

ness has been consistently developed until to-day it is one of the largest of its kind. 
Their products find not only a ready market in the United States, but are exported 
to all parts of the world. 

J. J. Bausch, the founder of the Bausch & Lomb Optical Company, came to America 
from Germany in 1849. He learned the optical trade in his native land, and shortly 
after his arrival in Rochester opened a small retail store in the Arcade, associating him- 
self with Henry Lomb as a partner m the business. Manufacturing was carried on in a 
small way for some years. A small shop was fitted up over the store in the Arcade and 
a few workmen were given employment. When the war broke out the advance of gold 
enabled the struggling firm to compete successfully with the foreign manufacturers, 
and a decided increase in the business followed, but the retail business was not dis- 
continued until 1866, when the exclusive right to the use of India rubber was secured, 
this material having been found very well adapted for the manufacture of eye-glasses. 
The firm name was changed from Bausch & Lomb to the Vulcanite Optical Instru- 
ment Company. The Arcade shop was vacated about this time and a larger one 
taken on the corner of Andrew and Water streets, where water power could be util- 
ized, but in consequence of the summer draught the water in the Genesee ran low, 
and the company were compelled to look elsewhere for a factory. The present site 
on a commanding bluff overlooking the I'iver was chosen and in 1873 a building 100.\30 
feet was constructed, the firm supposing that it would be sufficient for their require- 
ments as long as they would remain in business. In this they were mistaken, how- 
ever, as three additions have since been made, forming a structure 390 feet front with 
three side wings, 40, 60, and 180 feet respectively in length, and five stories in height, 
giving about 115,000 .square feet of available floor space, and furnishing employment 
to nearly 800 hands. In 1876 the present corporate name, Bausch & Lomb Optical 
Company, was adopted. The present officers are, J. J. Bausch, president; Ed. 
Bausch, vice-president; Henry Lomb, treasurer; and C. F. Lomb, secretary. 

In the department of eye-glass manufacture the company have been pioneers and 
leaders. They not only introduced the rubber eye-glass, but made a change in the 
shape of the eye, adopting the oval instead of the round, which were then in use. 
Variety in style and finish was the next stage of improvement ; an adjustable eye- 
glass was invented by Mr. J. J. Bausch early in the historj' of the concern and con- 
tributed much to the growth of the business. Lens grinding was begun in a small 
way in 1865 to meet special emergencies, arising from the delay in receiving orders 
from foreign manufacturers. Now they grind every kind of a lens from the simple 
spectacle lens to the finest the optician or scienticst can demand. Machinery has 
been devised which performs the work with perfect accuracy and with great rapidity. 
It is of their own construction and in many cases patented. 

Consistently with their high aims, the company in 1876 undertook the manufacture 
of microscopes, which up to that time were produced almost entirely abroad. New 
machines and tools had to be constructed, but with their long experience in this line, 
the difficulties were successfully overcome,, and to-day are supplying most of the 
microscopes for home consumption. Their instruments are in use in the laboratories 
of nearly all educational institutions of the land, as well as all the government de- 
partments. 

The photographic department is of comparatively recent origin. Their lenses are 
in use in some of the best studios, and are very highly spoken of. They manufacture 



^6 Landmarks of monroe county. 

all the lenses for the celebrated Kodak cameras, and supply nearly every other camera 
manufacturer in the United States. 



THOMAS H. EDDY. 

Thomas Harvky Eddy, youngest child of Thomas and Phebe (Lyon) Eddy, was 
born where he now resides, in Greece, Monroe county, October 4. 1852. His ances- 
tors, both paternal and maternal, came from England at an early period in the his- 
tory of the New World. The former settled in Massachusetts, where many of them 
became prominent and influential citizens. Frederick Bushnell, a member of his 
grandmother's family, was well known as a large landowner at Charlotte fifty years 
ago, and also as president of one of the early Rochester banks. Thomas Eddy was 
born near Harrisburg. Pa., October 14, 1802, and came to Rochester when a young 
man. In 184;i he purchased the farm in Greece now owned by his son Thomas H., 
and soon afterward settled upon it with his newly wedded wife, Phebe Lyon, daugh- 
ter of Isaac Lyon, of Rochester. She was born in Ballston, Saratoga cotmty, March 
10, 1810. They subsequently removed to Lake avenue in Rochester, where both 
died. Mr. Eddy's death occurred March 31, 1886, and that of his wife September 1, 
1892. Her ancestors came to this country before the Revolutionary war, and settled 
near New York city and in Westchester county. During the struggle for American 
Independence the government used their buildings and Lafayette made them his 
headquarters for a time. Mr. and Mrs. Eddy were prominent members of the Brick 
Presbyterian church under Dr. Shaw, and always intensely interested in its welfare. 
Their children were Frances S., Edmond L., Luther B., and Thomas H. 

Thomas H. Eddy received his early education in the public schools of Rochester, 
and was graduated from Carpenter's Collegiate Institute and Williams' Commercial 
College. After completing his studies he returned to the home of his boyhood, and 
has since lived on the farm and in the house where he was born. He has engaged, 
not only in farming, but in other business at different times, and in practically every 
instance success has attended his efforts. He is one of the representative agricul- 
turists of the county, and has improved the homestead until it now ranks with the 
leading and attractive naral homes in Western New York. Mr. Eddj' has also been 
active in politics and town affairs, and is recognized as one of the local leaders of his 
party. He is a .staunch Republican. In 1890, and again in 1891, he represented his 
town in the board of supervisors, where he served faithfully and acceptably. The 
popular approval of his constituents found expression in the fall of 1895, when he was 
nominated member of assembly for the northwestern district of Monroe county, 
which is equivalent to an election. 

June 29, 1882, Mr. Eddy was married in New York city at the church of the Trans- 
figuration, to Mrs. Adelgonde McKenzie Smith, daughter of Hon. Donald McKenzie. 
They have four children: Frances L. , Thomas H., jr., Adelgonde C, and Don- 
nie L. 

(The life of Donald McKenzie was full of wild adventure, romantic scenes, and 
thrilling incidents. To him was John Jacob Astor indebted for all that was saved 
from the ruin which treason wrought. He was born in Scotland, June 15, 1783, and 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 37 

in March, 1801, left home to carve out a fortune for himself. He came to Canada, 
joined the North West Company, and continued in the fur trade for eight years. 
In 1809 he became the partner of John Jacob Astor in establishing the fur trade west 
of the Rocky Mountains, and remained there until the surrender of Astoria to the 
British. Converting everything possible into available cash he carried the funds on 
his person to Mr. Astor, with whom he afterward had large business dealings. In 
March, 1831, he joined the Hudson Bay Company, and was appointed one of the 
Council of the Chief Factor. While there, from 1825 to 1833, he was governor under 
the British Crown. In August, 1833, he removed to Mayville, Chautauqua county, 
N. Y. , where he died about 1854.) 



REUBEN L. FIELD. 

Few families in America possess an unbroken line of ancestry extending back to 
the pioneer days of New England, and fewer still can number among its members 
citizens who have for two hundred j^ears influenced the business and social life of 
their respective communities, as well as the entire nation. Standing with distin- 
guished eminence on the annals of this country is the name Field, which first appears 
in Massachusetts in 1629, nine years after the landing of the Pilgrmis on Plymouth 
Rock. Zechariah Field, sr , the American ancestor here referred to, was born in 
East Ardsley, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, about 1600, and was a son of John 
Field, jr., and grandson of John, sr., an astronomer of repute in Yorkshire. He first 
settled in Dorchester, Mass., moved in 1636 to Hartford, Conn., removed in 1659 to 
Northampton, Mass., and was one of twenty-five persons who settled what is now 

Hatfield, Conn. About 1641 he married Mary , and had five children. The 

line of descent to the subject of this memoir is (1) Zechariah, sr., (2) Zechariah. jr., 
(3) John, (4) Pedajah, sr., (5) Pedajah, jr., (6) Luther, (7) Chester, and (8) Reuben L. 
To this line the noted financiers, David Dudley and Cyrus W. Field, belonged, and 
from it also have descended many whose careers are intimately associated with the 
history of the nation. They have been identified with the wars of our government, 
with the social and commercial growth of their communities, and with the business 
life of the country at large. Pedajah Field, sr. , son of John and Mary (Bennett) 
Field, was born in Deerfield, Mass., January 28, 1707, and died in Northfield on Feb- 
ruary 24, 1798. His son Pedajah, jr., was born in 1732, .served as a soldier from 
Northfield in Capt. John Cathn's company in 1.756, and again in 1759, and also par- 
ticipated in the Revolutionary war. 

Chester Field, father of Reuben L., was born in Bennington, \'t., August 16, 1812, 
and in 1820 removed with his father's family to the town of Gates, Monroe county, 
where he was reared on a farm, and where he obtained his education. With the 
exception of three years in Michigan he spent his life here, dying in March, 1888. He 
married Eliza Perkins, who was born in Meudon, Monroe county, September 24, 1816, 
and died in Gates in May, 1894. They had two children: Helen Josephine (who died 
in 1866), and Reuben L. Mr. Field was a lifelong farmer, and always took a lively 
interest in town affairs. He spent three or four years in Grand Rapids, Mich., where 



38 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

his only son was born November 27, 1841. In 1842 he returned to Gates, and after- 
ward served as supervisor about seven years. 

Reuben L. Field was educated in the public schools of Gates and at the old Colle- 
giate Institute in Rochester, and has ever since followed the occupation of farmer, 
settling upon his present place two miles west of the city line in 1873, which consists 
of 115 acres of as productive land as can be found in Western New York. He has 
been eminently successful, a fact due solely to his individual efforts and constant 
enterprise. Mr. Field has long been prominently and actively identified with the 
Democratic party, of which he is one of the recognized local leaders. Excepting 
three years he has served continuously as a justice of the peace since 1874. In 1876 
he was elected supervisor of his town, and held that office for eight out of the follow- 
ing eleven years, serving in the board on several important committees and faith- 
fully looking after the interests and welfare of his constituents. 

In February, 1872, Mr. Field married, first, Fannie E., daughter of Dr. Edwin 
Munn (deceased), of Gates, and sister of Dr. John P. Munn, now of New York city. 
She died January 2, 1873, leavmg one child, Fannie ^I. His present wife, whom he 
married in September, 1880, was Ella F., daughter of Charles Armstrong, of Gates. 
They have three children: Mary, Aristine, and Chester. 



vSAMUEL B. WILLIAMS. 

Samuel B. Wili,i.\ms, treasurer of the city of Rochester, is a son of John G. and 
Laura M. (Burbank) Williams and a lineal descendant of Robert Williams, brother 
of the celebrated divine, Roger Williams, founder of the Baptist church in New Eng- 
land, of Col. Ephraim Williams, founder of Williams College, and of William P. 
Williams, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. On the old family coat-of- 
arms are two mottos: On the religious branch "What God willeth will be," and on 
the fighting branch " Don't tread on me," while the armorial bearings are sur- 
mounted by a war-cock. Mr. Williams was born in Deerficld, Mass.. October 17, 
1843, and came to Rochester with his parents in April, 1857. After attending No. 
14 School under Professor Vosburg he entered the printing office of Moore's Rural 
New Yorker, where he remained until his enlistment in the army. In December, 
1863, he joined the 50th N. Y. Engineers, and was promoted step by step to lieuten- 
ant, a rank equal to that of captain of infantry. His regiment, when not engaged 
in engineering work, performed infantry service and participated in the battles of 
the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, and many others. He had 
always evinced an aptitude for mathematics, and his knowledge of that science ob- 
tained his promotion from the ranks to an officer of engineers. 

Returning from the army Mr. Williams resumed his position in the office of the 
Rural New Yorker and remained there until January 25, 1867, when he purchased 
the interest of George Arnold in the firm of George Arnold <.V Co., manufacturers of 
machine oils, which business he has ever since continued; since 1877 he has been 
sole proprietor. In this he has met with unvarying success. 

In public life and official relations Mr. Williams has long held a foremost place. 
He is an unswerving Republican and one of the most popular leaders of his party 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 39 

In 1881, while sick in bed, he was nominated for city treasurer, buc suffered defeat 
along with other candidates on the ticket by a small majority. The next year he 
was nominated and elected a member of the Executive Board, on which he has 
served three years. In 1891 he was elected city treasurer, which office he has since 
held. Outside of these political connections he is probably identified officially with 
more social and fraternal organizations than any man of Rochester. He is an ac- 
countant of recognized qualifications, and through this fact held a large number of 
responsible positions of trust. For thirty years he has been a member of the Protec- 
tives, Rochester Fire Department, of which he has been for the past twelve years 
the financial secretary. He is also a member and treasurer of the Board of Trustees 
of the Fire Department and of the Exempt Volunteers; and alife member of the New 
York State Firemen's Association and of the National Association of Fire Engineers. 
He is a prominent Odd Fellow and a Mason. As city treasurer he is also treasurer 
of the police pension fund, paid fire department pension fund, sinking fund 
of the city of Rochester, park commissioners' fund, and Mt. Hope Cemetery 
commissioners' fund. He is treasurer of the Rochester Rod and Gun Club, the 
Columbia Rifle and Pistol Club, the Rochester Encamprnent, Uniformed Patriarchs, 
No. 1, the Fraternal Mystic Circle, and the Old Flour City Cadets. He is also sec- 
retary and treasurer of the Engineer Brigade Army of the Potomac, the Soldiers' 
and Sailors' Relie^ Society, the Western New York Veterans' Association, and the 
primary department of the Brick church Sunday school, having served the latter in 
this capacity for nearly thirteen consecutive years without being absent a Sunday. 
He joined O'Rorke Post, No. 1, G. A. R., at its second meeting, and became a 
charter member of George H. Thomas Post, No. 4, G. A. R., of which he is now the 
only past commander. He is also a member of the Union Veterans' Union and the 
Military Order of Loyal Legion, California Commandery. 

Few men have ever enjoyed such perfect confidence as is reposed in Mr. Williams, 
and fewer still have followed a career filled with similar responsibility. Millions of 
dollars have passed through his hands, and never has there been found an unex- 
plained discrepancy in his numerous and complicated accounts. With an enviable 
reputation for honesty and uprightness he has faithfully and unerringlj'^ performed 
the arduous labors of a treasurer to various organizations, serving in ever\- capacity, 
with strict fidelity, unimpeachable integrity, and continual faithfulness. 

December 9, 1865, he married Miss Emma E., eldest daughter of the late Richard 
N. Warfield, of Rochester. The}' have two children, George B., a student in the 
University of Rochester, and Kittie B , a graduate of the Rochester Free Academy, 
class of 1895. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON ARCHER. 

George Washington Archer is a son of John and Elizabeth Archer, who were 
reared respectively in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, and Coventry, Warwickshire, 
England, and who came to New York city in 1831, where John followed his trade of 
carpenter and joiner. In 1834 they removed to the then village of Rochester, where 
Mr. Archer carried on business as a contractor and builder until 1857, and where 



40 LANDMARKS OF MONROE roITNTY. 

George W. was l)orn February 8, 1887. John Archer died in 1878 aged seventy, and 
his wife in ItilH. at the age of seventy-five. George W. Archer received a thorough 
common school education in his native city and was graduated from Eastman's Busi- 
ness College. At the age of seventeen he learned the carpenters trade in his father's 
shop, and in 1857 he entered the employ of his next older brother, Robert W., who 
had purchased the patent of a dental chair. From August, 1863, to June, 1864, he 
was a bookkeeper at Petroleum Center, Pa. ; he then purchased the interest of Wes- 
ley Crouch in the Crouch & Clark machine shop at Tarr Farm on Oil Creek, and 
continued that business about two years under the firm name of Archer & Clark. In 
September, 1865, he married Augusta, daughter of Samuel McClure, of Rochester, 
In January, 1866, J. H. Norris purchased Clark's interest in the machine shop and 
the business was moved to Petroleum Center, where the firm of Archer & Norris 
acquired a wide reputation. Meantime Mr. Archer had become interested in pro- 
ducing oil and also with his brother, Robert W. in the manufacture of dental and 
barber chairs in Rochester. In June, 18G8, he sold his business and property in the 
oil country, removed to Rochester, and a.ssumed control of the business here under 
the firm name of R. W. Archer &- Brother, which relation continued until 1878, when 
Robert W. died; he carried on the concern alone until January 1, 1881, when his 
brother John W. iDecame a partner under the name of George W. Archer & Co. On 
January 1, 1884, the Archer Manufacturing Company was incorporated with George 
W. Archer as president, and still continues. Their goods, comprising Archer's pat- 
ent barber, dentist, and surgeons' chairs, piano stools, etc., have a world-wide repu- 
tation, and are mainly the inventions of G. W. Archer. Mr. Archer is heavily en- 
gaged in oil production in Pennsylvania. He was one of the organizers of the Roch- 
ester Driving Park Association in 1872, and since 1888 has been its president, being 
its vice-president for six years previously. He was one of the founders of the 
National Trotting Association and for fifteen years has served as a member of its 
Board of Appeals. He is also president of the Brush Electric Light Company. Heisa 
director of the Merchants' Bank, treasurer of the Rochester Gas and Electric Co. and 
of the Vulcanite Pavement Company, a director in the Rochester and Bay Railway 
Companies, and being a Democrat has served one term (1882-84) as alderman of the 
Fifth ward. He owns a number of blocks and commercial buildings, and is promi- 
nently interested in various institutions in the city. 



COL. NATHANIEL ROCHEwSTER. 

Col. Nathanikl Rochestkr, the second son of John Rochester, and the founder 
of the city bearing his name, was born on the plantation of his father, grandfather, 
and great-grandfather in Cople Parish, Westmoreland county, Va., February 21. 
1752. When he was two years old his father died and five years later his mother 
married Thomas Critcher, who, in 1763, moved with the entire family to Granville 
county. N. C. Colonel Rochester's educational advantages were limited, yet he suc- 
cessfully acquired by close observation and reading a large fund of information. In 
1768 he became a clerk in the store of James Monroe in Hillsboro, N. C, and re- 
mained there until 1773, when he formed a partnership with a former employer. Col. 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 41 

John Hamilton. Upon the dissolution of this firm in 1775, caused by the breaking 
out of the Revolution, he was appointed a member of the Committee of Safety for 
Orange county, and in August of that year he attended as a member the first Pro- 
vincial Convention in North Carolina, being made paymaster (with the rank of 
major) for the North Carolina line, which contained four regiments. About this 
time he also became a justice of the peace. When the convention reassembled in 
May, 1776, the line was increased to ten regiments, and in the proceedings of Friday, 
May 10, it was 

"■Resolved, That Nathaniel Rochester, esq., be appointed deputy commissary- 
general of military and other stores in this count}- for the use of the Continental 
army; and that he be allowed the same allowance as provided by the Continental 
Congress for such officer; and that he give security in €10,000 for the faithful dis- 
charge of the trust reposed in him." 

He then entered upon the work of providing clothing, provisions, etc., for the 
army, and returning to Hillsboro learned that he had been elected a member of the 
Legislature. At the session which followed he was appointed lieutenant-colonel of 
militia, and in the spring of 1777 became clerk of Orange county. In that year he 
was appointed commissioner to establish and superintend a manufactory of arms at 
Hillsboro. He resigned as county clerk, was appointed one of three to audit public 
accounts, and was promoted colonel of militia. In 1778 he engaged in mercantile 
business with Col. Thomas Hart (father-in-law of Henry Clay) and James Brown 
(subsequently mmister to France). In 1783 Colonel Rochester and Colonel Hart be- 
gan the manufacture of flour, rope, and nails at Hagerstown, Md. On April 20, 
1788, he married Sophia, sixth child of Col. William Beatty, of Frederick, Md., who 
was born there January 25. 1768. Colonel Rochester was member of assembly in 
Maryland, postmaster of Hagerstown, judge of the County Court, in 1808 a presi- 
dential elector, and the same year became the first president of the Hagerstown 
Bank. All this time he was extensively engaged in manufacturing, having a large 
establishment there and two in Kentucky. 

In 1800 he first visited the Genesee country, where he had purchased 640 acres. In 
September of the same year, with Col. William Fitzhugh, Major Charles Carroll, and 
Colonel Hilton, he bought large tracts of land in Livingston county near Dansville, 
and in 1802 himself. Colonel Fitzhugh, and Major Carroll purchased the " 100-acre 
or Allan tract " for $17.50 per acre. This last named tract largely comprises the 
present business portion of the city of Rochester. He closed up his interests in 
Maryland and in May, 1810, he became a resident of Dansville, N. Y., where he re- 
mained five years, building a large paper mill and makiug many improvements. 
Disposing of his busiuess there in 1815 he removed to an improved farm in Bloom- 
field, Ontario county. Meanwhile he constantly visited his property at the falls of 
the Genesee and laid it out into suitable lots, which were placed on the market, the 
town being called after him — Rochester. In April 1818, he took up his residence 
here, and died, in the city he had founded, after a long and painful illness, on the 
morning of May 17, 1831. 

Colonel Rochester was always a very active man and almost constantly connected 
with some office or public enterprise. In 1816 he was for the second time a presi- 
dential elector, In January, 1817, he was secretary for an important convention 
F 



42 LANDMARKS OF MONRUE COUNTY. 

held at Canandaii^ua to uri;e the construction of the Erie Canal, and the same year 
he went to Albany as agent for the petitioners for the erection of Monroe county, 
but was not successful in this undertaking until 1821, when he became the first county 
clerk and also the first representative in the State Legislature, being re-elected to 
the latter office in 1822. In 1824 he was a member of the commission to take sub- 
scriptions for the capital stock of the Bank of Rochester, of which he was elected the 
first president, but resigned in December of that year on account of ill health and 
infirmities of age. This was the last of bis numerous public and corporate trusts. 
He was a life-long Episcopalian and was one of the founders of St. Luke's Protestant 
Episcopal church, Rochester. His career was one of which any man might well feel 
proud. Starting for himself at the youthful age of sixteen, without means, but with 
great self-reliance, laudable ambition, perseverance, and native energy, he accom- 
plished work of the largest magnitude and widest usefulness, accumulated a fortune, 
and indelibly stamped his name upon posterity as the founder of the city. He had 
twelve children: William Beatty. Nancy Barbara, John Cornelius, Sophia Eliza, 
Mary Eleanor. Thomas Hart, Catherine Kimball, Nathaniel Thrift, Anna Barbara, 
Henry Elie, Ann Cornelia, and Loui-sa Lucinda. 



JOHN H. ROCHESTER. 

JoH.N H. RocHKSTER, vice-president of the Board of Park Commissioners, is the 
last male representative residing here and bearing the name of the famous family 
by which Rochester was founded and after whom it is named. He was born here 
April 20, 1828. He was educated in the schools of this city and at the age of eighteen 
entered upon his life work in the Rochester City Bank of which his father, Thomas 
Hart Rochester, was president. He subsequently carried on a private banking busi- 
ness for five years with his brothers under the name of John H. Rochester & Bro. 
Then he became cashier in the Flour City Bank for three years. When the Me- 
chanics' Savings Bank was chartered and entered upon its career, John H. Rochester 
became its secretary and treasurer, a position he has filled ever since for a period of 
over twenty-eight years, being the oldest banker in active service in this city. He 
has been connected with social, religious and public institutions throughout his 
career. He is a member of the Genesee Valley and Whist Clubs and was for three 
years president of the Rochester Club. He is the oldest baptized member of St. 
Luke's church in point of years of membership. He has been treasurer of the church 
home for twenty-five years; treasurer of St. Luke's for many years; treasurer of the 
Red Cross Society and yellow fever fund; is president of the Rochester Historical 
Society and as stated above, vice-president of the Board of Park Commissioners. 
He has traveled extensively and is a well informed and public spirited citizen. He 
has always taken a deep interest in the public aftairs of his native city, but has never 
sought or held public office. He married, in ISVd, Elizabeth L. Moore, of Vicksburg, 
Miss. He has two sons: Thomas M., a practicing physician in Brooklyn, and Paul 
A., in the railroad service in New York. Mr. Rochester is one of the foremost citi- 
zens in*Rochester and one of the hardest working of the park commissioners. He 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 43 

has always taken an interest in the parks and is a man of practical ideas. His selec- 
tion to the board was a wise one and he was honored at the hrst meeting by an elec- 
tion as vice-president. John H. Rochester is the kind of a man who honors a city 
by public spirit and enterprise. 



FREDERICK E. GOTT. 

The ancestors of Frederick E. Gott were among those who early came from Eng- 
land to America to seek that freedom of religious belief, and a broader field of use- 
fulness, which were denied them beyond the ocean. On the ship Abigail Captain 
Henry Gardner, which sailed sailed from Weymouth, England, on June 20. 1628, for 
Salem, Mass., were Charles Gott and his wife, whose maiden name was Thankful 
Palmer, and two daughters. Charles Gott was born on March 12, 1598, and had 
children named Remember, Bethiah, Charles, and Daniel. Daniel was born June 
20, 1646, settled at Hebron, Conn., where he married. He had five children, orly 
one of which, named John, lived until 1749. John had three children, of which one 
only lived to maturity. This one, named John after his father, married Esther 
Story, and they had three children, whose names were John, Story, and Daniel. 
Daniel Gott was born September 5, 1735; married Charity Russ. They had seven 
children, the third of whom was Samuel Gott. grandfather of Frederick E., who was 
born September 19, 1775, in Hebron, Conn., and died there March 31, 1851. His son, 
who was second out of a family of thirteen children, also named Samuel, father of 
Frederick E., was born in Hebron, Conn., February 26, 1798. He was a man who 
gained a better education than the average for that time, and taught school in his 
early life. He married Chloe Gilman, learned the carpenter's trade, and about the 
year 1828, removed to the town of C-'gden. In 1832 he bought and settled on the 
farm now owned by his son, where he spent the remainder of his life, and died on 
June 1, 1886. He was father of nine children, of whom seven lived to maturity; 
they were Horace G., George S., Emma E., Henry E., Eliza A., Lucy J., and Fred- 
erick E. 

Frederick E. Gott was born in Ogden on October 13, 1851. He enjoyed excellent 
opportunities for obtaining an education, which he earnestly improved. His studies 
in the common school were supplemented with terms in the Institute at Parma, N. 
Y., and in the Normal School at Brockport, leaving the latter in 1870. In pursuance 
of his early formed intention he immediately began the study of medicine, but was 
forced to abandon that profession by the necessity of his presence and services at 
home. Since that time Mr. Gott's chief occupation has been farming on the family 
homestead, in connection with which he has for some years carried on a box manu- 
factor5\ 

Mr. Gott early showed a natural aptitude for politics, and has long been prominent 
in the local field as a Republican. In 1882 he was elected justice of the peace, has 
held the office ever since, and was re-elected in 1895. In 1891 he was elected super- 
visor, and still holds the office. In this capacity he has served on various commit- 
tees—equalization, treasurer's accounts, 'military affairs, etc., often as chairman, and 



44 • Landmarks of moNroe county. 

has several times been chosen to act as temporary chairman of the board. In 1892 
Mr. Gott was sent as delegate to the Republican National Convention at Minneapo- 
lis, and he has on many occasions acted as delegate to County Conventions. In all 
of these positions Mr. Gott has earned the commendation of his constituents, and has 
proved worthy of the trust reposed in him. Mr. Gott is a member of Etolian Lodge 
F. & A. M., of which he was Senior Warden in 1895. He is a member of the Spen- 
cerport Congregational church, and is prominently connected with numerous busi- 
ness, political, and social organizations in his town and county. 



JOHN W. H ANN AN. 

John W. Hannan, sheriff of Monroe county, was born in the town of Perinton, 
September 19, 1847. His grandfather, James Hannan, came from Florida, Mont- 
gomery county, N. Y., in 1810, and settled on a farm in Perinton, where he died; he 
participated in the War of 1812, serving on the Niagara frontier. On the homestead 
Cyrus P. Hannan, son of James and father of John W , was born in 1820, and upon 
it he spent his short but active life, dying in 1848. The old farm is now owned and 
occupied by the widow of the late Jesse B. Hannan, another son of the pioneer 
James. The family has always taken considerable interest in local affairs and for 
years has ranked among the leading agriculturists of the county. 

John W. Hannan was reared on the farm and received his education in the district 
schools of his native town. He early manifested an aptitude for politics, in which 
he took a keen, wholesome interest, and affiliated with the Republicans from the 
first. His active participation in political matters brought him into contact with 
many of the influential party leaders, with whom he soon formed the most friendly 
relations. In 18(55 he was appointed messenger and superintendent of documents in 
the State Senate, a position he held continuou.sly for ten years. There he acquired 
a wide and enviable reputation for faithfulness and fidelity to duty. In July, 1875. 
he received the appointment of United States ganger, an office he satisfactorily filled 
for eight consecutive year*;, when he resigned to engage in the wholesale and retail 
liquor business in Rochester. In all these capacities he made hosts of friends. In 
the fall of 1881 he was elected sheriff of Monroe county on the Republican ticket by 
a large majority, and at the expiration of his term of office (three years) became pro- 
prietor of the National Hotel in Rochester, where he continued a landlord until 1892. 
In the fall of 1893 he again received the election of sheriff of the county for another 
three years beginning January 1, 1894. On March 1, 1876, he was married to Miss 
Mary E. Hommel, of Kingston, Ulster county, i\. Y. 

Mr. Hannan is also prominently identified with various social, political, and fra- 
ternal organizations, with which he has held responsible official relations. For sev- 
eral years he was president of the Lincoln Club. He is a 32d degree Mason, being a 
member of Genesee Falls Lodge F. & A M., Monroe Commandery K. T., Roch- 
ester Consistory, and Damascus Temple Mystic Shrine. He is past commander of 
the commandery, and is also a member of Central Lodge, No. 666, I. O. O. F. , of 
Rochester City Lodge, No. 212, K. P., of Wahoo Tribe, 228, I. O. of R. M., of Roch- 
ester, Tent. No. 8, K. O. T. M., and of the Chamber of Commerce. 





^ 


^*^?^ 




. 




^ ...t^m^ 




» 










1 




A 


mmlKI^^^KL ^■'^ 


1 


jl^M 


1 


'J 




^ 


• 






BIOGRAPHICAL. 45 

JUDvSON F. SHELDON. 

JuDSON F. SheldOxN, of English descent, was born upon his present farm in the 
town of Mendon, Monroe county, November 30, 1826, and is a grandson of Abner 
Sheldon and Rebekah Frary, his first wife, who came to that part of the Genesee 
country in 1801. Abner Sheldon's ancestors were among the earlier settlers of Mas- 
sachusetts. Coming to Mendon he located first on what is known as the Ball farm, 
but in 1802 settled upon the present homestead, which has ever since remained in 
the family. He was one of the early magistrates of the town and held the office 
several years. His wife died about 1807 ; he survived until 1823, when his death 
occurred at the age of seventy-one. Their children who attained maturity were Ab- 
ner, jr., Zelotes, Electa, Rebecca, Henry A., William F., Ptolemy, Timothy F., and 
Lucy. Ptolemy Sheldon was wounded in the War of 1812, in which Henry A. and 
Zelotes also served, all on the Niagara frontier. 

Henry A. Sheldon, father of Judson F. , was born in Deerfield, Mass., April 24, 
1792. He came with his parents to Mendon in 1801, and died on the homestead Feb- 
ruary 24, 1864. He succeeded to the old farm by purchasing the interests of the 
other heirs and .spent his life upon it, inaugurating improvement.s as occasion de- 
manded and making it one of the best and most attractive rural homes in the neigh- 
borhood. He was always a farmer. In politics he M-as first an old line Whig and 
afterward a Republican, and throughout life manifested a keen but quiet interest in 
local affairs. His wife, Eliza, daughter of Charles Gillett, of Mendon, was born in 
1797, and died October 24, 1862. They had seven children, namely. Charles A., who 
died April 5, 1841, aged twenty-five; Ransom T., a farmer in Mendon; Louisa E. 
(Mrs. Levi Carter), who died a widow, in Mendon, July 21, 1894, aged seventy-four; 
Horace W., who died at Honeoye Falls, April 16, 1893; Judson F. , the subject of this 
memoir; Lucina M. (widow of William W. Potter), of Medina. N. Y. , who died in 
Mendon November 16, 1893; and Laura R., who died May 29, 1841, aged nine years. 

Judson F. Sheldon was reared on the family homestead and received his education 
at the district schools and at a select .school held in his father's house. He also 
attended Genesee Wesleyan Seminary at Lima for a time. Remaining on the farm 
he finally became its owner by buying off the other heir.s, and there he has spent his 
life. This homestead is historally interesting and has often been the subject of the 
historian's pen. The north part long contained evidences of having at one time an 
Indian village, which was called To-ta-actum. Within a hundred rods of this point 
is an eminence known as Fort Hill from the supposition that it was once crowned by 
a fortification constructed and occupied by the French who came in by way of 
Canada. The road passing the house was for many years called " Abram's Plains" 
and is now often spoken of as "Sheldon's Plains." 

Mr. Sheldon has been prominently identified with political affairs, not only in the 
town, but in the county. He has always affiliated with the Republicans, and few men 
have served their party more faithfully or efficiently. In 1878,1879, and 1880 he repre- 
sented his town in the Board of Supervisors, where his labor won for him a large meas- 
ure of popularity and public approval, which found general expression in his election 
to the State Legislature from the first district of Monroe in the fall of 1881, and to this 
office he was again elected in 1889. In the assembly he served on such important 



46 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

committees as State Prison, Grievance, Roads and Bridges, etc., and his work in 
that body was characterized by unswerv-ing fealty to constituents and public inter- 
ests. He is a member of the Association of Supervisors and e.\-Supervisors of Mon- 
roe County, is a director in the Patrons' Fire Relief Association of Monroe County, 
and has for several years taken an active part in organizing and maintaining the 
Grange, being a charter member of Honeoye Falls Grange, No. 6, Mendon. 

March 18, 1857, Mr. Sheldon was married to Miss Mary Davis, daughter of Martin 
Davis, of Mendon. She died January 28, 1889, leaving a daughter, Antoinette B., 
wife of William J. Kirkpatrick, and an adopted son, Charles Frederick, both of 
Mendon. 



CHAUNCEY G. STARKWEATHER. 

Chauncev G. Starkwkatiikr, eldest son of Chauncey G. and Mary W. (Bardin) 
Starkweather, was born in Burlington Flats, Otsego county, N. Y., March 20, 1840, 
and moved with his parents to Chester county. Pa., in 185(). His early youth was 
spent on the parental farm. When thirteen years of age his father hired him out for 
$4 a month to work for a farmer summers and go to school winters, and in this 
capacity he remained until eighteen. Determining then to become master of a trade, 
he took up pattern makmg, at which he worked with unvarying success till July 21, 

1862, when he enlisted in Co. G, 124th Regt. Pa. Vols., for nine months. He partic- 
ipated in the battles of Antietam and Chancellorsville, was in Burn.side's march 
through Virginia, and received an honorable discharge at Harrisburg, Pa., May lO, 

1863. He then entered the government employ as foreman of a force of carpenters 
and held that position continuously until the close of the war, when he returned 
home. 

Meanwhile, in 1861, his parents had settled on a farm in Brighton, Monroe county. 
Returning from the army he formed a partnership with his father and only brother 
(Jeremiah) under the firm name of Starkweather & Sons, and engaged in growing 
garden seeds for the wholesale market. This business proved very successful and 
was continued by the firm as thus constituted until 1871, when it was divided among 
the three partners. Afterward the sons became sole owners, and on February 9. 
1894, the father died while in search of health at Lake Helen, Fla. ,at the age of over 
seventy-seven. He was born in Connecticut October 20, 1816, and possessed the 
thrifty characteristics and native energy of old-time New Englanders. Throughout 
life he devoted his attention mainly to bu.sine.ss interests, yet he always manifested 
a deep regard for the prosperity and advancement of his town and county. 

Chauncey G. Starkweather, the subject of this memoir, settled upon his present 
farm in the town of Henrietta in 1868, and since 1871 has successfully continued his 
portion of the old seed growing business alone, being now the largest grower of gar- 
den seeds in that section of the county. He has long taken an active part in political 
affairs and for several years has held responsible official positions. A staunch Re- 
publican he has commanded the respect of a large constituency and in the councils 
of his party is a recognized leader. In 1878 he was elected commissioner of high- 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 47 

ways for three years, and in 1880, 1881, and 1883 he represented his town on the 
board of supervisors. In the sjDring of 1893 he was elected supervisor for the fourth 
time and by successive elections still holds that office, being now on his seventh 
year. In 1893 he was made a member of the building committee to superintend the 
construction of the new county court house in Rochester, and on January 30, 1895, 
was appointed by Gov. Levi P. Morton, one of the board of mauagers of the Roch- 
ester State Hospital. He has been an influential member of the Republican County 
Central and District Committees for about ten years, and has frequently served as 
delegate to county, district, and State conventions. He is also a member of Vallev 
Lodge, No. 109, F. & A. M., Rochester, and for four years was vice-president of the 
Western New York Agricultural Society. 

March 38, 1867, Mr. Starkweather was married to Miss Emily L. Lewis, daughter 
of Zachariah Lewis, and a native of Brighton. They have one son, Lewis C, born 
July 3o, 1883, and an adopted son, Albert J. Fisk, born February 3(5, 1874, whose 
parents, A. Judson and Alvira (Lewis) Fisk, died leaving him an orphan at the age 
of five years; he came to live with his aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Starkweather, 
by whom he was reared and educated, finishing at the Geneseo State Normal School; 
he is now engaged in the bicycle business in Rochester. 

[Zachariah Lewis, father of Mrs, Starkweather, was born in Saybrook, Conn., and 
came to Brighton, Monroe county, in 1813, where he died December 25, 1867, aged 
seventy-six.] 



GEORGE BENTON WATKINS. 

The successful establishment and management of such a business as that of W. 
H. (xlenny & Co., in Rochester, is a task requiring so much commercial ability that 
the guiding mind in control must be possessed of rare qualifications ; and a sketch 
of George Benton Watkins's career supports that view. Born in Utic.i, N. Y. August 
12, 1852, of sturdy English descent, the youngest of ten children, his mother having 
died in his early infancy, he lived with an uncle on a farm until twelve years old. It 
was now that the elements of his future success began to manifest themselves. The 
farm could not hold him, and with the" two-fold purpose of taking advantage of the 
more advanced educational facilities and opportunities afforded in the city for mak- 
ing his own way in the world, he returned to his father's home. He attended the 
Utica High School, graduating therefrom at sixteen. While at school in the early 
mornings he delivered papers, and in afternoons worked in the newspaper office. 
Having secured a position in the leading crockery store of the place, with character- 
istic energy, he applied himself to master the details of the business. His advance- 
ment in five years to the leading position in the store is an index of his .-success. His 
ambition still unsatisfied, he looked for a position offering larger opportunities This 
was secured with the firm of W. H. Glenny, Sons & Co., Buffalo, N. Y.. one of the 
largest importing houses in the country, their receiving, packing and shipping de- 
partments with its force of twenty men and ten boys being placed under his super- 
vision. Strict attention to business and untiring energy brought further preferment, 
and soon he was in charge of their wholesale department. In 1876 the financial em- 



48 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

barrassment of a Rochester house, largely indebted to Glenny, Sons & Co., necessi- 
tated the sending of a representative here to look after their interests. Mr. Watkins 
was chosen, and so well did he fulfill his trust that the local firm were enabled to pay 
all their indebtedness and continue their busines.s. While attending to the com- 
pany's intere.sts here Mr. Watkins was impressed with the desirability of Rochester 
as a point for the establishment of a permanent trade. He suggested the idea to 
Mr. Glenny, who, after mature deliberation, decided to open a store, and did so un- 
der the style of W. H. Glenny & Co., with Mr. Watkins as manager. From its ear 
liest inception the business here has been under the entire control of Mr. Watkins. 
Established on the broad basis of equity and integrity its growth has been one con- 
tinuous success. In ISHfj the present elegant commercial building which the firm at 
present occupies at I'JU, 192 and 194 East ]\Iain street, was erected, and its seven 
floors are required for their constantly increasing trade, In 1891 Mr. Watkins was 
admitted to partnership, a well merited reward for his faithfulness and success. 

Of a retiring disposition he is seldom identified with public interests, though often 
sought after. He is a charter member of the Chamber of Commerce, was five years 
director of the V. M. C. A., and for ten years has been trustee and treasurer of the 
First Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Watkins was married, at the age of twentv- 
one, to Carrie, daughter of Sanford Peckham. of Madison, Oneida county, N. Y. 
He is a Republican, and resides at 626 East Main street. ' 



MERRITT A. CLEVELAND 

Mekritt a. Ci.kvel.\nd was born at East Houndsfield, Jefl'er.son county, N. Y. 
His father. Philander Cleveland, was a native of Jefferson county and his ancestors 
were among the pioneers of the Black River Valley. Philander married Mercy, 
daughter of Stephen Richardson, and of six children four survive. 

The familvare well known as engineers, contractors of railroads, canals, and other 
public works. In 1870 our subject occupied a position on the Engineer Corps of the 
Carthage, Watertown & Sackett's Harbor Railroad, and later was appointed divis- 
ion engineer of the Lake Ontario Shore Railroad. In 1873 took charge as engineer 
of construction of the Kingston & Pembroke Railway of Canada. In 187i formed 
the firm of Hunter & Cleveland, and completed the Lake Shore Railroad In 1876 
he examined the route of the present Canadian Pacific Railway in Manitoba and the 
Canadian North West, making the trip overland with mules and along the rivers 
and lakes with Indians and canoes. In the same year the firm of Hunter, Murray 
ik Cleveland was formed and engaged in the construction of the locks and works at 
Port Colborne, Welland, Port Ualhousie, and other points along the route until the 
completion of the Welland Canal. The firm of Hunter, Murray & Cleveland were 
among the largest contractors of that great work. They also built a portion of the 
Murray Canal, connecting the Bay of Quintie with Lake Ontario, and engaged in 
deepening and improving many of the harbors along the lakes. In 188.'-84 the firm 
of Warren & Cleveland built the Pittsburg, Cleveland &• Toledo Railroad in Penn- 
sylvania and Ohio, now a part of the Baltimore <S: Ohio Railroad system. 




ir.^ 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 49 

In 1886 the firm of Murray & Cleveland entered into contract with the Dominion 
Government to build the Galops Canal around the Galops Rapids, which is a part of 
the system of canals to make the St. Lawrence River navigable for large vessels. 

In 1875 our subject married Nellie, daughter of Oril Smith of Sodus, N. Y., and 
they have four children: Milo, Nellie, Harold and Florence. In 1884 Mr. Cleveland 
took up his I'esidence in Brockport. 



FRANK H. CLEMENT. 

The Clement family in America descends from Robert Clement, who came from 
England in his own vessel and settled in Haverhill. Mass., in 16:38. Many of his 
descendants have borne prominent parts in the commercial, social and political life 
of the American government and of the several States in which they located, while 
in military capacities their deeds of heroism and valor have placed theirs among the 
distinguished names in history. Harris Clement, .son of John and Polly (Richardson) 
Clement, was born, a lineal descendant of the immigrant Robert, in Petersham, Mass. . 
in 1801. His maternal ancestor was one of three brothers named Harris, all of whom 
were active patriots in the Revolutionary war. In 1824 or 1825 he settled in mercan- 
tile business in Clarkson, Monroe county, whence he subsequently removed to Parma, 
where he served as supervisor several terms, being re-elected many times without 
opposition. In 1864 he came to Rochester as deputy collector of internal revenue 
under Samuel P. Allen, a position he held about three years. A staunch Republican 
he was long an influential factor in the politics of the county and frequently served 
his party in important capacities. He died in this city May 18, 1878, widely respected 
and esteemed. His wife, Clarissa T. Pond, of Knoxboro, Oneida county, N. Y., 
died May 13, 1879. They had two sons: Theodore T., of Ypsilanti, Mich., and Frank 
H., the subject of this sketch, of Rochester. 

Frank H. Clement was born in Parma, this county, June 26, 1848, and spent his 
early years upon his father's farm on the Ridge road. He was educated in the pub- 
lic schools, Parma Academy, and Rochester Collegiate Institute, and for two years 
thereafter taught district school. At a youthful age he developed a decided taste for 
mechanics, and especially for drawing and engineering. Removing to Rochester in 
1863 he entered the employ of D. A. Woodbury & Co., steam engine builders, with 
whom he remained five years, part of the time being foreman and draughtsman. In 
1868 he received the appointment of inspector of steam boilers for the 28th Congres- 
sional District and served in that capacity one year. He then formed a co-partner- 
ship with W. S. Loughborough as solicitor of patents at Rochester, but while thus 
engaged his health failed and he was forced to seek other employment. 

In 1871 he practically founded his present business in a small jobbing machine 
shop by forming a partnership with Thomas L Turner, under the style of Turner & 
Clement, which continued to 1877, when he purchased his partner's interest and be- 
came sole owner, the headquarters being the Greenwood building in Mill street. 
The next year the business began to grow perceptibly, and in 1882 it had outgrown 
the limits of the premises occupied. A second floor was added ; ii: 1886 a third floor, 
and in 1888 a fourth floor was added. The specialties manufactured were saws, 

G 



50 LANDMARKS OF MONRUE COUNTY. 

planers, boring machines, lathes, etc., such as were necessary in the manufacture of 
furniture, chairs, carriages, wood patterns, cars, agricultural implements, etc. The 
business steadily developed into extensive proportions until in 1890 it again needed 
more room and better facilities, and in that year the brick buildings now occupied by 
the concern were erected for the purpose on Lyell avenue adjoining the Erie canal. 
Meanwhile the products manufactured had increased both in volume and variety 
until in 1892-93 seventy different machines were listed, shipments being made to all 
parts of the United States as well as to many foreign countries. In 1891 the Frank 
H. Clement Company was incorporated with a paid up capital of SOO.OOi) and with 
Mr. Clement as president and manager. This arrangement still continues, although 
the actual capital employed is over §100,000. Mr. Clement has been the mechanical 
and business head of the concern from the start, havmg made all the original designs, 
having supervised the construction of all work, and up to 1891 having attended per- 
sonally to the details and correspondence of the office. He has successfully built up 
one of the largest manufacturing establishments of the kind in the State. 

Mr. Clement, although keenly alive to the best interests of the public welfare, has 
never been a candidate for public office, but has steadily devoted his attention and 
energy to a large and growing business. For twenty-two years he was a prominent 
member of the Brick Presbyterian church of Rochester; in 1884 he became a charter 
member and ruling elder of the North Presbyterian church and still retains those re- 
lations. He married, first, in 1866, Miss Harriet E., daughter of Armitstead Fielden, 
of Bfockport, by whom hp had five children, of whom two, Benjamin Harris and Mary 
Genevieve, are living. The mother died in 1880, and in 1882 Mr. Clement married 
Miss Lovisa S. Knapp, of Farmington, Pa., but for several years a teacher in the 
public schools of Rochester. 



CHARLES T. CROUCH. 

Ch.ari.es T. Crouch, one of the largest lumber dealers in Western New York, was 
born in Rochester on May 25, 1829, and is a son of William Crouch, a contractor, who 
came here from England about 1822 and died November 19, 1842. William Crouch 
married Catherine Harmon, who was born July 11, 1800, and died July IC, 1895. 
They had six children, of whom our subject was the fifth. Charles T. Crouch ob- 
tained his education in the public schools of his native city, and when a young man 
engaged in teaming. In 1857 he formed a partnership with his brother George W., 
under the name of G. W. &• C. T. Crouch, and embarked in the manufacture of 
lumber, which they continued about four years. In 1862 they engaged in the coal 
business. In 1868 they associated themselves with George Bentley, of Rochester, 
and Samuel R. Hart, of Brighton, as G. W. Crouch & Co., and began the manufac- 
ture of lumber on Crouch island, where they put up a large saw-mill. Two years 
later the Messrs. Crouch purchased Mr. Hart's interest and two years after that Mr. 
Bentley retired, the style of the firm becoming G. W. & C. T. Crouch. About 1875 
they formed a partnership with H. H. Craig, as Craig & Crouches, and this firm es- 
tablished, independent of the saw-mill, a large wholesale and retail lumber business 
on Griffith street, which was continued by them until 1880, when the Crouch brothers 




c:^^.<3^^^- 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 61 

purchased Mr. Craig's interest and took their sons, George W., jr., and Frank P. 
(sons of G. W.), and Charles H. (son of C. T.) into the firm as G. W. & C. T. Crouch 
& Sons. They continued both the lumber trade and saw-mill business for about three 
years, when George W. Crouch, jr., withdrew. In 1887 Charles T. and Charles H. 
Crouch sold their interests in both establishments to G. W. & F. P. Crouch and, 
forming the firm of C. T. Crouch & Son, started their present extensive wholesale 
and retail lumber business on West street near Lyell avenue, where they also have a 
large sash and blind factory and planing-mill. They handle from 8,000,000 to 10,- 
000,000 feet of lumber annually and employ on an average thirty-five or forty hands. 

Mr. Crouch is one of the oldest and best known lumber dealers in Western New 
York, and for nearly forty years has been intimately connected with the business in 
Rochester. He has long been identified with the city's growth and material pros- 
perity, assisting in building it up, and contributing liberally to its advancement. 
In politics he has always been a IJemocrat and for two years represented the Twelfth 
ward in the Common Council, but excepting this has steadfastly declined public of- 
fice, preferring to devote his entire attention to business interests. As a citizen he is 
one of the prominent men of Rochester. He is a 32d degree Mason, being a member 
of Valley Lodge F. & A. M., Hamilton Chapter R. A. M., Monroe Commandery K. 
T., Doric Council, and the Scottish Rite bodies. He is also a memberof the Abelard 
Club of this city. 

In 1851 Mr. Crouch was married to Miss Susan Streeter, daughter of Thomas 
Streeter, of Rochester. They are the parents of five children, all married, namely: 
Mary H. (Mrs. Sidney R. Ireland), of Chicago; Delia E. (Mrs. George H. Lookup), 
of Marion, Wayne county; Charles H., who married Sarah, daughter of John Han- 
cock, of Rochester; and Rhoda E. (Mrs. Henry H. Turner) and Nellie S. (Mrs. C. C. 
Beahan), both of Rochester, 



MOSES B. SHANTZ. 

Moses B. Shantz was born in Berlin, Canada, August 24. 18.")2. His great-great- 
grandfather, with many others, fled from Switzerland to this country in 1737 because 
of the remorseless persecution which his sect, the Mennonites, suft'ered at the hands 
of the Swiss government. This sect distinctively upheld a non-resisting doctrine, 
similar to that of the Society of Friends or Quakers, and most of their number set- 
tled in or near Philadelphia. They came hither mainly through the influence of 
William Penn, and because the king of England had declared free exercise of con- 
science and exempted the so-called Quakers, Dunkers, and ^Mennonites from military 
duty and the swearing of oath, a law that stands good with the English government 
unto this day. Mr. Shantz's maternal grandfather, Mr. Biehn, settled in Canada in 
1804; his grandmother came with her family in 1807; and his grandfather, Jacob 
Shantz, became resident there in 1810. The latter made the journey thither by way 
of the Genesee country, passing through forest and brush where the city of Roches- 
ter now stands, and being accompanied by Col. Nathaniel Rochester, the subsequent 
founder of the place. His son, Jacob Y. Shantz, has long been an active and influ- 
ential factor in the colonization of some of the remoter parts of Canada, and is still 



^2 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

prominently identified with the northwestern section of that vast territory. He was 
instrumental in inaugurating a tide of immigration soon after the visit of several 
delegates from Russia in 1873. The ne.xt year 1,800 persons came to Manitoba; in 
1875 about 4,000 arrived. In three years 1,348 families, consisting of nearly 8,000 
souls, all Mennonites, settled in Manitoba, all coming from Russia to escape the laws 
which conflicted with their religious doctrine. Most of them were Germans, having 
left Germany for the same reason some eighty years before. The sum of §94,200 was 
appropriated by the Canadian government and $34,000 more by the people of Mani- 
toba for the purpose of assisting these immigrants, nearly all of whom were poor, and 
Mr. Shantz had full control of this money. He has lived to'sce his colonies prosper 
and himself ranked among the foremost benefactors of the country. 

Moses B. Shantz, son of Jacob Y. , was educated in his native town, and after at- 
tending a business college entered the employ of his father as bookkeeper and man- 
ager, in which capacity he continued for several years. Meanwhile he made a study 
of the manufacture of buttons and in 1887 came to Rochester, where he began in a 
small way the business to which he has since devoted his attention. His trade grad- 
ually developed from insignificant to extensive proportions, and in 1891 the M. B. 
Shantz Co. was incorporated with a capital of $150,000, and with M. B. Shantz, presi- 
dent; H. E. Welcher, vice-president; and H. K. Elston, secretary and treasurer, all 
of whom still hold their respective offices. They carry on a large business, which 
extends all over this continent, operate one of the largest factories of the kind in 
America, and maintain branch salesrooms in New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago. 

December 7, 1875, Mr. Shantz was married to Miss Veronica Bingeman, daughter 
of Jonas Bingeman, of Waterloo county, Ontario, Canada. They have seven chil- 
dren: J. Edgar, H. Elizabeth, J. Alson, Vera M., Katie Irene, Marshall B. , and 
Harold E. 



ISAAC BUTTS. 

IsA.\c Butts was born in Washington, Dutchess county, N, Y. , January 11, 1816, 
and died in Rochester, November 20, 1874. At the age of twelve he removed with 
his father's family to the town of Irondequoit, Monroe county, where he lived upon a 
farm and received common school instruction. Approaching to majority, he sought 
a more liberal education and received it under Prof. Chester Dewey, principal of the 
Rochester High School. After successfully following various pursuits he adopted 
the profession of journalism, and in October, 1845, purchased and assumed editorship 
of the Rochester Advertiser, the oldest daily paper in the United States west of 
Albany, and the leading organ of the Democratic party in Western New York. 
During the following year, 1846, slavery became a prominent issue in the politics of 
the United Stales, as a consequence of the war with Mexico, and the pending acqui- 
sition of territory by treaty of peace. The question was, whether slavery should be 
allowed or prohibited by Congress in the acquired territory, and discussion of it was 
forced in August, 1846, by the introduction in the House of Representatives of the 
" Wilmot Proviso," to the effect that slavery should be excluded. Mr. Butts took 
strong ground against both sides in the controversy, and promulgated the doctrine 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 53 

that the people of the territories should settle the question for themselves. Credit 
for the origin of this principle of " Popular Sovereignty," or " Squatter Sovereignty," 
as its opponents contemptuously stigmatized it, has been erroneously claimed 
for each of three distinguished senators— Daniel S. Dickinson, Lewis Lass, and 
Stephen A. Douglas — respectively from New York, Michigan, and Illinois. The 
records prove that it was first advocated by Mr. Butts in the Daily Advertiser of 
Februarys, 1847; by Mr. Dickinson in the Senate December 13, 1847; by General 
Cass in his Nicholson letter December 24, 1847; and by Judge Douglas in the discus- 
sion in the compromise measures in the Senate June 17, 1850. In the division of the 
Democratic party that followed in 1848 Mr. Butts took sides with the " Barnburners" 
of New York in support of Van Buren and Adams, against the " Hunkers," who sus- 
tained Cass and Butler. After the defeat of the latter he sold the Advertiser to a 
syndicate of " Hunkers," and, retiring from editorial service, engaged in the enter- 
prise of the House printing telegraph and in the construction of lines in Western 
States, converging at St. Louis. After the presidential election of 1852 he returned 
to journalism by the purchase of a half -interest in the Rochester Daily Union, which 
had been established in August of that year to support the Democratic candidates, 
Pierce and King. In 1857 the Daily Advertiser was joined with the Union, and 
Mr. Butts continued as editor until December, 1864, when he permanently retired. 
About the beginning of this last period of editorial service there was a consolidation 
of telegraphic lines and interests by the incorporation of the Western Union Tele- 
graph Company, of which Mr. Butts was one of the organizers and for many years 
one of the managers. Mr. Butts never held any public position beyond acting as a 
delegate for his party in several State and National Conventions. He was elected a 
delegate-at-large to the New York Constitutional Convention of 1806, but declined to 
serve. He w'as a man of marked talent, both natural and acquired. Possessed of 
an analytical and logical mind he was a powerful controversialist ; and he has left bro- 
chures on finance, protection, free trade, and other subjects, that are remarkable for 
originality and force. /His volume on " Protection and Free Trade," with a memoir, 
was published posthumously (New York, 1875).' 



GEORGE W. CLARK 

Georgk W. Clark represents one of the pioneer families of the Genesee country. 
Calvin Clark, his grandfather, came with his wife, five sons, and four daughters from 
Connecticut to Penfield in 1801 and settled upon an unbroken farm a short distance 
north of what is now Penfield. He was highly respected for his many noble quali- 
ties and New England characteristics, and took a keen but quiet interest in the 
growth and prosperity of the new settlement. Patriotic and public spirited he par- 
ticipated as a civilian in the war of 1812, hauling provisions, etc., to the Niagara 
frontier, and dying, while thus engaged, near Lewiston. Alpheus Clark, his eldest 
son, was born in Connecticut in August, 1788, came to Penfield with his father's 
family, and for many years assisted in their support. He was a lifelong farmer and 

' Adapted frt)in "Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Bioijraphy," Vol. I., 1888, 



54 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

resident of that town, and died in August, 1861 on the homestead now owned by his 
son, George W. His wife was Rhoda, daughter of Libbeus Ross, grandfather of 
Austin P. Ross, whose sketch appears in this volume. She died December 28, 1853, 
aged sixty-one. Hf)th were early and prominent members and liberal supporters of 
the Penfield Baptist church, and materially contributed to the progress and welfare 
of their community. Their children were Adelia A (Mrs. William R. Thomas), de- 
ceased: Deborah L. (Mrs. Chauncey Knapp), of Adrian, Mich.; Alpheus S., long a 
prominent citizen of Penfield, some time justice of the peace, and three j'ears justice 
of .sessions, who died in February, 1875; Orrin M., who died in Penfield in January, 
1891, aged sixty-seven; Rhoda A. (Mrs. J. C. Sampson), Albion, Mich.; George W., 
the subject of this sketch; and Peninah M. (Mrs. John Peck), of Clifton Park, Sara- 
toga county. 

George W. Clark was born in Penfield on the 16th of June, 1831, and received his 
education from the district schools of the day. Reared on the farm he remained a 
farmer until April, 1895, when he removed to Rochester, where he lives in retirement, 
enjoying the accumulations of a profitable and successful career. He has always 
been a generous supporter of educational, religious, and benevolent objects, giving 
all good movements a hearty encouagement and forwarding every enterprise which 
promoted the public welfare. His native town, which so long honored him as a resi- 
dent, ever found in him a loyal friend and a thorough benefactor. In politics he has 
been a life-long Republican, affiliating with that party upon its organization, and 
triumphally carrying its banner to victory in many exciting local campaigns. For 
more than two decades he has been active in its councils and prominent as one of its 
trusted leaders. In 1875 he was elected town assessor and served for six consecutive 
years. In 1881, 1882, and 1883, he represented the town of Penfield on the Board of 
Supervisors, where he labored zealously for the public good. He was for some time 
a citizen member of the Town Board of Health and for three years a member of the 
Republican County Committee from Penfield, being continuously one of its executive 
committee and for two years its treasurer. In the spring of 1890 he was again elected 
supervisor and served by re-election for four successive years. In November, 18i)3, 
he was elected delegate from the first district of Monroe to the State Constitutional 
Convention which met in Albany m May, 1894. On August 26, 1895, although a new 
resident of Rochester, he was nominated for supervisor of the Twelfth ward on the 
Republican ticket. He has been a member of the Penfield Union Lodge. No. 154, 
F. & A. M., longer than any other living man and was its master for four years. He 
is also a member of Hamilton Chapter, No. 69, R. A. M., Monroe Commandery, No. 
12, K. T., Ancient Arabic Order of Noble Mystic Shrine, Damascus Temple, and the 
Supervisors' and Ex-Supervisors' Association of Monroe county, of which he has been 
for several years a vice-president. 

Mr. Clark was married on November 17, 1864, to Miss Margaret E. Brooks, daugh- 
ter of Israel Brooks, of Saratoga county, N. Y. They have five children: Dora P. 
(wife of Charles J. Brown, president of the Brown Brothers Company, nurserymen, 
of Rochester), Ruth E., Jennie Mae, I. Brooks, and J. Porter. 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 55 

DANIEL DEAVENPORT. 

Daniel Deaveni'ort, the pioneer commission merchant of Rochester, and whole- 
sale dealer in butter, eggs, fruits, etc., and the one who built the first cold storage 
houses for carrying butter and eggs, was born in Watertown, Jefferson county, N.Y., 
September 13, 1839, and received his education in the public schools of his native 
village (now a city). At the age of scarcely eighteen he became a clerk in a grocery 
store in that place and remained fifteen months, when poor health compelled him to 
resign. Afterward, upon the advice of a friend, who loaned him §400, he engaged 
in the retail grocery and fruit business in Watertown, which he successfully con- 
ducted until March, 1865, when he sold out and came to Rochester, where he has 
since resided. Here he first established a retail grocery trade, under the firm name 
of Deavenport & Wilmott, and so continued until the partnership expired three 
years later. He was then on State street for one year, when ill health again forced 
him to sell out, and for the following year he carried on a shipping bu.siness in a 
small way. This may be regarded as the foundation of his present extensive whole- 
sale establishment, for it was during this period that he formed associations which 
subsequently led to the starting of the largest commission houses in Rochester. He 
purchased the grocery store at what was then 163 East Main street and established 
business under the name of the "Liberty Pole Commission House," which has 
developed into one of the best known enterprises in the city. This was a retail 
trade, and was gradually converted into wholesaling butter and eggs, two years 
later adding 161 East Main street, running the two stores, wholesale and retail. 
After fifteen years, or in 1883, he again sold out and opened his present .store at the 
corner of East Main and Franklin streets, which retains the old name. Here Mr. 
Deavenport engaged in wholesaling butter, eggs, fruit and produce, and so con- 
tinues. In 1886 he purchased the building on the corner of North and Chatham 
streets, which he fitted up for a cold storage and warehouse. He also has a large 
cold storage in connection with the store, both of which were built for his use bv the 
Wicks Refrigerator Company. 

Mr. Deavenport is one of the largest and best known wholesale commission dealers 
in the country. He originally bought butter and eggs largely in Jefferson, Ltwis, 
and St. Lawrence counties, and about fifteen years ago extended his purchases into 
the west, where he now carries on an immen.se bu.siness. He brought the first full 
car of butter ever brought into Rochester, and he demonstrated the feasibility of 
of that method of transportation. For the past ten years he has given employment 
to about fifteen men, and during the busy season the force greatly increases in num- 
ber. In February, 1893, the concern adopted its present style of D. Deavenport & 
Co., but it still retains the familiar name of the Liberty Pole Commission House, a 
name derived from a historic liberty pole which for many years was a conspicuous 
landmark near by on East Main street. 

As a citizen Mr. Deavenport has always manifested a lively interest in public 
affairs, aiding in promoting every worthy object, and lending his influence in the 
cause of progress and advancement. His energies, however, have been strictly con- 
fined to business, for in the conduct of this his time has been fully occupied. 

In February, 1863, he married a daughter of Rev. F. H. Stanton. They have no 
children, and are both in the prime of life, enjoying good health. 



56 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

DANIEL W. POWERS. 

Among the pre-eminently distinguished citizens of Rochester is Daniel W. Powers, 
who was born in Batavia, Genesee county, N. Y., June 14, 1818. His parents, 
Asabel and Elizabeth (Powell) Powers, from Vermont, were among the earliest 
pioneers of Western New York and died, leaving the lad an orphan in boyhood. He 
was reared by an uncle and remained on the farm until nineteen years of age, when 
he came to Rochester and entered the employ of Ebenezer Watts, a hardware dealer, 
for whom he clerked until 1849. He then engaged in business as a banker and 
broker, and on March 1, 1850, published in the paper his intention of conducting an 
" Exchange business in the Eagle block, Rochester, one door west of the Monroe 
Bank in Buffalo street." His success in the undertaking is evinced by the fact that 
on the site of that oihce now stands the beautiful and substantial Powers fire-proof 
building, the first, finest, and most celebrated of the great modern commercial 
structures erected in the city. It was built in 1870 and contains the famous Powers 
Art Gallery, which is known throughout the world, and which is valued at more than 
$1,000,000. Adjoining it on West Main street he completed in 188:3 the Powers Fire- 
proof Hotel, one of the most popular first-class hostelries in the United States. 
These handsome buildings, together with the gallery, have spread the fair fame of 
Roche.ster as well as the name of Powers over all English-speaking countries, while 
the great gallery itself has made this city one of the leading art centers of America. 
. Mr. Powers has also been prominent in various other connections. He was twice 
elected alderman from the old Tenth ward, and was a member of the commissions 
which directed the construction of the City Hall and the elevation of the Central- 
Hudson Railroad tracks. Upon the incorporation of Powers Bank, the successor of 
the Powers Banking House, in June, 1890, he was elected its president, which posi- 
tion he has ever since held. He is also president of the board of trustees of the City 
Hospital. He is one of Rochester's most distinguished, enterprising, and public 
spirited citizens, and has done more than any other man to make the name of the 
city famous throughout the world. 

In 1855 Mr. Powers married Miss Helen M. Craig, daughter of the late John Craig, 
of Niagara county. They have five children. 



HENRY LIKLY. 

The subject of this sketch was born in Perth, Canada, January 18, 1836, and came 
to Rochester with his mother in the spring of 1848, his father, William Likly, having 
died but a short time before. After completing his education in the pul)lic schools 
of this city he entered the employ of A. R. Pritchard, manufacturer of irunksand trav- 
eling bags, who had established himself in that business herein 18-14. Here Mr Likly 
served a regular apprenticeship, thoroughly mastering a trade witli which he has 
ever since been prominently identified, and in which he has met with unvarying suc- 
cess. While he was connected with the establishment the firm became A. R. & F. H. 
Pritchard. January 1, 1868, he was given a partnership interest under the style of 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 57 

A. R. & F. H. Pritchard & Co., and three years later this name was changed to 
A. R. Pritchard & Likly. In February, 1879, Mr. Likly and his brother-in-law, W. 
D. Callister, as Henry Likly & Co., became .sole proprietors, and since then have 
successfully conducted one of the largest concerns of the kind in this country. Thej' 
consume annually more than half a million feet of lumber and manufacture over 
thirty thousand trunks and thousands of traveling bags, maintaining a trade which 
extends throughout the United States, and employing upward.s of 110 hands. They 
make all kinds and grades of trunks and traveling bags, and have an extensive fac- 
tory at No. 840 Lyell avenue and a retail store at No. 96 State street. No firm in 
this country is more favorably known to the trade, and none enjoys a wider prestige 
for the fine quality of the goods manufactured. 

Mr. Likly is one of the most esteemed and most popular citizens of Rochester. A 
staunch Republican, taking at times an active part in the councils of his party, and 
always manifesting a keen interest in the welfare and general prosperity of the city, 
he has frequently been named for positions of trust and political responsibility, but 
invariably has refused public office, giving instead his energies to a large and grow- 
ing business, which occupies his entire attention, and in which he has been eminently 
successful. He was a charter member of Corinthian Temple Lodge No. 805, F. & 
A. M., of which he is the present treasurer. He is also a member and past noble 
grand of the I. O. O. F. 

He was married in 1801 to Miss Helen E. Callister, by whom he has two sons 
living: William C. and Henry, jr., both of whom are associated with their father in 
business. 



FREDERICK A. ROWE. 

Frederick A. Rowe was a life long resident of Monroe county, and during an 
active and a successful career became one of the prominent agriculturists of his time. 
He was born in the town of Greece on January 26, 1814, being the fourth child* and 
second son of Frederick and Philura (Church) Rowe, who were among the earliest 
pioneers in that part of the Genesee country. Frederick Rowe was born December 
22, 1779, and died June 10, 185."). He participated in the war of 1812, and a few 
years afterward moved t(j the town of Gates, settling on the place now owned by 
C. C. Beaman, where he lived the remainder of his life. He took a keen interest in 
town affairs, supported every local public enterprise, and donated the site upon 
which the school house in District No. 5 now stands^ His wife, Philura Church, was 
born August 2, 1784, and died November 5, 1862. Their children were Lucian, 
Emeline F., Ruth H., Frederick A., Ira G., Abel Henry C, Nancy P., Nancy P. 2d, 
and William E., all deceased except Nancy P. 2d. 

Frederick A. Rowe, the subject of this memoir, was raised on the paternal farm 
and acquired as good an education as the common schools of his day afforded. His 
entire life was spent in agricultural pursuits. On October 19, 1837, he was married 
to Miss Julia M. Sperry, daughter of Ira Sperry, a pioneer of Monroe county. She 
was born May 2, 1805, in Cayuga county. Soon after their marriage he settled on 
the farm now owned and occupied l)y his son-in-law, C. C. Beaman, whence he re- 



68 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

moved about 185(1 to the present Omlstead place, where he resided ten years. In 1860 
he returned to the farm first mentioned, upon which he died July 10, 1878 His wife 
survived until June 7, 1882. They had born to them five children, viz.: Ruth H., 
who was born October 7, 1838, married George B. Sperry, of Gates, and died in June, 
1883; George A., born October 31, 1840, enlisted in the 108th Regt. N. Y. Vols., was 
wounded near Fredericksburg, Va., and died December 17, 1862; Ellen Lou'sa, born 
May 20, 1842, died July 2. 1843; Charles H., born April 5, 1844, a resident of Forest 
Grove, Oregon; and Julia E. (Mrs. C. C. Beaman), of Gates, born September 26, 1846. 
Mr. Rowe was always one of the representative citizens of the town, and through- 
out life took a keen interest in public affairs. Originally an old line Whig and sub- 
sequently a staunch Republican, he was more or less active in politics, and filled 
everv position with both credit and distinction. Like his father he was especially 
prominent in local educational matters, and for several years served as school trustee. 
Both himself and wife were life-long members of the Baptist church of Greece, to 
which they were always liberal supporters. Mr. Rowe was highly respected and 
esteemed, and maintained throughout a successful career, an untarnished reputation 
and the charcteristics of an honest, upright, and conscientious citizen and neighbor. 



GEORGE ELLWAXGER. 

George Ei.i.wanger was born at Gros.s-Heppach in the Remsthal (called the 
"Garden of the Fatherland"), kmgdom of Wurtemburg, Germany, December 2, 
1816, and spent his youth with his father and brothers in their vineyards. In this 
capacity he acquired a love for horticulture and early resolved to devote his life to it. 
Having secured a liberal education in the schools of his neighborhood he studied for 
four years in a leading horticultural institution in Stuttgart, where he perfected him- 
self in the arts which he had decided U> follow, In 1835 he emigrated to America 
and first settled in Tiffin, Ohio, passing through the Genesee Valley on the way and 
men*tally noting the unparalleled advantages it oflfered. He soon returned and 
located in Rochester, where he entered the horticultural establi-shment of Reynolds & 
Bateman, the first of its kind in this city. In 1839 he purchased their business and 
akso bought eight acres of land on Mount Hope avenue, and thus formed the nucleus 
of the subsequently celebrated Mount Hope nurseries. In 1840 he formed a partner- 
ship with the late Patrick Barry, which continued under the firm name of Ellwanger 
cV Barry until thelatter's death in June, 1890. They successfully built up the most 
complete and extensive nursery business in the United States, and for fifty years 
maintained a trade which extended largely into foreign lauds, shipments being made 
to almost every nation on the globe. They also established the Toronto nurseries in 
Canada and the Columbus nurseries in Ohio. Since Mr. Barry's death the busine.ss 
has been continued under the old name as extensively as beft>re. 

As a citizen Mr. Ellwanger has constantly exercised an elevating influence upon the 
growth and material prosperity of the community, and has always been prominently 
identified with every public enterprise. For many years he has been officially con- 
nected with the banking interests of Rochester, being successively a director of the 
Union and Flour Citv Banks and a trustee of the Monroe County Savings Bank and 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 59 

the Rochester Trust and Safe Deposit Company. He has also served as a director 
of the Rochester Gas Company, the Eastman Kodak Company, and the Rochester 
and Brighton Street Radroad Company. 

In 1846 Mr. Ellwanger married Miss Corneha, daughter of Gen. Micah Brooks, of 
Livingston, a pioneer of Western New York. They have had four sons; George H., 
Henry B., William D.. and Edward S., all of whom received the best education the 
schools of this country afforded, supplemented by extended travel and study abroad. 



AUSTIN P. ROSS. 

Among the earlier pioneers of Monroe county who were instrumental in convert- 
ing an unbroken wilderness into a fruitful and progressive section of the Empire 
State was Libbeus Ross, the grandfather of the subject of this memoir, who moved 
With his family from Rhode Island to Pentield in 1801. He settled on a farm two 
miles north and west of Penfield village and died there, leaving to his children — six 
sons and three daughters — a rich inheritance of New England thrift and frugality. 
Libbeus Ross, jr., was reared on the paternal farm and received such educational 
advantages as the primitive district schools afforded. He was a life-long farmer, 
a prominent member of the M. E. church, a member of the old Monroe County 
Pioneer Association, and died in Penfield in the spring of 1866. He was twice mar- 
ried and had five children who attained maturity, as follows: Mrs. Calvm Eaton, 
Mrs. Benjamin Crippen, Mrs. Egbert Leak, Martin V. B., and Austin P., the others 
being born to him by his first wife. 

Austin P. Ross was born in Penfield on October 10, 1828. His early life was spent 
upon his father's farm and he succeeded to the old homestead, where he resided until 
May, 1866, when he removed to Rochester, where he died September 10, 18T2. As a 
farmer he was successful, but it was as a bu.siness man in Rochester that he became 
best and most widely known. Soon after coming here he became one of the origi- 
nators and a heavy stockholder of the Vacuum Oil Company, of which he continued 
as a director until his death. In this he acquired an enviable reputation as well as a 
competency, and for several j-ears sustained intimate relations with the commercial 
interests of the city. He was a man of the strictest integrity and universally re- 
spected and esteemed. A consistant christian, he was first a member of the Penfield 
M. E. church and later of the Alexander Street M. E. church, being long one of their 
official boards and a trusted counsellor. He v,-as for many years a Master Mason, 
and one of the prominent and influential men of the community. In politics he was 
always a Republican, but never became actively identified with partisan affairs, 
although he constantly manifested a keen interest in public matters for the welfare 
and advancement of his town and city. His career was almost wholly a business 
one, in which he met with unvarying success and no little distinction. He was a 
man who made close friendships, and, making, kept them throughout life. 

December 24, 1865, he married Mrs. Caroline (De Witt) Easton, of Rochester, who 
survives him. She was a daughter of Jacob De Witt, a native of New Jersey, and an 
.early settler of Greece. 



60 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY.. 

LSAAC R. ELWOOn.i 

Isaac R. Elwuud was born at Herkimer, in the ^lohawk valley, N. Y., in 1800, and 
received a common school education. He descended from an ancient German family, 
of which one branch settled in England many generations ago. To this branch be- 
longed Thomas Ellwood, the Quaker, reader and friend to the blind poet, John 
Milton. Our subject's grandfather, Richard Ellwood, of German extraction, came 
to America from England in 1748, and soon afterward settled in the town of Minden, 
Montgomery county, in the Mohawk valley. He was a mason by trade, and an old 
stone house near St. Johnsville still stands to attest his handiwork. His son, Richard 
Ellwood, jr., father of Isaac R., was born in England and had attained the age of six 
years when the family came to this country. He was a farmer in the Mohawk valley, 
and married a Miss Bell, by whom he had six children, Isaac R. being the youngest. 
John Elwood, a younger brother of Richard, jr., settled in Canada and changed the 
orthography of the name from Ellwood to Elwood, which was originally Ellwoode. 

The following incident relative to the mother of Mrs. Richard Ellwood, jr., appears 
in the Documentary History of New York, Vol. I., p. 522. During the French and 
Indian war, when an attack from the Indians was imminent. Captain Herchamer 
issued orders calling upon all settlers to take refuge within Fort Herkimer. By an 
oversight Mrs. Bell and her family were left unwarned. They were surprised, her 
husband and two children were killed, and an infant's brains wgre dashed out, while 
she herself was scalped and left for dead, here nose being also nearly cut off. Her 
then unborn child became in course of time the mother of the subject of this memoir. 
Mrs. Bell suffered severely from the .shock, and was several times at the point of 
death before she recovered. 

Isaac R. Elwood, who adopted the spelling of the name as modified by his uncle, 
was reared on the paternal farm amid the Dutch settlements of the famous Mohawk 
valley. About 1830 he came to Rochester, where he not only spent the remainder of 
his life, but which w^as destined to become the scene of his active and useful career. 
After studying law and being admitted to the bar he practiced his profession in part- 
nership with those two distinguished brother jurists, Samuel L. and Henry R. Selden, 
for several years, acquiring eminent success and a wide reputation. Possessing a 
profound knowledge of legal literature, and endowed with great ability and sound 
judgment, he was recognized as an able lawyer and a trusty counsellor. Originally 
a Democrat and subsequently a Republican in politics he always manifested a keen 
interest in public affairs, and in 1838 officiated as clerk of the Common Council. 
Afterward he was clerk of the New York State Senate for two sessions, and at the 
outbreak of the war of the Rebellion he took a prominent part in supporting the 
Union cause. But in the midst of this struggle, on February 27, 1868, he died at his 
home in this city from injuries received in a runaway accident, widely respected and 
esteemed. To his memory his eldest child and only son, Frank Worcester Elwood, 
erected in 1879 the handsome and substantial Elwood building on the historic north- 
east corner of State and Main streets. 

It was as one of the founders of the Western Union Telegraph Company, however, 

' This .sketch properly belon.ajs in the chapter <>n '■ Judi^es and -Vlturneys," but was received 
too hite fur insertion therein. 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 61 

that Mr. Elwood acquired a name whicli imperishably stands upon the annals of 
time. When this great corporation was formed by the consolidation of lines which 
then covered thirteen States of the Union he was retained as an attorney, and in 
that capacity drew all the papers which started the enterprise and placed it upon 
a successful working basis. He was also made its first secretary and treasurer and 
held those positions until his death in 1863, his office being in Rochester. 

As a citizen Mr. Elwood was endowed with the highest qualifications, and in both 
public and private life he was esteemed for his many noble characteristics. He was 
a public benefactor. All movements of a worthy nature met with his generous sup- 
port and encouragement. He traveled extensively, and being a close observer ac- 
quired a large fund of valuable information. In 1839 he made an extended tour of 
Europe and kept a journal of rare interest. In 1849 he was married to Miss Elizabeth 
Handy Gold, third child of "William Erskine and Caroline (Handy) Gold, of Pitts- 
field, Mass. Her father was a lawyer. Her mother was a daughter of Abigail 
Rosewell Salton stall and Dr. William Handy, of New York. Abigail was a daughter 
of Rosewell Salton stall, seventh son of Gurdon Saltonstall (son of Governor Gurdon 
Saltonstall, of Connecticut) and Rebeckah Winthrop, of New London, who was a 
daughter of John Winthrop and Ann Dudley. Ann Dudley was a daughter of 
Governor Joseph Dudley, of Massachusetts, lieutenant-gov^ernor of the Isle of Wight, 
and first chief justice of New York; he was a son of Thomas Dudley, governor of 
Massachusetts, 1576-1653, first major-general of Massachusetts, and a direct de- 
scendant of John Sutton, first baron of Dudley, and first of the Dudleys who were 
dukes of Northumberland and earls of Warwick and Leicester.^ Mrs. Isaac R. 
Elwood was also a relative of the poet Longfellow's second wife. She died September 
10, 1869, leaving three children, viz.: F'rank Worcester, of Rochester; Mrs. Arthur 
L. Devens, of Boston ; and Mrs. Ludwig Klipfel, whose husband is a captain in the 
Prussian army. Mrs. Klipfel died in January, 1895. 



FREEMAN EDSON, M. D. 

The subject of this sketch was of English descent. The family name sometimes 
appears, however, as Edson, sometimes as Edison, and again as Addison, and on 
this account it has been found difiicult to trace it in the old country. The first rep- 
resentative of the family in America was Samuel Edson, who reached New England 
about 1626. With Miles Standish and John Alden he was one of the original corpo- 
rators of Bridgewater, Mass , marrying a daughter of the Rev. John Keith, the first 
minister of that settlement. After him came Samuel II., Samuel III., Samuel IV., 
and Jonah. Dr. Freeman Edson was the thirteenth of fourteen children of Jonah 
and Betty Edson, of Westmoreland, N. H., and was born September 24, 1791. 
His mother lived to see her ninety-seventh year with little failure of her faculties 
except her sight. He entered upon the study of medicine in the office of Dr Amos 
Twitchell in the adjoining town of Keene. Completing his course in 1814 at Yale 

' Vide "Sutton-Dudleys of EiiKland," by Georj^e Arnold; London, John Russell .Smith, :W.Soho 
Square, IHiii. 



62 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

College the professors recommended him to a vacancy at Watertown, N. Y., but on 
his arrival there he found the place occupied by a surgeon from the war just closed. 
He therefore mounted his horse and rode westward through a wilderness unbroken 
except for settlements at Canandaigua and Rochester. In the latter place there was 
at the time but a single frame dwelling. Proceeding twelve miles farther south the 
young traveler found a maternal uncle, Isaac Scott, who had already come from New 
Hampshire and settled on Allan's Creek. It was after this uncle tliat the village of 
Scottsville was named, and here it was that Dr. Edson began his rerharkable medical 
career, which was to continue unbroken for nearly seventy years. In preparation 
for his marriage he erected, in 1816, the house which he occupied until his death, and 
which is still the summer home of his descendants. 

Dr. Edson found the settlers along Allan's Creek and tlie Genesee River afflicted 
with the disorders incident to a new country. The roads and bridges were of the poor- 
est ; the rides were long. In the spring and autumn came weeks when the physician 
had only snatches of rest, yet he never seemed to weary. His devotion to his pro- 
fession was entire. He had great success. There was not only a natural aptitude 
for the work, but a trained judgment. His diagnosis was seldom at fault. He kept 
up with the times, acquaintmg himself with new methods and new remedies, and had 
a special genius for surgery, being one of the first within a wide region to perform 
successfully the operation of trepliining. After he was ninety years of age he fear- 
lessly removed a tumor from a patient's face. While at the last he sought no prac- 
tice there were always difficult cases which demanded the old doctor's attention. 
His neighbors and friends celebrated his ninetieth birthday with great interest. 
Many were the incidents then recalled in illustration of his boldness and skill. In 
the autumn of 1882, making a visit to his son at Indianapolis, he received marked at- 
tention from the medical profession there, especially from Dr. Thomas B. Harvey, a 
distinguished surgeon. He was invited to address the students of the Indiana Med- 
ical College and told the young men how to succeed in living long. The remarks 
were widely reported throughout the country, and in some of the newspapers Dr. 
Edson was probably with truth described as the oldest practicing physician in the 
United States. His professional influence gained much from his personal traits. 
His integrity was spotless. In forming and in expressing opinions he was fearless. 
His hospitality was well known, and nothing pleased him betterthan to see his friends 
in his own house. While engrossed in his profession his patriotism was conspicuous 
He stood for liberty, and disliked any departure from the simplicity of Republican 
traditions. For political office he had neither taste nor time. In early days, however, 
he was the postmaster, De Witt Clinton made him an army surgeon, and in 1848 he 
was put upon the Van Buren ticket as presidential elector. During the Civil war he 
was ready in every way to uphold the Union. Eearly in his career Dr. Edson con- 
nected himself with the Presbyterian church, and was for many years a trusted 
counsellor and office-bearer. The end came June 24, 1883, after a few days' illness 
from pneumonia. Dr. Edson was thrice married: — to Judith Mason of Keene, N. H., 
of whom were born Freeman Mason and Emeline; to Mary Hanford, of Scottsville, 
of whom Elizabeth and Hanford Abram were born; and to Thankful Olnistead 
Goodrich. 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 63 

HOSE A ROGERS. 

HosEA Rogp:ks, one of the oldest residents of the town of Irondequoit, is the 
youngest son and child of Ezra Rogers and was born in the present limits of the city 
of Rochester on January 17, 1813. His father came to Monroe county from Massa- 
chusetts about 1810 and died some seven years afterward, leaving children Diodat, 
Ezra, jr., Betsey, Caroline, and Hosea. The parents possessed all the sterling 
attributes of nature that characterize old-time New Englanders, and were abun- 
dantly qualified for the task of implanting their family standard in the then wild 
Genesee country. After his father's death Hosea Rogers was reared by his brothers, 
who were imbued with the same worthy characteristics of their race; at about the 
age of eleven his mother died, thus leaving him an orphan. His education was de- 
rived from the district school, which in that early day afforded meagre opportunities 
for the dis.semination of even the rudiments of the common Engli.sh branches. To 
this limited book knowledge, however, he acquired a practical experience which 
proved far more valuable and useful at that period than educational institutions could 
afford, for what was needed more than anything else was a strong, rugged constitu- 
tion, an indomitable perseverance, and a liberal degree of native energy. And all 
these Mr. Rogers possessed m full measure. 

At the age of fifteen he became a sailor on the great lakes, an occupation in which 
he was destined to rank among the leaders of the time. He continued in this busi- 
ness for ten years, rising through all the grades to the position of master. Toward 
the close of that period his brothers built and ran a sailing vessel between Rochester 
and Chicago, and of this craft he had charge as captain in 1834. About 1887 he pur- 
chased a farm of eighty-five acres in Irondequoit, which inclnded a part of the pres- 
ent Seneca Park, and to it he subsequently added other tracts until he now owns 160 
acres of the choicest and most valuable lands in town. Soon after settling here he 
also engaged m the business of building sailing vessels and built in all fourteen — 
some at Charlotte and others in Ohio and Michigan. At the same time, and in fact 
down to the present day, he carried on the farm. 

In October, 1837, Mr. Rogers married Polly Van Dusen, of Irondequoit, who died 
January 2.5. 1871. His second wife, whom he wedded May 1, 1873, was Mary J. 
Lyon, of Albion, N.Y., who died May 25, 1875. On February 2, 1876, he married, 
third, Asenath Schofield, of Port Colborne, Ontario, Canada, and their childreh are 
Polly M., William H., Luella A., Ezra S., and Alida J. 

Although taking a keen interest in public affairs, Captain Rogers has given prac- 
tically his entire attention to business, in which he has been uniformly successful. 
His long experience on the lakes gave him an extensive knowledge of all kinds of 
sailing craft as well as the laws that govern inland sailors, and when he entered the 
field of boat building he was fully qualified to meet the requirements of the time. 
As a citizen he has ever manifested a public spirit, a lively regard for general pro- 
gress, and a generous nature in worthy movements. Preferring the career of a 
substantial farmer to the excitement and uncertainty of political life, he has always 
declined official honors. He has, nevertheless, taken great interest in the advance- 
ment and prosperity of his town and especially of his own community, and is widely 
esteemed and respected as an upright, conscientious man and neighbor. At the 
age of nearly eighty-four he enjoys with his family the fruits of a long and jjrofitable 
career. 



64 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

ALFRED WRI(;HT. 

Ai.KRKii Wkic.iii, perfumer, was born in Avon, N. V., November 5, 1830, and fin- 
ished his education at Genesee Wesleyan Seminary in Lima. Coming to Rochester 
in 1850 he first engaged in the hardware and gas fixture business, to which he later 
added that of building the first rosin gas works in Western New York. He con 
structed a large number of these works throughout this part of the State, as at that 
time they were in general demand. The business, however, proved unprofitable and' 
Mr. Wright went to Oil City, Pa., arriving there during the first flush of the great 
oil excitement. He engaged in an allied business to that of the gas works — that ot 
handling and selling oil-w-ell tubing, fixtures, etc., and through the fine quality of his 
goods secured an enormous trade, which he continued until the big fire of 1865, when 
he returned to Rochester. lu 1866 he began the study and manufacture of per- 
fumery, a business in which he became the foremost representative in America, his 
factory at the corner of West avenue and Willowbank place being the best and most 
complete establishment of the kind in the world. He probably acquired a wider 
reputation and enjoyed a more extensive influence in his line than any similar manu- 
facturer in any country, but it all came by degrees, by perseverance and continued 
effort, and by steadfastness of purpose. He was practically a pioneer in the busi- 
ness, and engaged in it at a time when perfumery was almost wholly imported. " In 
a country where few distinguish between crude smells and artistic perfumes," he 
said, " I shall make the artistic. I .shall wait for the most unmercantile class of mer- 
chants — the druggists — to sell them : because the druggist cares more for quality 
than the average shopkeeper." He waited, but finally the highest degree of success 
crowned his efforts. He accumulated a fortune and died, widely respected and as 
widely known, Jannary 18, 1891. Since then his sons, Alfred G. and John S. Wright, 
who had been reared under the influence of the establishment, have ably conducted 
the business. 

Mr. Wright was a man w'hose honesty and probity were never questioned. Meet- 
ing with reverses in the earlier part of his career and accumulating a fortune in later 
life, he conscientiously discharged every obligation to the full satisfaction of all with 
whom he had ever had business dealings. He always took a keen interest in public 
affairs and was a trusted friend and counsellor of the Republican party, but he de- 
clined official honors and never became a politician. For eight years he was chair- 
man of the Republican Business Men's Committee. He was also a member of the 
Chamber of Commerce, the Rochester Park Commission, and the Masonic fraternity, 
a director in the Commercial Bank, a trustee of the Mechanics' Savings Bank, the 
Rochester Electric Light Company, the City Hosi)ital, and the lienesee Wesleyan 
Seminary at Lima, vice-president of the Humane Society, and j)iesident of the board 
of trustees of the Brick church. He was charitable to a fault, and liberally sup- 
ported institutions and objects which met his approval. 

Mr. Wright was married, first, in 1853, to Miss Maria E. Goold, daughter of Horace 
O. Goold, of Lyndonville, N. Y. She died October 1, 1859, leaving one son, Alfred 
Goold Wright, born January 24, 1856. His second wife, Mary Jeanne Hunter, 
daughter oi Daniel Hunter, of Orleans county, whom he married in 1H64, died Janu- 
ary 8, 1877, leaving three children: Marian Hunter Wright, John Sears Wright, and 
Margaret Jeanne Wright. February 13, 1879, he married, third. Miss Mary Dean 




(^e/tcJ Ck^Ufy^ 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 65 

Butterfield, daughter of Hon. Martin Butterfield. a prominent citizen of Palmyra, 
N. Y., and at one time congressman from that district, who survives him. Alfred G. 
Wright was married on April 5, 1879, to Miss Cora Hall, daughter of Jonathan O. 
Hall, a pioneer of Rochester and for many years a prominent liveryman here. They 
have three children: Mary Dean, Corinne Hall, and Ethel Amelia. 



GEORGE A. GOSS. 

George A. Goss was born in the town of Pittsford, Monroe county, N. Y., March 
3, 1834. His grandfather, John Goss, a native of Schoharie county, came to Pitts- 
ford in 1816 and for a time kept tavern on his farm ; he married Mary Lamont, 
whose family were early settlers of Schoharie, and died at Allan's Creek in Brighton 
in 1847 ; his father, Ephraim Goss, served throughout the Revolutionary war and was 
a gallant and successful soldier. 

Ephraim Goss, youngest child of John and father of George A., was born in Scho- 
harie count}' in 1806, was educated and reared in the Genesee valley, taught school 
several terms, and studied law with Ira Bellows, of Pittsford. Admitted to the bar 
in 1831 he practiced his profession in that village until his death in June, 1877, except 
a few periods of interruption when official duties called him elsewhere. He was an 
old line Whig and then a Republican, and throughout life took an active part in 
political affairs. In 1837 he was elected county clerk and served one term ; after- 
ward he was justice of sessions for several years and for thirty years officiated as jus- 
tice of the peace. In 1860 and 1861 he served as State senator from this district and 
in the Senate was chairman of the committee on internal affairs of towns and counties. 
He was also supervisor of Pittsford several years, chairman of the board two years, 
and prominently identified with all that concerned the public welfare. He was al- 
ways a leading member and generous supporter of the Pittsford Presbyterian church, 
of which he was long the treasurer and for manj- years served as an elder. In 1840 
he located on the place now occupied by George A., and at that time owned a farm 
of about seventy-five acres adjoining. He married Margaret Porter, who was the 
mother of his five children: George A., Caroline C, wife of Charles McLouth, a 
prominent lawyer of Palmyra, N. Y. ; Chauncey P., treasurer and manager of the 
Scoville Manufacturing Company, of Waterbury, Conn.; Mary E., who died in 
Waterbury, Conn., in 1874; and John Henry, who died in 1858, aged five years. 

George A. Goss received his education in the public schools of Pittsford and Roch- 
ester and remained on the farm until the age of twenty-five, when he engaged in 
the commission business as a dealer in grain, coal, lumber, etc., at Fairport. He 
continued in that for several years and then went to Waterbury, Conn., where he 
was associated with the Waterbury Brass Company, of which he was successively 
traveling representative, and secretary. He returned to Pittsford in 1870 and has 
resided there ever since, looking after and settling estates in the capacity of admin- 
istrator, executor, etc. On January 25, 1882, he married Miss Kate Billinghurst, 
daughter of Henry Billinghurst, of Pittsford. 

Mr. Goss has been for many years actively identified with the Republican party 
and since 1870 has almost continuously held public office. He was town clerk for 



G6 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

three years and a justice of the peace about as many terms, and in 1872, 1873, and 
1874, represented tlie district of Monroe in the Assembly, where he was chairman of 
the committee on villages during the three sessions. He was also a member of the 
sub-committee of the whole, the committee on roads and bridges, and the committee 
on e.xpenditures of the executive department. In 1875 he was first elected supervisor 
and has held that office twelve years— 1875, 1866, 1877, 1880. and 1888 to 1895 inclu- 
siue — being chairman of the board in 18.6, 1877 and 1889, chairman of the law com- 
mittee during several sessions, and in 1893 becoming a member of the building com- 
mittee of the new court-house. He was sergeant-at-arms of the Assembly in 1876 
and 1877 and held the same post in the State Senate in 1884 and 1885, and for the 
past four years has been one of the inspectors of the Monroe County Penitentiary. 
In all these official capacities Mr. Goss has won distinction and respect, and few men 
enjoy a longer and better political record. He performed the duties of each position 
with ability, faithfulness, and good judgment. In town affairs he has always taken 
a lively interest, and educational matters have constantly found in him a firm friend 
and generous supporter. He early joined Northfield Lodge, No. 426, F. & A. M., of 
Pittsford, and is now a prominent member of Hamilton Chapter R. A. M., and 
Monroe Commanderv K. T., of Rochester. 



HENRY J. SNYDER. 

Henry J. Snyder was born in Rochester, N. Y., July 2, 1855. Jacob Snyder, his 
father, was born in Germany in 1829, came to America in 1850, and settled in Roch- 
ester, where he engaged in house building. In 1858 he moved to Riga, Monroe 
county, where he has since followed the vocation of a farmer, settling upon his pres- 
ent place the same year and adding to it until he now owns 130 acres. He has al- 
ways taken a lively interest in town affairs and since his settlement there has been a 
prominent member of the Congregational church at Churchville. He married Rosa 
Wherlie, a native of Germany, but a resident of Rochester, and they have had chil- 
dren as follows: Henry J., Robert, Augustus J., Charles E., and Rosa Lena. 

Henry J. Snyder, the oldest of these five children, received his education in the 
public schools of Riga and at Chili Seminary. Inheriting the thrifty characteristics 
of a worthy German ancestry, he early imbibed the qualities which make the success- 
ful and enterprising citizen, and upon leaving school engaged in the building busi- 
ness, which he continued about four years. He then started out for himself, becom- 
ing a general contractor and builder, and ever since has carried on a large and 
profitable business, which extends throughout the counties of Monroe and Genesee. 
He has erected a number of fine and imposing churches, notably the Catholic edifices 
at Churchville and Byron and the M. E. church at Chili, and also several large 
school houses, among them being the one at North Parma and the new brick struc- 
ture at Churchville, besides many residences in Rochester and elsewhere. Mr. 
Snyder is one of the largest contractors in the county outside the city, and in his 
chosen calling has met with unvarying success. He has also been heavily engaged 
in the retail lumber business in Churchville since 1889, and is one of the most exten- 
sive property owners in that village, where he became a permanent resident in 1883 





L/uTHjd-f) 4^^^--c/^U6/ 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 67 

In politics Mr. Snyder has for several years been an active and influential leader, 
and being a staunch Republican, like his father, has taken a prominent part in the 
councils of his party, which has often placed him in positions of trust. In 1883 he 
was elected a trustee of the village of Churchville and the following year was chosen 
president, and for ten consecutive years he filled one or the other of these offices. 
He was also a member of the Board of Education four year.s— one of which he served 
as president— prior to the spring of 1802, when he resigned to accept the election of 
supervisor. In 1893 he was unanimously re elected supervisor, and since then he 
has been re-elected to that office without"opposition, serving now on his fourth year. 
As a member of the board he has labored conscientiously for the best interests of his 
constituents and for the welfare of both town and county. He was one of two who 
made the equalization table for 1893 and has always been a member of various im- 
poi-tant committees. For one year he was chairman of the Board of Trustees of the 
Monroe county court-house and jail, and at the expiration of that term was unani- 
mously elected by the Board of Supervisors as inspector of the Monroe County Peni- 
tentiary for four years beginning January 1, 1895. He has frequently been sent as 
a delegate to Republican State, district and county conventions, and for four years 
has been a member of the Republican County Committee from Riga. He is one of 
the most enterprising citizens of Western Monroe, and has always taken a keen in- 
terest in all movements which have for their object the betterment and advancement 
of his town and village. Being one of the heaviest tax-payers of the community he 
is intimately associated with its welfare and progress 

September 26, 1877, Mr. Snyder married Miss Louisa Moore, daughter of John 
Moore, of Batavia, N. Y. , and they are the parents of four children: Helen Louise, 
Henrv Frederick, Irene Elizabeth, and Florence. 



ALPHONSO COLLINS. 

Alphonso Collins, third child and second son of Calvin and Armida (Marsh) 
Collins, farmers and natives of Massachusetts, was born in the town of Sardinia, Erie 
county, N. Y., September 6, 1830, and moved with the family to Ogden, Monroe 
county, about 1840. He was reared on a farm until the age of nineteen, attending 
district schools winters, and then engaged in the grocery business at Niagara Falls 
with John Pierce, as Pierce & Collins He soon disposed of his interest there and 
turned his attention to railroading, accepting a position as brakeman on the New York 
Central and Hudson River line between Syracuse and Rochester. Ten months later 
he was promoted to conductor and remained on the road in all twenty-seven years, 
running principally between Syracuse and Buffalo. In 1852 he settled in Rochester, 
where he has ever since resided. 

Mr. Collins resigned as conductor in 1879, and for one year was superintendent of 
the Irondequoit Bay Railroad from Rochester to Sea Breeze. In the meantime he 
had become interested in trotting and trotting stock, and in 1880, upon the reorgani- 
zation of the Rochester Driving Park Association, was made its secretary and treas- 
urer, which positions he has held ever since, being also a member of the board of 
directors. The success of this association is largely due to his untiring efforts and 



68 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY 

efficient management. For more than fifteen years he has given it his undivided 
attention, attending personally to all the details of its meets, and ably directing its 
business with the noted horsemen of the country. He is a prominent member of 
Cyrene Commandery K. T., and for several years has officiated as vestryman of St. 
Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church of Rochester. In politics he is a Democrat, and 
for two years served as alderman of the First ward of Rochester, but excepting this 
has steadfastly declined public or political honors, preferring the more congenial field 
of busmess activities. 

In June, 1855, Mr. Collins was united in marriage to Miss Persis Eldredge, daughter 
of Asel Eldredge, of Gates. She died in August, 1883, and in October, 1884, he mar 
ried her sister. Miss Ann Augusta. 



LOUIS ERNvST. 

Louis Ernst was born in Zinsheim, near Baden Baden, Germany, July 19, 1825, 
and came with his parents to this country in 1831. His father at that time purchased 
a farm on the River road, about four miles south of Rochester, in the town of 
Brighton, Monroe county, and in the schools of the neighborhood the lad received his 
education. While yet a youth, however, he began to earn his own living as a clerk- 
in the shoe store of John Wegman in Rochester. In 1845 he accepted a similar posi- 
tion in the hardware store of D. R Barton, where he remained for eleven years, and 
where he acquired a thorough knowledge of the business in which he was subse- 
quently so successful. In 1856, having accumulated a little capital, he commenced 
business for himself in partnership with Ferdinand Seifried, under the firm name of 
Ernst & Seifried. They rapidly built up a large hardware trade and laid the founda- 
tions for a thrifty enterprise. In 1869 Mr. Ernst sold his interest to his partner and 
opened another store, which he conducted alone until 1880, when he admitted his 
eldest son, Louis J. Ernst (who had been his clerk since 1863), as a partner under the 
style of Louis Ernst & Son. This firm continued an extensive business until 1891, 
when a stock company was organized with Mr. Ernst as president, the stockholders 
and other officers being his sons and daughters. He died suddenly at his home in 
this city on April 3, 1892, and since then Louis J. Ernst has officiated as president of 
the concern. 

Mr. Ernst possessed a most commendable patriotism and a military spirit of rare 
purity. He entered the old State militia in 1849, and passed through all the grades 
to lieutenant-colonel of the 54th Regiment in 1860, a position he held for two years 
thereafter. He was a memberof the war committee which in 1862 had charge of 
raising the lOSlh and 140th Regiments, as well as other small organizations for the 
county of Monroe, and was urgently solicited to take command of the 140th, but de- 
clined to do so. He finally consented, however, to accept the position of lieutenant- 
colonel if an officer already in the service, and who had had a military education, 
would become colonel. The suggestion was acted upon, and P. H. O'Rourke, a 
graduate of West Point, was so appointed. Colonel O'Rourke was then at the front 
and remained there, and the active work of organizing the regiment and taking it to 
the seat of hostilities devolved upon Lieutenant-colonel Ernst. In fact he commanded 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 69 

the 140th nearly all the time he was in the service, Colonel O'Rourke being frequently 
detailed as brigade commander. Colonel Ernst participated with his regiment in the 
battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, where Colonel O'Rourke 
was killed, and immediately after the latter was unanimously elected colonel by the 
officers of the organization, but declined the honor in favor of Col. George Ryan, a 
graduate of West Point, on account of business interests at home requiring his prompt 
attention. As soon as his resignation was accepted he returned to Rochester. 

Mr. Ernst was endowed with business qualifications of a high degree, and through- 
out life took a prominent part in the material prosperity of the city. In 1869 he was 
appointed by Gov. Reuben E. Fenton as one of the managers of the Western House 
of Refuge (now the State Industrial School) at Rochester and held that position until 
he resigned in 1885. He was one of the originators of the Rochester German Insur- 
ance Company, and served as a member of its board of directors from its organiza- 
tion till his death, being its president in 1875 and 1876, and declining a re-election to 
that office on account of business duties, but accepting the vice-presidency instead. 
He was also a director in the East Side Savings Bank from its inception in 1869 until 
his death in 1892. When the German American Bank was organized in 1875 he be- 
came a member of its board of directors and continued in that capacity during the 
remainder of his life. He was a member of the Memorial Committee having charge 
of the erection of the soldiers' monument, and at the time of his decease was com- 
mander of the Veteran Brigade. During his entire career he manifested a patriotism 
which sprung from the fires of a noble heart; he was a soldier and a soldier's friend ; 
a loyal citizen, a wise counsellor, and a public-spirited, generous and enterprising 
man of affairs. Charitable and benevolent objects found in him a liberal supporter, 
while all worthy movements received his hearty encouragement. At the time of his 
death he was the oldest and most widely known hardware merchant in Rochester, 
having been m continuous business in this city since 1845, a period of forty-seven 
years. In all his varied relations he was highly esteemed and respected as a man of 
the strictest integrity, of the purest motives, and of the highest character. He was 
a prominent member of St. Joseph's Church from the time of its erection in 1884 until 
his death. 

In politics Mr. Ernst always took a lively interest, although he was never actively 
engaged therein as a politician. He was supervisor and alderman from the Tenth 
ward from 1860 to 1864, inclusive, and was repeatedly urged to accept, and was 
several times nominated for almost every position in municipal and county govern- 
ment, but invariably declined official honors, preferring to give his attention and 
energy wholly to his business and numerous other interests. He died, as stated, 
April 3, 1892, leaving a widow, three sons and four daughters, Louis J., Edward J., 
Charles B., Cora M., Louisa J., Helen E., and Mary D. 



GEORGE TAYLOR. 

The subject of this memoir was a lineal descendant of William Taylor (1), who 
came to America in 1635, lived and probably settled at Concord, Mass., and died in 
1696, being the father of John, Samuel, Abraham (2), Isaac, Joseph, and Mary Tay- 



70 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

lor, his wife beint^ Mary Merriman. Abraham Taylor (3), son of the Abraham just 
mentioned, was born about 1690, and moved from Concord to Dunstable, Mass. The 
line from him is as follows; (4) Deacon Samuel, second son, born October 1, 1708, 
died October Ji, 1792, his wife being Susannah Perkins: (5) Jonas, born November 
30, 1739, married Mary Danforth, and died December 15, 1823: ((5) Danforth, born 
October 30, 1769, married, in Dunstable, December 2, 1790, Tabitha Fletcher (who 
was born in Hollis, N. H., February 5, 1770. and died m Stoddard, N. H., June 8, 
1859), moved to Stoddard, N. H., in 1793, and died there January 4, 1858. All these 
were born in Dunstable, Mass. Jacob Taylor (7). son of Danforth and father of our 
subject, was born in Stoddard, January 10, 1797, and married in June, .1828, Mary 
Harnden, who was born in Wilmington, Mass., November 27, 1801. Their children, 
all of whom were born in Stoddard, N. H., were George, born November 26, 1832; 
Mary A., born in May, 1836; and Frank, born October 4, 1844. 

George Tajdor was reared and educated amid the picturesque environments of 
Stoddard, Cheshire county, N. H., and inherited the principles of thrift and manli- 
ness which characterized his race. In July, 1851, when less than nineteen years of 
age, he came to Rochester and engaged in the business of manufacturing thermom- 
eters, barometers, etc., with which he was identified during the remainder of his life, 
being at the time of his death the senior member of the firm of Taylor Brothers, 
who.se establishment ranked among the largest of the kind in the United States. Mr. 
Taylor, mainly through his individual labors, built up this extensive enterprise, 
which employed a large force of skilled artisans and disbursed hundreds of thousands 
of dollars. In January, 1890, the Taylor Brothers Company was incorporated, of 
which the officers are Frank Taylor, president and treasurer; J. Merton Taylor, vice- 
president; and G. Elbert Taylor, secretary. 

Mr. Taylor was a life-long Democrat and always took an active interest in public 
affairs. From 1865 to 1868 he represented the Eighth ward in the Common Council 
and for one year was president of that body. In 1873 and 1874 he was a member of 
assembly, and during that period secured by legislative enactment the admi.ssion of 
the Fifteenth and Sixteenth wards in the city. His marked ability and faithful pub- 
lic service were admitted and complimented by citizens of all parties. He was a 
member of the Chamber of Commerce and of Rochester Lodge F. & A. M., a direc- 
tor in the Union Bank, and a stockholder in the Standard Sewer Pipe Company, the 
Genesee Brewmg Company, and other local enterprises. He died at his home in this 
city October 20, 1889, universally respected as an upright, conscientious man whose 
life was marked by fairness and honesty. He possessed business ability of a high 
order, and as a man of affairs was eminently successful. He generously encouraged 
and supported all worthy objects, and took a lively interest in the growth and pros- 
perity of the city, 

February 1, 1855, Mr. Taylor was married in Stoddard, N. H., to Miss Joanna 
Gilson, who was born in that place October 20. 1833, and who survives him. They 
were the parents of eight children, namely; Jacob Merton, Fred Alison (born Sep- 
tember 16, 1857, died January 28, 1883), George Elbert, Minnie, Horatio Seymour, 
Carrie, Cora, and Charles Walter. 



BIOGRAPEJICAL. 71 

JACOB GERLING. 

Jacob Gerling, senior member of the milling firm of Gerliug Brothers, of Roches- 
ter, was born in Alsace, Germany, April 15, 1840, and received his education in his 
native country. Coming to America in 1855 he settled in Rochester, where he has 
since resided. In 1857 he engaged in the flour, feed, and milling business, which he 
still continues. He is one of the leaders of the Democratic party in Western New 
York and has several times been nominated or mentioned for responsible official 
trusts. From 1869 to 1873 he represented the Eleventh ward in the Common Council, 
and in 1874 and 1875 served as weighmaster of the city. In 1875 and 1876 he was a 
member of the board of supervisors; in 1880 was elected to the executive board of 
Rochester for a term of three years and during the last two years of that period 
served as chairman. In 1887 and again in 1889 he was elected a city assessor, and 
at the State convention of 1895 was prominently mentioned for the position of State 
treasurer. In all these capacities he served with distinction and rare executive 
ability. 

Mr. Gerling is one of the best known and most popular of Rochester's German 
American citizens, and has always taken an active interest in public and business 
matters. He is a director in the Rochester German Insurance Company, the Ger- 
man-American Bank, and the Bartholomay Brewing Company, and a prominent 
member of the Rochester Chamber of Commerce, Germania Lodge of Masons, Hum- 
bolt Lodge I. O. O. F., Americus Lodge A. O. U. W., the Rochester Mannechor and 
Liederkranz, the German Trinity church, and for more than a quarter of a century 
of Cyrene Commandery K. T. Enterprising, generous, and public spirited, he is one 
of the most active promoters of the city's material interests, and bears the respect 
and esteem of all who know him. 

In 1873 Mr. Gerling was married to Miss Louisa Klein, daughter of the late George 
Klein, of Rochester. They have five .sons and four daughters. 



JUNIUS JUDSON. 

Junius Judson was born on a farm in Jefferson county, N. V., on February 5, 1813, 
and obtained his education from the district schools of his native town. The death 
of his father threw him upon his own resources at an early age. About 1830 he came 
to Rochester and learned the machinist's trade, and a few years later removed to 
Cincinnati, Ohio, where he engaged in business as a foundryman and hardware man- 
ufacturer. In 1848 he invented and patented the celebrated steaiin engine governor 
which bears his name, and in 1851 returned to Rochester and began its manufacture, 
which he has ever since continued with remarkable success. For many years Mr. 
Judson devoted his time largely to prosecuting those who had infringed upon his 
patents in this country and in Canada, and in this he has been very successful, hav- 
ing secured large returns from the very cousiderable sums expended by him in patent 
litigation. Endowed with great energy, patience and perseverance, he possesses 
the ability, unusual among inventors, of obtaining for himself the rewards accruing 



72 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

from his inventions and of vigorously protecting the results of his talents against 
unscrupulous imitators. His extensive business enterprises, giving lucrative employ- 
ment to hundreds of workmen, have for many years contributed materially to the 
prosperity of both county and city. He is plain and unassuming, and throughout a 
long and useful life has given generously to benevolent and religious objects. Being 
a large owner of real estate he has for many years been one of the city's heaviest indi- 
vidual taxpayers, and, being deeply interested in the growth of Rochester, firmly 
believes that its government should be conducted upon broad and liberal lines. His 
whole career has borne out these principles. He favors liberal taxation, desiring 
that real improvements be secured thereby. He has great confidence in the future 
of Rochester, and believes that its location and natural advantages destine it to 
be a greater city, and his faith in this prophecy is shown by his heavy investments 
in local enterprises. In business and social matters, and in fact in every sphere of 
life, he is universally recognized as a man of the strictest integrity, of the simplest 
and purest motives, of steadfastness of purpose, and of great uprightness of character. 



HENRY A. LANGSLOW. 

Henry A. Langslow, senior member of the firm of Langslow, Fowler, & Co., was 
born within twelve miles of London, England, November 16, 1830. His father, 
Capt. Richard Langslow, was a captain in the East India Company's military 
service for about twenty years. He visited America in 1817 and made an extended 
tour of the country, including the then primitive section of the Genesee valley. 
During his travels he kept a journal, which at this time is both curious and valuable, 
and which graphically illustrates the pioneer life and notable scenes en route. He 
was evidently a close observer, a man of good education, and a popular companion. 
As showing the cost of travel — by steamboat or by stage — the following is gleaned 
from his interesting notes: From New London to New York, by boat, $8; to Albany, 
by boat, §8; to Schenectady, by boat, 16 miles, $1.50; to Utica, by stage, 84 miles, 
$6; to Skaneateles, by stage, §4.75; to Canandaigua, §3.50. Thence he jorurneyed by 
stages, occupying four days, to Buffalo, and after visiting Niagara Falls returned to 
to New London, Conn. His descriptions of the forts, etc., along the Niagara River 
are especially noteworthy, while his accounts of the officers and engagements during 
the war of 1812 are replete with personal reminiscence. His journal, marked by the 
stains of time, is preserved and valued bj' his son, the subject of this sketch, who 
more than three-quarters of a century later is living near the scenes visited by this 
pioneer tourist. 

Henry A. Langslow received his education in his native country. In 1849 he emi- 
grated to America, landing in Nova Scotia, going soon to Prince Edward's Island, 
and coming thence to Boston, Mass., where he remained about a year. He then re- 
moved to New York city, where all his children were born, and where he was en- 
gaged in various occupations for some ten years. In 1860 he came to Rochester and 
has since made this city his home, being engaged mainly in the furniture business. 
In 1875 he associated himself with the furniture firm of Burley & Dewey and in 1881 
became vice-president of their successors, the I. H. Dewey Furniture Company, in 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 73 

which cajjacity he continued until January, 1885, when he and his son, Stratton C. 
Langslow, withdrew. He then organized tlie present firm of Langslow, Fowler & 
Co., of which he has been continuously the financial manager. This concern is one 
of the largest manufacturers of rocking chairs in the country. It has met with un- 
varying success from the start, and its prosperity is largely due to Mr. Langslow's 
great business ability and long practical experience. He is a man of rare tact and 
foresight, of recognized qualifications, and of indomitable energy and perseverance. 
Throughout life, although taking a citizen's interest in public affairs and municipal 
matters, he has steadfastly declined political office. To his business interests he has 
always given his entire attention, and his long active career is marked with con- 
tinued success. In 1890 the members of this firm organized and incorporated the 
Rochester Furniture Company, which for three years manufactured and sold large 
quantities of folding beds. When the popularity of this class of furniture declined 
they ceased operations and dissolved. 

In 1850 Mr. Langslow was married to Miss Catherine M. Cardiff, a native of Char- 
lottetown, Prince Edward's Island, and they have had five children: Henry Richard 
and Thomas Walter, deceased, and Louis A. G., Stratton C. , and Helena M. Louis 
A. G. Langslow was born December 7, 1854, received his education in the public 
schools of Rochester, and is now employed by Langslow, Fowler & Co. 

In this connection it is proper to notice briefly the other members of the firm of 
Langslow, Fowler & Co., for they have individually contributed not a little to its 
wonderful growth and marked success. Purdy A. Fowler, son of Hiram Fowler, 
was born on a farm in Yorktown, Westchester county, N.Y., December 27, 1851, and 
moved with his parents soon after to Peekskill, where he received a good education. 
For five years he was a clerk in a department store, and then learned the carpen- 
ter's trade, which he followed successfully for a similar period. He then traveled as 
a salesman through the West, handling fancy rockers for a Boston firm, until 1885, 
when he removed from Peekskskil! to Rochester to become a partner of Langslow, 
Prowler & Co. He is a prominent member of Genesee Falls Lodge, F. & A. M., 
Hamilton Chapter, R. A. M., Monroe Commandery, K. T., Doric Council, Mystic 
Shrine, and Veiled Prophets. He is also a member of the Rochester Club and was 
one of the organizers and for one year president of the old Commercial Club. In 
1875 he married Miss Sarah E. Schultz, of Cold Spring on the Hudson, and their chil- 
dren are Lillie, Carrie, Mamie Edna, and Purdy H. 

Stratton C. Langslow, son of Henry A. and junior member of the firm, was born 
in New York city July 8, 1857, and moved with his jjarents to Rochester, where he 
was educated in Nos. 16 and 18 schools. With the exception of about three years 
as clerk in the Central-Hudson railroad office here he has always been associated 
in business with his father, becoming a member and the manager of the wholesale 
department of the I. H. Dewey Furniture Company, from which he withdrew in 
January, 1885, to form the firm of Langslow, Fowler & Co. Here he has managed 
principally the manufacturing part of the business, although he has traveled exten- 
sively as a salesman. He is a member of Genesee Falls Lodge No. 507, F. & A. M., 
Hamilton Chapter, R. A. M., Doric Council, Monroe Commandery, K. T., and \'eiled 
Prophets, and of the Rochester and Rochester Athletic Clubs. April 19, 1884, he 
married Mary P^lizabeth, daughter of John and Sarah Thompson, and granddaugh- 



74 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

ter of the late R. I). Lewis, formerly proprietor of the F"orsyth Scale Works of Roch- 
ester. They have two children: PJarry R. and Helena Mary. 



PLIXV MILLER I5ROMLEV. 

Thk subject of this sketch was born in the tf)wn of New Haven, Oswego county, 
N. v., m September, 1816, and received a common school education. At an early 
age he entered the employ of an older brother, Hiram Bromley, of Albany, who was 
part owner of a line of packet and freight boats on the PJrie Canal, and while in this 
employment he ran between Rochester and Utica until railroads revolutionized trans- 
portation. He then became proprietor of Stanwix Hall in Albany and later kept the 
Syracuse House in the " Salt City," and successfully established a wide reputation 
as a popular landlord. About 1849 he came to Rochester and for a few years was 
engaged in various occupations. In 1855 he formed a partnership with Charles J. 
Hayden, under the style of Hayden & Bromley, and established himself in business 
as a manufacturer and wholesale and retail dealer in furniture at 101-103 State street. 
This venture proved very succes.sful, and was continued until 1861, when Mr. Brom- 
ley withdrew and started a similar establishnent at No. 74 State street under the 
name of P. M. Bromley & Co., his partners being F. S. Hunn and S. M. Spencer. 
This firm carried on a large business, both as manufacturers and dealers, until 1869. 
when our subject sold his interest and withdrew wholly from commercial life. 

In 1868 he took possession of the old Osburn House, which occupied the site of the 
present Granite building, and this he rebuilt, enlarged, and refitted, doubling its 
capacity, and making it one of the most popular hotels in the country. He con- 
tinued as proprietor until his death on October 4, 1874, but its active management 
devolved upon his brother, Daniel H. Bromley, and his onlj' son, Charles P. Daniel 
H. Bromley, "Captain Dan," as he was familarly called, was known throughout the 
State and everywhere had hosts of friend.s. He was a bachelor, and for many years 
a canal captain and later a conductor on the New York Central Railroad. For a time 
he kept the Clifton House at Niagara Falls. 

Pliny M. Bromley was a life-long Democrat and always took an active part in poli- 
tical affairs. He was long one of the influential and trusted leaders of his party. 
While a young man he was for a time sergeant-at-arms in the Assembly at Albany, 
and after his removal to Rochester represented the Fifth ward in the Common Coun- 
cil several terms. He was also treasurer of the city one term and a member of the 
Board of Water Commissioners which had charge of the construction of the present 
waterworks. He was the first president of the East Side t-avings Bank and held 
that position until his death. In business and social life he was characterized as a 
man of great integrity, and broad and liberal views, of sound judgment and rare 
ability, and of indomitable energy and perseverance. Charitable, benevolent, and 
enterprising he encouraged and sustained all worthy objects, and throughout a use- 
ful career made hosts of friends. His chief aim in life was to advance the material 
interests of the city. 

In 1842 he married Mi.ss Ellen E. Stevens, daughter of Thomas Stevens, of Jordan, 
N v., who with an only son, Charles Pliny Bromley, survives him. 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 75 

Charles P. Bromley was born in Albany, N. Y., April 6, 1845, and received his 
education in the public schools of Rochester. From 1862 to 1868 he was associated 
in business with his father. In the latter year he joined issues with his uncle, 
Daniel H. Bromley, in the activ^e management of the Osburn House and continued 
in that capacity until the latter' s death in 1876, succeeding to his father's interest in 
that hostelry. He then conducted the hotel alone till March, 1879, when he sold out 
to Buck & Sanger. January 28, 1895, he became the senior member of the present 
firm of Bromley, Miller & Moore, furniture dealers, at No. 181 East Main street. In 
1872-73 he served as alderman of the Fifth ward, but excepting this has held no pub- 
lic office, although he takes a keen interest in the city's welfare. 



JEREMIAH S. BAKER. 

Jeremiah S. Baker, only son of Thomas Baker, was born in Hoosick, Rensselaer 
county, N. Y. , May 3, 1813, his father being a large cotton manufacturer there. When 
he was two years old his parents moved to Peterboro, N. H., and at the age of nine 
he accompanied the family to Northfield, in the same State, where his father, as 
senior member of the firm of Baker, Cavender & Smith, built a cotton factory and 
again engaged in manufacturing cotton fabrics. There the youth received his rudi- 
mentary education, which was supplemented by brief attendance at the academies in 
Andover and Franklin Village. He finally removed to a farm near Verona, Oneida 
county, N. Y. , where he married Adeline Sturtevant, who w^as born inThetford, Vt., 
in 1813. He resided there seven years. In 1845 they came to the village of Fairport, 
Monroe county, and took up their residence in the house — formerly a tavern — now 
occupied by Mrs. A. H. Cobb. He first engaged in farming, but subsequently asso- 
ciated himself with Remsen Vanderhoof, W. K. Goodrich, and Dr. Henry Van Buren 
in the drug, coal, lumber, and produce commission business, in which he successfully 
continued until 1869, when he retired permanently from active life. His wife died 
in 1867, leaving three daughters: Mrs. Emma B. Wygant, of Perinton; Mrs. Frances 
A. Woolston, of Denison, Iowa; and Mrs. Mary E. Adams, of Los Angeles, Cal. 
November 21, 1869, Mr. Baker married, second, Almira T. Pepper, of Belchertown, 
Mass., who survives him, as do also the three daughters just mentioned and an only 
sister, who resides in Fairport. He died April 2, 188''. ■ 

Mr. Baker was endowed with rare qualities of head and heart. Originally an old 
line Whig and subsequently a staunch Republican he always took an active interest 
in politics and for many years was a trusted local leader. He was in no sense a pol- 
itician ; his political activity stamped him as a substantial, public spirited citizen. He 
held the offices of supervisor of Perinton, superintendent of the poor for the eastern 
district of Monroe county, and member of asesmbly for the first district of ]Monroe— 
all with marked ability and general satisfaction. He was a man of strict integrity 
of good judgment, and of great business ability, and was widely respected for his 
honesty and upright character ; charitable, kind and benevolent, he bore the confidence 
and esteem of all who knew him. He was a Unitarian in belief, but always attended 
the Congregational church of Fairport, of which he was a generous supporter. His 



76 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

whole life, filled as it was with usefulness and tjood deeds, is worthy of emulation 
and this brief memorial. 



IJRVAX HARDING. 

Bryan Harding, senior member of the firm of Hardinji^& Todd, manufacturers of 
ladies' fine shoes, was born in County Cork, Ireland, December 22, 1842, and received 
his education in the national schools of his native country. His father, Joseph 
Harding, was a shoe manufacturer in Millstreet, and there our subject learned his 
trade, serving a regular apprenticeship. Leaving Ireland when a young man he 
came to Boston, where, and in Woburn, Mass., he followed his trade as a journeyman. 
He finally settled in Lynn and occupied positions as foreman and superintendent in 
several of the largest shoe factories. While a resident of that city he took an active 
part in politics, being drawn into the political arena against his expressed wishes. 
He was elected to the Massachusetts Legislature of 18T9-80on the Independent ticket, 
and during the session of that body distinguished himself as a member of the com- 
mittee on labor and as a champion of the workingman. He was very industrious 
both in committee and in the House. He took a prominent part in seeking to give 
employees of corporations the benefit of weekly payments. He advocated the pro- 
tection of operatives; that minors should attend schools and not be employed in 
factories. He had attention drawn to the enforcement of the ten-hour law, and in- 
troduced a bill for the benefit of the working classes e.xempting fifty dollars from 
trustee process. He introduced a measure for a State Board of Arbitration i'or the 
settlement of trade disputes, which matter the State has taken under consideration. 
He strongly opposed the consolidation of the Boston and Maine and Eastern rail- 
roads as tending to create a monopoly. He fought against the project for biennial 
sessions. Mr. Harding was a good speaker and engaged in debate on questions in 
which he was interested. He exercised a marked influence in the House owing to 
his evident desire to be fair to all and to a candor which was ready to be convinced 
by sound argument. He also served on the board of education of Lynn for three 
years, being elected on the Democratic and Republican tickets. 

In 1883 Mr. Harding went to Beloit, Wis., as superintendent of a large ladies' fine 
shoe factory, whose shoes became celebrated and are still the standard all over the 
United States. This signal success was wholly due to his elTorts and practical ex- 
perience. Three years later his services were sought by a large New York concern 
for the purpose of producing the same line of goods in that city. He moved there 
and had entire charge of the factor^', and later went to Philadelphia as superinten- 
dent of a similar establishment. In September, 1889, became to Rochester in charge 
of the largest shoe factory in the city and remained in that capacity until the labor 
troubles occurred in the following year, when he resigned. In the fall of 1890 he 
established the present plant and one month later took in F'. S. Todd as partner. 
They shipped their first case oi shoes in March, 1891, and since then the growth of 
the business has been remarkable, having doubled each year. It is the youngest 
but one of the largest shoe factories in Rochester and employs about 425 hands, 
having a weekly pay roll of from $3,500 to $4,000. During the year 1895 their output 



' 






.^^SHkMv '''^* 




m^'' 




^^^^^^■bik_> .^^ ' 








life/-': 




^^ ' ''^^I^^Hfli 


:W 


^ 




/^i>^ 




^^<^^L.^ 



'/ 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 77 

will reach a value of §600,000 or $700,000, and preparations are now being; made to 
turn out §1,000,000 in 1896. The trade extends into every State and territory in the 
Union, but is mainly confined to the larger cities. Their factory on State street was 
erected especially for the purpose and is the second one so built in the city. 

Mr. Harding has done more to better the shoe trade in Rochester than any other 
one man. His long practical experience has enable him to grasp every opportunity 
and turn it to the advantage of the business. The firm's goods, which have succeeded 
solely upon their merits, are everywhere recognized leaders, especially in the cities. 
In 1893 they produced a style which eight months later was copied in nearly every 
city in the world. 

Personally Mr. Harding has always taken a lively interest in affairs of state and 
nation, but smce leaving Lynn, Mass., has given his attention wholly to business, 
in which he has been very successful. September 8, 1871, he married Miss Nancy 
A. O'Neil, daughter of Eugene O'Neil, now living, an old "landmark" of Scythe- 
ville, N. H. They have five sons and one daughter: Joseph and Bryan Eugene, 
graduates of schools in New York and Philadelphia and now in business with their 
father; and Daniel Paul, John Francis, Charles Stuart, and Mav A. 



JOHN AYRAULT. 

John Avrault, son of Nicholas, was born in Sandisfield, Berkshire county, Mass., 
October 12, 1787. His paternal ancestors were French Huguenots, three brothers of 
whom — one being a physician — emigrated to this countrj' late in the seventeenth 
century and settled in Weathersfield, Conn., where members of the family still live. 
His grandfather, James Ayrault, was a member of the Massachusetts Legislature and 
a trusted leader in affairs of town and State, and with him our subject resided, man- 
aging the farm and securing such education as the common schools of Berkshire 
county afforded. In 1817 he drove a lot of stock to the Genesee Valley for James 
and Gen. William Wadsworth, and so pleased was he with the appearance and ad- 
vantages of the country that he res;>lved to take up his residence here. For six 
years he lived m the town of Lester, near Geneseo, and following this he was for 
eleven years a citizen of Caledonia, Livingston county. He then removed to what 
is now the Avrault homestead in Perinton, near Fairport village, where his son 
Allen now lives, and where he died September 3, 1861. 

Mr. Ayrault was one of the best and most methodical farmers the county has ever 
known. He had 300 acres of land, which was well fenced and systematically culti- 
vated, prinically in rotation. He took great pride in the appearance of his place, and, 
improving it, made it one of the finest rural seats in the country. Being a heavy dealer 
in cattle, sheep, etc., he was noted far and wide as a grazier, and for many years 
carried on a large business in connection with his agricultural interests. He fre- 
quently exhibited stock at local fairs and was a prominent member of the Monroe 
County Agricultural Society. He was always a liberal patron of periodicals and 
publications issued in the interests of the farmer, and possessing sound judgment 
and keen discrimination was often a judge at State and other fairs. His opinions 



78 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

and decisions were never questioned. He was a man of strict integrity and of con- 
siderable executive abilit\', and withal, was public spirited, benevolent, enterprising 
and shrewd. His ideas of right and justice were pronounced; his opinions were 
strong and decided ; and his counsel was often sought. He was widely known, re- 
spected and esteemed. In politics he was a Whig and then a Republican, but stead- 
fastly declined public office. Educational and religious matters always received his 
cheerful and generous support. 

Mr. Ayrault was married in 1817 to Huldah Smith, of Sandisfield, Mass., who for 
seven winters and ten summers had taught school in her native State, and who sub- 
sequently became an active member of the Fairport Congregational church. She 
died February 26, 1881, aged eighty-eight. Of their ten children seven grew to ma- 
turity, viz. : Celestia, who died unmarried in 1889; Emily (Mrs. Isaac S. Hobbie), of 
Fairport; John, who died in Lester; N. Y. , in 1889; George, who died in Dutchess 
county in 1885; Allen; Warren, of Livingston county; and Miles, a manufacturer 
of Tonawanda, N. V. 



ALLEN AYRAULT. 

Allen Ayrault, son of John and Huldah (Smith) Ayrault, was born in Caledo- 
nia, N. y., December 27, 1827, and moved with his parents to the town of Perinton 
in 1833. He attended the district schools and completed his education at the Mace- 
don Academy in Wayne county. He has always lived on the homestead in Perin- 
ton, to which he succeeded, in partnership with his brother Warren, upon his father's 
death in 1861. They bought oiT the other heirs, and .some three years later Allen 
Ayrault purchased his brother's interest, thus becoming sole proprietor of the pater- 
nal homestead of 300 acres. Like his father he made a specialty of stock, buying 
and selling large numbers, and he, too, is counted among the prominent and sub- 
stantial farmers of the county. 

He has always been a Republican and is interested in politics for the good of his 
party. He is public spirited, energetic, and persevering. He has long been a prom- 
inent member of the Fairpr)rt Presbyterian church, which he has served as trustee. 
June 18, 1873, he married Miss Lavilla Smith, daughter of Eleazer Smith of White 
Pigeon, Mich. She was born in Perinton, about one mile west of Fairport, in No- 
vember, 1848, and at the age of twelve moved with her parents to Michigan. Imme- 
diately afterward she began teaching school and continued for twelve years, being a 
part of the time a teacher in the academy at White Pigeon. She was a woman of 
rare qualities and was also a member of the Fairport Presbyterian church. Her 
death occurred in September, 1885. She was the mother of five children of whom 
three are living, namely: Allen, jr., John Winthrop, and Edith Celestia. 



ISAAC S. HOBBIE. 

Is.^AC S. HoiUiiK is a son of Caleb K. HobVjie and a native of the town of North 
East, Dutchess county, N. Y., being born there July 19, 1820. His ancestors, who 





,ji^y^^^^^i^?>^A^^ 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 79 

spelled the name Hobby, came from England to this country soon after 1620, and 
ever since then members of the family have been prominent in affairs of state and 
nation. Several of the name have held high official positions and distinguished 
themselves in social, civil and commercial life. 

At the age of eleven years the subject of this sketch removed with his parents to 
Irondequoit, Monroe county, where he was reared on a farm. He was educated 
in the public schools of that town and of Rochester, and finished at Macedon 
Academy in Wayne county. Prior to this, however, at the age of twenty-one, he 
was elected town superintendent of schools of Irondequoit and served one term. 
He taught school in Monroe county about eight years. January 12, 1848, he mar- 
ried Miss Emily Ayrault, daughter of John Ayrault (whose sketch appears in this 
volume), and soon afterward moved to Rochester, where he ably filled the position of 
superintendent of public schools one year. Following this he was a member of the 
Board of Education for two years. While acting as superintendent he was one of 
the prime movers in founding the Rochester Free Academy. He then engaged in 
the manufacture of water and gas pipe and the construction of water and gas works, 
having factories at Elmira and Tonawanda, N. Y. In 1865 he moved to Elmira, 
where he became an active member of the Young Men's Christian Association, of 
which he was president for several years. There he and his wife joined the Rev. 
Thomas K. Beecher's Congregational church, of which they are still members. In 
1877 the two factories were consolidated and Mr. Hobbie removed to Tonawanda, 
where he continued business until 1886, when he withdrew, being succeeded by 
Ayrault, Charltan & Co. He then moved to Fairport, Monroe county, where he has 
since resided, and where he has served as justice of the peace for four years. 

In all these capacities Mr. Hobbie has been eminently successful. Possessing 
great energy, ability and perseverance, his business interests developed into ex- 
tensive proportions. But outside of them he has acquired an equal prominence. He 
was for a number of years secretary of the old Monroe County Agricultural Society, 
and has always taken an active part in public affairs. In 1850 he became a charter 
member of Company L, Rochester City Dragoons, of the 54th Regiment, and re- 
mained with that organization until its disbandment after the war, being at the time 
the only one in continuous connection and having served as captain for several years. 
During the Rebellion the regiment volunteered its services and was sent to Elmira, 
where it did guard duty. Mr. Hobbie also manifested his patriotism for the Union 
cause by actively recruiting men for the service. Another important event in his 
career should be recorded, as it places him among the foremost benefactors of the 
time. In 1879 he wrote and published an article in the Tonawanda Index (of which 
his son was editor), advocating the feasibility of harnessing the great power of Niag- 
ara Falls by constructing a tunnel similar to the one just completed. This is believed 
to have been the first suggestion of the kind ever offered, and its results have shown 
the practicability of his plan, although the original idea has been attributed to 
others. 

Mr. and Mrs. Hobbie have had born to them three children, by whom they have 
eight grandchildren, and in none of the families has a death occurred. Their children 
are John A., of Tonawanda, Alice Emily (Mrs. Charles C. Roosa), and Dr. George 
S, of Buffalo. The sons are prominently connected with the well known Buffalo 
Asthmatic Institute. 



80 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

E. M. MOORE, M. D. 

])k. EiiuAki) MoiT Moore, son of Lindley Murray and Abigail L. (Mott) Moore, 
was born in Rahway, N. J., July 15, 1814. His ancestors came from England to 
America between 1025 and 1630 and lived in New York or New Jersey' until the close 
of the Revolutionary War, when his grandfather moved to Nova Scotia, where L. M. 
was born. He received a classical education in his father's school at Flushing, L. I., 
and also attended the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N. Y. In 1830 he 
removed with his parents to Rochester, where in 1833 he began the study of medicine 
in the office of Dr. Anson Coleman. After attending lectures at the College of 
Physicians and Surgeons in New York city he was graduated from the medical depart- 
ment of the University of Pennsylvania in 1838 being resident physician toBlockley 
Hospital during his last year, and holding the same position in the Insane Asylum at 
Frankfort, Pa., for the two years following. He then came to Rochester, where he 
has ever since resided, and where he has long held the foremost place among the 
city's eminent physicians and surgeons. For many years he has been the rec- 
ognized leader of the medical profession in this part of the State. 

In 1841 Dr. Moore began lecturing on anatomy and continued for seven years. In 
the spring of 1843 he was elected professor of surgery in the Woodstock Medical Col- 
lege, and for two months every year until 1854 he was there officiating in that 
capacity. Since then he has taught surgery in various institutions, particularly in 
the Buffalo Medical College. He is a member and e.x-president of the American 
Medical Association and the New York State Medical Society, was the second presi- 
dent of the Surgical Association of the United States, was president of the State 
Board of Health for si.\ years, is ex-president af the Genesee Valley Club, and mem- 
ber of the board of trustees of the University of Rochester, which conferred upon him 
the degree of LL. D. To him more than to any man is due the inauguration and 
establishment of Rochester's excellent park system, which was systematically started 
in 1888, and which to-day places the city in that respect beside the finest and best in 
the country. Dr. Moore has been president of the park commission since its incep- 
tion, and in the face of strong opposition has successfully guided the enterprise to i'ts 
present condition. 

As a writer on medical subjects he has won wide distinction and coiitriljuted many 
valuable papers to the literature of his profession. His writings may be found in the 
Transactions of the American Medical Association and the New York State Medical 
Society, and in periodicals published in the interests of medicine. In 1847 he mar- 
ried Miss Lucia Prescott, of Windsor, Vt., granddaughter of Dr. Samuel Prescott, 
whose brother. Colonel Prescott, was companion to Paul Revere ou his memorable 
ride to Concord. Of their eight children two sons are physicians and surgeons. 



ALBREcirr \'()(;'r. 

Ai.hrkc:hi' Vo(;r was born in Baden, Germany, October 21, 1844. and received a 
liberal education in the schools of the Fatherland, graduating from a polytechnic in. 
stilulioii of Ettlingeii in 1859. He then served an apprenticeship at bookkeeping in 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 81 

mercantile eslablishments and traveled for different houses in Germany until 18(56. 
In 1867 he came to this country and located in New York city, where he was engaged 
as a salesman in various businesses, especially for passamentary trimmings, in which 
he acquired a practical and diversified knowledge, laying the foundations for what 
eventually became his life work. In 1874 he removed to Rochester and purchased 
an interest in the newly established business of Frederick Haiges, as Ilaiges & Vogt. 
They manufactured large quantities of passamentary trimmings at No. 44 E.xchange 
street till 1876, when the partnership was dissolved, Mr. Haiges withdrawing and 
Mr. Vogt continuing the concern alone until February 1, 1880. The site Nos. 832 
and 334 North St. Paul street was purchased and the present factory erected in 1879, 
and on February 1, 1880, the business was moved to its new quarters. In 1884 the 
Vogt Manufacturing Company was .incorporated with Mr. Vogt as president, and in 
1887, a new branch, that of coach laces and trimmings, having been added, the 
Rochester Coach Lace Company was similarly organized. Both companies were 
continued in the same building and by the same parties until 1891, when they were 
consolidated and incorporated under the present name of the Vogt Manufacturing 
and Coach Lace Company, with a capital of ?135,000, and with Albrecht Vogt as 
president and general manager. 

Mr. Vogt has thus been a manufacturer of passamentary trimmings in Rochester 
for a period of twenty-one years, and with the manufacture of coach lace, etc., tor 
for some eight years, and has successfully built up one of the largest concerns of the 
kind in this country. This he has accomplished almost entirely through his indi- 
vidual efforts. His trade extends all over the United Stated and Canada, and the 
business furnishes employment to from 100 to 150 hands. In addition to attendmg 
to the details of this extensive establishment Mr. Vogt is prominently and actively 
identified with numerous other enterprises in Rochester. He was one of the origina- 
tors and is now a director of the German American Bank and Standard Sewer Pipe 
Company ; was one of the organizers and has continuously been a director of the 
Rochester Title Insurance Company; was one of the incorporators and is president 
of the Rock Asphalt Company; is a director of the Rochester German Insurance 
Company; and was one of the incorporators and for a time secretary and treasurer 
of the Genesee Brewing Company. He was one of the originators of the Edison 
Electric Illuminating Company and served as its vice-president until its consolidation 
with the Rochester Gas and Brush Electric Companies under the name of the Roch- 
ester Gas and Electric Company. He is a member of the Rochester Chamber of 
Commerce, Germania Lodge, No. 722, F. & A. M., the Rochester Club, and the 
Mannechor, of which he was for nine years the president. He has always taken a 
lively interest in the city's growth and prosperity and is a business man of recognized 
ability, of the strictest integrity, and of great popularity. Kind, benevolent, and 
charitable, he generously encourages every good movement and supports all worthy 
objects. 

In 1873 he was married in New York city to Miss Emilie Werner, who has borne 
him five children: Mrs Edward G. Pfahl, Albert E. (a student in the textile depart- 
ment of the School of Industrial Art of the Pennsylvania Museum at Philadelphia), 
Hertha, Elsa, and Walter Paul. 



82 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY 

HIRAM H. EDGERTON. 

Hiram H. Edgkkton, one of the leading contractors and builders in Western New 
York, was born in Belfast, Allegany county, April 19, 1847, and is a son of Ralph H. 
Edgerton, who at that time was an extensive lumber manufacturer and dealer there. 
The father was the youngest of four brothers — U. C, DeWitt C, Collins'and Ralph 
H. — who came to Rochester from Vermont about 1830 and for several j'ears ran the 
old Childs saw mill on what is now Aqueduct street. At the head of this quartet was 
U. C. Edgerton, who directed their affairs through a number of the larger contracts 
in this jjart of the State, and who acquired a wide reputation from his numerous 
operations. Among the important works in which they were interested were the 
reconstruction of the locks at Lockport and the construction of the old Genesee Valley 
Canal. About 1840 Ralph H. Edgerton severed his connection with this concern and 
moved to Belfast, N. V., where he carried on a large lumberbusiness until 1858 when 
he returned to Rochester where Hiram H., the subject of this sketch, was educated 
in the public schools and Free Academy. He engaged in business as a lumber dealer 
continuing it successfully until his death in December, 1S(J7, when he was succeeded 
by his son, who had connected himself with the establishment immediatelv after 
leaving school. 

H. H. Edgerton was liberally endowed with all the attributes which make the 
successful man. Inheriting the characteristics of a sturdy New England race he man- 
ifested a special capacity for business affairs in his father's office where heacquired a 
valuable training; after his father's death he continued the concern, comprising a 
large retail lumber yard on Crouch island, until 1881, when he sold out to Chase & 
Otis. During that period he acquired a wide and favorable reputation as well as 
meeting with marked success. He then engaged in contracting and building, a busi- 
ness with which he has ever since been activelj- identified, occupying a foremost po- 
sition among the leading reiDresentatives of the business in this section, and for 
several years past being one of the heaviest and most successful operators in West- 
ern New York. ' 

Hundreds of magnificent structures throughout Western, Central and Southern 
New York as well as elsewhere, testify to his enterprise and business ability; num- 
erous residences, churches, commercial blocks, public institutions, etc., are the result 
of his work as a contractor. Among the more important of his many contracts may 
be mentioned the Government and Wilder buildings in Rochester, part of the reform- 
atory at Elmira, the Western House of Refuge for Women at Albion, St. Michael's, 
Third Presbyterian and Christ churches in Rochester, and a number of imposing 
church edifices, etc., in this city and elsewhere. 

In politics Mr. Edgerton has always been an unswerving Republican. For four 
years he was a member af the Board of Education, during two of which he served as 
president. He is president of the East Side Trunk Sewer Commission, and in Sep- 
tember, 181)."), was nominated for mayor of the city on the Republican ticket. He has 
always taken an active interest in the councils of his party and is one of its trusted 
and influential leaders. He was one of the incorporators and is pre.sident of the 
tJalusha Stove Company of Rochester, is a director in the Central Bank, a member 
and trustee of the Chamber of Commerce, and a director and charter member of the 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 83 

Builders' Exchange, of which he was for five years the president. He is also a trus- 
tee of the Third Presbyterian church ; and is prominently connected with various 
other social, commercial and political organizations. 



MAURICE LEYDEN. 

Thi: Leyden family in America is descended from Holland Dutch ancestry dating 
back to the times of William of Orange, who in 1690 invaded Ireland with a large 
army, including a number bearing the name. These Leydens settled in the Emer- 
ald Isle and among their descendants was Michael Lej'den, sr., who married Mary 
Walton of English birth and parentage. They emigi-ated to the United States in 
the early part of this century and located in Salhia (now a portion of the city of Syr- 
acuse), Onondaga county, N. Y., whence they afterward removed to Collamer in the 
town of De Witt and died there. Their son Michael, jr., was born in Ireland on 
May 5, 1809, and emigrated to America with his parents when a mere lad. He re- 
ceived an excellent education, finishing at Onondaga Valley Academy, and inherited 
all the sturdy characteristics of his race. Leaving school and the parental farm he 
became a clerk in Syracuse for the father of the late Dennis McCarthy, founder of 
the wholesale and retail dry goods firms of D. McCarthy & fcons and D. McCarthy & 
Co. Afterward he was engaged in the mercantile business for him.self in Salina 
until the cholera broke out, when he purchased and removed to a farm near Colla- 
mer, town of De Witt, Onondaga county, where he remained till about 1860, when 
he returned to Syracuse, where he still resides. Since the war he has been engaged 
in the insurance business. His wife Catharine, daughter of Isaac Carhart, was a 
lineal descendant of Thomas Carhart, who came to America on August 2o, 1683, 
holding the appointment of private secretary to Col Thomas Dongan, English gov- 
ernor of the colonies in this country at that time. Several of his descendants par- 
ticipated in the American Revolution and other wars and all became loyal citizens of 
the United States. Isaac Carhart, born in 1789, removed from Coeymans, N. Y., to 
Manlius, Onondaga county, in 1827, and died there, a farmer, on March 17, 1845. 
His wife was Hannah Rowe, whose parents were natives of Holland. Catherine 
Carhart (Mrs. Michael Leyden) was born in Coeymans June 22, ISIP,, and died at 
Syracuse in February, 1889. 

Maurice Leyden, the eldest of the ten living children of Michael and Catharine 
(Carhart) Leyden, was born at Collamer, Onondaga County. N.Y., October 18, 1836, 
and received his education at the district schools of his native town, at the High 
School in Syracuse, and at Cazenovia Seminary. His early life was spent on his 
father's farm, where he developed a strong constitution and rugged physique. 
Leaving this and the seminary he entered the dental office of Dr. Amos Westcott, of 
Syracuse, one of the leading dentists in the country and at one time president of the 
American Dental As.sociation. There he remained until the Rebellion broke out. 
On June 13, 1861, he ei.listed in B Company, 3d Regt. N. Y. Cav., and was promoted 
second lieutenant July 30, 1861; first lieutenant June 12, 1863; and captain October 
10, 1864. July 25, 1865, he was transferred to the 4th Provisional Cavalry; October 
13th of the same vear he was brevetted major of U. S. Volunteers by President John 



84 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

son ; and on November 29, 1865, he was honorably mustered out of service at City 
Point, Va. Major Leyden participated in all the battles and marches of his regi- 
ment and was frequently assigned to important commands. He was in the engage- 
ments at Ball's Bluff and Winchester, marched with Burnside to New Berne, N. C, 
and was present at the battles of Trent Road, Little Washington, Tarboro, Golds- 
boro, Trenton, Bachelor's Creek, Warsaw, Street's Ferry and others in that vicinity. 
He then returned with his regiment to Virginiaand participated in all the battles of the 
"Army of the James," beginning with Stony Creek May 7, 1864, and including Blacks 
and Whites, South Ouay, before Petersburg, Roanoke Bridge, Ream's Station, Malvern 
Hill, Yellow Tavern (where he had command of the outposts when General Hill 
made an attempt to drive General Warren from his position on the Weldon Rail- 
road), and Prince George Court House, to Johnson's Farm, three miles from Rich- 
mond, October 7, 1864, when he was taken prisoner. For a little more than six 
months he was confined in Libby Prison and the prisons at Salisbury, N. C, and 
Danville, Va. , and after a brief parole returned to his regiment and remained in 
the service until his discharge. 

Returning from the army Major Leyden came to Rochester, where, in March, 
1865, while a paroled prisoner, he had married Miss Margaret L. Garrigues, a grad- 
uate of the East Avenue Collegiate Institution in Rochester under the late Prof. 
Myron G. Peck, and a daughter of the late Cyrus Garrigues, a native of Morristown, 
N. J., and an early settler of this city. Her paternal ancestors on both sides were 
prominent in Revolutionary times and actively participated in the war for American 
Independence. Her mother was Eliza Woodruff", whose grandfather, Capt. Samuel 
Woodruff", was an officer during the War of 1812, while her great-grandfather. John 
Acken, served in Washington's army in the Revolution. 

In partnership with Dr. Frank French, as French & Leyden, Major Leyden first 
practiced dentistry for two years, and then with George P. Davis, under the firm 
name of Davis & Leyden, he engaged in business as manufacturer of and whole- 
sale dealer in dental and surgical instruments and materials, This continued for 
eighteen years. During that period, being a staunch Republican, he took an active 
interest in politics, served as county and city committeeman, delegate to State and 
county conventions, etc., and for one term represented the old Eighth ward in the 
Board of Supervisors. In the fall of 1885 he was elected county clerk and served 
from January 1, 1886, to December 31, 1888. While in that office he was largely in- 
strumental in organizing and incorporating in February, 1887, the Rochester Title 
Insurance Company with a capital of $150,000, of which he was chosen secretary, 
treasurer, and general manager on May 1, 1891, which position he has since held. 
This is the only organization of its kind in the State outside of New York city and 
Brooklyn. The idea originated among a number of the leading and wealthy citi- 
zens, whose object was to duplicate the records of the county and thus guard against 
the possible loss of the original copies, and at the same time to inaugurate a system 
of real estate title insurance which had been successfully carried on in larger cities. 
The company has developed into one of the largest in the country and has more than 
fulfilled the expectations of its originators. 

Major Leyden had scarcely relinquished the duties of county clerk when he was 
called into the field of finance, in which he has since labored with distinguished 
ability and success. On January 1, 1889, the Rochester Saving and Loan Associa- 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 85 

tion was incorporated and he was elected its president, which position he still holds. 
Under his efficient management it has become one of the strongest associations of 
the kind in the country. It was the first in the city to do business outside this State 
and now operates also in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Virginia, Ohio, 
and Michigan. Outside of these business relations Major Leyden has been promi- 
nently connected with various other enterprises of a public and private nature. He 
has always manifested a deep interest in the prosperity of the city, giving every 
worthy object generous support, and aiding all movements which promote the gen- 
eral advancement. He is a prominent member of George H. Thomas Post, No. 4, 
G. A. R. and Valley Lodge. No. 109, F. & A. M., which he has served several years 
as treasurer. He has had two children: Maude, who died in infancy, and Blanche 
Eloise, a graduate of Livingston Park Seminary, class of 1895. 



M. D. L. HAYES. 

M. D. L. Hayes was born in Dublin, Cheshire county, N. H., in 18:54. He is of 
good old New England stock, in direct line from William Hay, M. D.\ who was born 
in Edinboro, Scotland, a descendant of William de Haya, the founder of a family 
honored in Scottish history. Dr. Hay came to this country in early life, settled in 
Reading, Mass., was an officer in the town for several years, a distinguished practi- 
tioner of medicine and one of the literati of his time. He died at Reading in ITSO at 
nearly IGO years of age. The subject of this sketch decided, with his sisters, in their 
early years, to write the famil)^ name " Hayes," although their parents always re- 
tained the ancestral form of " Hay." 

After receiving a common school and academic education, Mr. Hayes entered a 
musical college in Boston, but owing to the opposition of his family abandoned the 
idea of making music a profession. After five .successful years in the pnblishing 
house of Crosb3^ Nichols, Lee «& Co., in Boston, he was called to a wider field with 
the well known New York publishers, Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co. He pur- 
chased an interest in the Spencerian System of penmanship, and was made associate 
author, and superintendent of that department. With the Spencer brothers he 
made a thorough revision of this celebrated series, and by eleven years of unremitting 
labor raised the then small sale of the work to an enormous figure. While traveling 
through the principal cities and towns of the United States, he was at each visit tt) 
Rochester more strongly impressed by its opportunities for business, its charming 
possibilities as a place of residence, its educational advantages and religious tone. 
These considerations finally made it his first choice for a permanent home, and he 
settled here in 1875, engaging in both life and fire insurance, managing the former 
branch of the business. Six years later he accepted the important work of establish- 
ing a general agency of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company in West- 
ern New York; his conscientious and able management has made it one of the 
largest and most successful general agencies of the company; he pos.sesses in a high 
degree the confidence and esteem of its officers and policy holders. He is an earnest, 
active Christian, whose time and money have always been freely given to religious 
work. He united in 1868 with the Clinton Avenue Congregational church of Brook- 
lyn, N. Y., and is now a member of the Third Presbyterian church of Rochester. 



86 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

HIRAM SIBLl-.V. 

HiKA.M SiBLEV, capitalist, and one of Rochester's wealthiest townsmen, was born 
in North Adams. Mass., Feb. 6, 1807, and died July 12, 1888. His father. Benjamin 
Sibley, followed the honorable and useful occupation of a millwright. Hiram was 
educated at the schools of his native place and at the age of sixteen moved to Lima, 
N. Y., where he engaged in setting up and operating wool carding machinery. 
Earnest, ambitious and competent, his experience in three years enabled him in 182G 
to venture the bold enterprise of starting a foundry and machine shop of his own at 
Mendon in Monroe county. This was a successful enterprise and the little suburb 
which grew up around the shops took the name of Sibleyville. This industry occu- 
pied his attention for ten years. Having been, in 1843, elected sheriff of Monroe 
county, he was compelled for a time to live in Rochester and this city then became 
his permanent home. 

While sheriff of Monroe county, Mr. Sibley was approached by Judge Henry R. Sel- 
den with the proposition to organize a telegraph company under the House patents. 
The plan seemed feasible. Mr. Sibley bought the patents, and with other Rochester 
capitalists organized the New York & Mississippi Valley Printmg Telegraph Company 
on April 1, 1851. The first 100 miles of line were finished that year. Three years later, 
the company leased the lines of the Lake Erie Telegraph Company. At this time, Ezra 
Cornell was in possession of valuable grants under the ]Morse patent and controlled the 
Erie & Michigan Telegraph Company. Mr. Siblej' then opened negotiations with Mr. 
Cornell and in 1850 the companies controlled by them were united by acts of the Wis- 
consin and New York Legislatures, under the name of the Western Union Telegraph 
Company. Of the new corporations Mr. Sibley was a leading member of the Board of 
Directors for sixteen years, and President of the Western Union Telegraph Company 
for ten years. It was he who laid before the board the proposition to construct a line 
to the Pacific Ocean. His associates were unwilling to undertake the enterprise as a 
company. Cyrus W. Field, Wilson G. Hunt, Peter Cooper and others, engaged in 
large undertakings at the time, whom he strove to interest in the matter, also deemed 
the project premature. In August, 1857, Mr. Sibley laid his plans before the North 
American Telegraph Association with practically no result, With a persistence and 
confidence in the soundness of his judgment, which were characteristic of him, he 
then presented his project to Congress and was heartily supported by Howell Cobb, 
secretary of the treasury. June 16, 1860, an act was passed encouraging the project 
and granting an annual subsidy of §40,000 for ten years. Mr. Sibley's offer to con- 
struct the lines was officially accepted on September 22. A year later a contract was 
executed with Mr. Sibley by Salmon P. Chase, who liad succeeded Mr. Cobb in the 
Treasury. The Overland Telegraph Company was organized in San Francisco about 
the same time, and the two companies uniting their interests, the Pacific Telegraph 
Company came into existence in consequence. About five months later it was an- 
nounced that the line was open from ocean to ocean, and ten years in advance of the 
railroad. A profitable investment from the start, this line was on March 17, \K(>4, 
merged into the Western Union Telegraph system. 

Mr. Sibley next took up the project, conceived by P. McD. Collins, of uniting Amer- 
ica with Russia by a telegraph line through Alaska, and he actually built a line as far 
as Skeena River in that Territory, Meanwhile, the Atlantic cable was being laid, 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 87 

and there was a race between the two companies to establish communications with 
Europe first. Mr. Sibley was greatly retarded in his labors by the opposition of the 
Russian-American Fur Company, to which great privileges had been granted by the 
Czar, and which demanded $750,000 for the privilege of allowing the company to 
build the line through Alaska. Mr. Sibley was obliged to visit Russia in person, to 
arrange matters, and was honored in a manner only accorded to those who enjoyed 
the special favor of royalty. He was recorded in the official blue book of the State 
Department of St. Petersburg as "the distinguished American," by which title he 
was generally known. Of this book he had a copy as a souvenir of his Russian ex- 
perience. His intercourse with the Russian authorities was also facilitated by a very 
complimentary letter from Secretary Seward to Prince Gortschakoff While there, 
the government of Russia offered to sell the fee simple of Alaska to Mr. Sibley and 
his colleagues for a sum equal to that demanded by the Fur Company. Mr. Sibley 
hurried back to America to secure a law from Congress protecting him in his rights. 
The whole proceeding was brought to an end, however, by the completion of the At- 
lantic cable. A few years later the United States paid §7,200,000 for the territory, 
which could have been bought at first for one tenth of that sum. 

In 1868 Mr. Sibley retired from telegraph enterprises, and devoted his attention 
largely to railroad and land investments. After the war, prompted more by the desire 
of restoring amicable relations than by the prospect of gain, he made large and 
varied investments in railroads m the South, and did much to promote renewed 
business activity. At Saginaw, Mich., he became a large lumber and salt manufac- 
turer. He became the owner of nearly three hundred and fifty farms in Ford and 
Livingston counties. 111., including one of 40,000 acres in Ford county. He pur- 
chased the Howland Island farm m New York State and possessed much other prop- 
erty of this description. He also established a large seed raising business in this 
city, with warehouses in Rochester and Chicago, and undertook to supply seeds of 
his own importation and raising and others' growth, under a personal knowledge of 
their vitality and comparative value. He instituted many experiments for the im- 
provement of plants, with reference to their seed-bearing qualities, and built up a 
business as unique in its character as it was unprecedented in amount. He was 
president of the Bank of Monroe and connected with many other Rochester institu- 
tions. To Cornell University he gave the Sibley College of Mechanic Arts, and to 
Rochester University the Sibley Hall for Library purposes. A man of the highest 
character and exceptional abilities, he was one of the most highly respected citizens 
of Rochester. He was survived by his son Hiram Wat.son Sibley, now president of 
the Bank of Monroe and by his daughter Emily, wife of James S. Watson. 

A quotation from Mr. Sibley's address to the students of Sibley College, during a 
visit to Ithaca, was illustrative of his practical thought and e.xpression, and a fitting 
close to this brief sketch of his practical life: " There are two most valuable possess- 
ions, which no search warrant can get at, which no execution can take away, and 
which no reverse of fortune can destroy; they are what a man puts into his head- 
knowledge; and into his hands — skill." 



C 



88 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

WILLIAM S. KIMBALL. 

William S. Ki.mi;ai.l, for many years one of the leading business men of Rochester^ 
was born in Boscawen, X. H., where he passed his early life, and where he enjoyed 
such educational opportunities as the district schools of the time afforded. When 
fifteen years old he became an apprentice in the Lawrence locomotive works and 
thoroughly mastered the trade of machinist. He then attended school at Derry, 
N. H., and Andover, Mass., and finished at the Troy Polytechnic Institute, where he 
.studied mechanical drawing and engineering. Afterward he accepted a position in 
the railroad repair shops in Concord, N. H., where, in rebuilding locomotives, he 
acquired a thorough and practical knowledge of locomotive engineering and com- 
pleted his mechanical training. Soon afterward he resigned and moved to Rochester, 
and upon the breaking out of the Rebellion was appointed master mechanic in the 
navy, being attached to the South Atlantic squadron under Admiral Dupont at Port 
Royal, S. C, where he was detailed to repair the machinery of transports and gun- 
boats. He had charge of two old Nantucket whalers, the India and the Edward, 
which were fitted up by a force of 100 mechanics. 

Resigning his naval appointment in 18C3 Mr. Kimball returned to Rochester and 
engaged in the manufacture of tobacco, in which he was ever afterward interested. 
He founded the Kimball Tobacco Works, one of the largest concerns of the kind in 
this country, and established not only a national but a world-wide reputation. He 
became vice-president of the American Tobacco Comjiany, and enjoj-ed the distinc- 
tion of being foremost among the great leaders of the business in the United States. 
Outside of the.se interests he acquired an almost equal renown in bringing together 
a large and valuable collection of oi'chids, which has long been recognized as one of 
the choicest floral aggregations in the country. He also collected an extensive 
library and a distinctively fine art gallery, embracing numerous works from the most 
famous artists of the world. 

Mr. Kimball was for many years actively connected with various business and 
charitable institutions of the city, to all of which he brought large experience, ability, 
and talent. He was president of the Union Bank, the City Hospital, and the State 
Industrial vSchool, vice-president of the Security Trust Company, a director in the 
Rochester Railway and Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo Railroad Companies, a trustee 
of the Rochester Savings Bank, and president of the Post-Express Printing Com- 
pany, holding all these positions at the time of his death, which occurred suddenly 
at Virginia Beach, Va., March 26, 18S)o. On that day the Post-Express, in summing 
up his life, said editorially: 

" The death of William S. Kimball must be regarded not simply as a private loss, 
but as a public calamit)'. Probably no other man was ever so closely identified with 
the various social, business, charitable, and educational interests of a community as 
Mr. Kimball has been identified with those of Rochester. He was a man of great 
w-ealth, but, what was much rarer, a man who believed in putting his wealth into 
full activity and throwing his per.sonal energy into every movement for the public 
good. He was the first to be asked where a contribution was needed, where help in 
the shape of an investment was sought, where individual prestige was required. He 
was in the full vigor of manly strength, in the full flush of rational enjoyment of life 
— eager as a boy in the pursuit of new interests, and satisfied as a boy in the practice 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 89 

of old pastimes. His alertness and gayety were unfailing; and his frankness, cour- 
tesy, and good nature were such that his mere presence was enough to win popu- 
larity. As a business man he was fertile in resource and untiring in effort; but not 
less characteristic was his enthusiasm in the matter of recreation. He made the 
wisest choice in his methods of relaxation. He loved the sea and spent much of his 
spare time beside it; he loved the woods and was an indefatigable sportsman. As 
a natural consequence he loved nature and was deeply learned in much of the lore of 
forest and stream. Even when most earnestly at work in the establishment of his 
great manufacturing business he devoted himself to the culture of orchids, and be- 
came an authority on them as well as on other fiowers. In the season of greater 
leisure he had gathered a magnificent gallery of choice paintings. It is sad to think 
of a man with so many capacities for what is fair in the world, so many opportuni- 
ties to be useful, so prompt a disposition to active effort for what is good, cut off, so 
suddenly, from light and life and the affection of friends and family." 



FREDERICK COOK. 

Hon. Frederick Cook, ex-secretary of state of New York and one of the most 
prominent citizens of Rochester, was born at Wildbad, a noted watering place in the 
famous Black Forest district, Germany, December 2, 1833. His father, a contractor, 
and a man of rare personal characteristics, placed him in one of the best schools in 
the neighborhood with the view of giving him a thorough collegiate course. While 
there, in 1846, with the brightest prospects before him, his worthy parent died, leav- 
ing a family of eight children, whose home in consequence was broken up and them- 
selves scattered abroad. Thus at the tender age of twelve the lad was thrown almost 
entirely upon his ow'n resources, but with a brave heart and an indomitable will he 
promptly faced the storm of life and soon turned towards America as the future field 
for his activity and work. Bidding adieu to Fatherland in the year 1848 he sailed 
for the United States and for a short time resided with a married sister in Buffalo. 
Inheriting the industrious qualities of the German people he resolved upon learning 
a trade, and first tried shoemaking, but soon entered the employ of a butcher in Ba- 
tavia, N. Y., where he won friends and reputation by faithfully performing every 
duty assigned him to the best of his ability. His traits of character were at this 
period carefully noticed by D. W. Tomlinson, president of the Bank of Batavia, and 
also heavily interested in railroads, who, because of Mr. Cook's kno\yledge of the 
German language, procured for him a position on the Buffalo and Rochester rail- 
road, whence he was soon promoted conductor of an emigrant train on the Niagara 
F'alls division of the Central-Hudson route. In this capacity he aided many an im- 
migrant from Germany in locating a new home, and the company, appreciating his 
services, soon made him a passenger conductor, a position he held until January 1, 
1872. When tendering his resignation, December 15. 1871, after a railroad service 
covering nearly twenty years, he was presented by his fellow employees and patrons 
of the road with an elaborate set of solid silver plate. He had made the intimate 
acquaintance of George M. Pullman, and when the latter organized the Pullman 
h 



90 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Palace Car Compauy Mr. Cook invested the most of his accumulated earnings in that 
enterprise, a step which resulted in the foundation of his great wealth. 

The struggles of his early life were signally crowned with success in the land of 
his adoption, and in its political interests he was shortly called to take a prominent 
part. On April 20, 1870, he was appointed by Mayor John Lutes an excise commis- 
sioner of Rochester, but resigned in 1872, on account of ill health, and sailed for Eu- 
rope, where he made with his family an e.xtended tour of the continent. Returning 
to Rochester in the autumn of 1873 he entered actively into politics and upon a career 
of conspicuous attainments. He had espoused the Democratic principles of the Jef- 
fersonian school, and being nominated for maj'or in a stronghold of Republicanism 
came within a few hundred votes of an election. On April 19, 1872, Governor Hoff- 
man appointed him judge advocate with the rank of colonel of the 7th division N. G. 
S. N. Y., and on July 29, 1875, Governor Tildeu made him assistant adjutant-general 
and chief of staff of the same division, which he resigned November 24, 1877, on 
account of business. He also interested himself in various manufacturing and finan- 
cial concerns in Rochester, among them being the Bartholomaj' Brewing Company, 
which was organized in 1874 with a capital of §250,000. Mr. Cook was chosen vice- 
president and served in that capacity until 1889, when he was elected president. 
January 12, 181(3, he was elected president of the Rochester German Insurance Com- 
pany to succeed the late Col. Louis Ernst, and .still holds that position. The same 
year he went as a delegate to the Democratic National convention at St. Louis which 
nominated Samuel J. Tilden for president, and in 1880 he officiated in a similar 
capacity at Cincinnati, Ohio, where he served as vice-president, representing the 
State of New York. January 13, 1877, he was elected president of the Rochester 
Driving Park Association, whose financial interests he advanced from the lowest to 
the highe.st degree. On May 16 1878, he was appointed one of the commissioners of 
Mt. Hope Cemetery and has continuously served in that office to the j^resent time, 
being chairman of the board for twelve years. 

In the spring of 1880 Mr. Cook was one of fourteen citizens appointed as a commis- 
sion on behalf of the city to guard the public interests during the work of elevating 
the New York Central railroad tracks inside the corporate limits, and in the fall of 
the same year he became a trustee of the Rochester Savings Bank, which position he 
still holds. In February, 1882, he was appointed by Gov. Alonzo B. Cornell a mana- 
ger of the Western House of Refuge, to which position Governor Cleveland reap- 
pointed him in 1883. On September 29, 1885. he was elected secretary and treasurer 
of that institution. March 25, 1882, he was elected president of the Bank of Roches- 
ter, the predecessor of the German American Bank, which office he has ever since 
held. During all this time as well as afterward politics engrossed a large share of 
his attention. He was regarded by his party as oneof its best and strongest represen- 
tatives, and frequently called to take a leading part in directing public afl'airs. In 
1S85 he was nominated by the Democrats for secretary of state, and after a stirring 
campaign was elected by a majority of 14,608 over Col. Anson S. Wood. So accept- 
ably were his services during his first term that he was unanimously renominated at 
Saratoga in 1887 and elected over Col. Frederick Grant by 17,677 plurality, the high- 
est given to any candidate on the Democratic ticket. In February, 1887, he was 
elected president of the Rochester Title Insurance Company, a position he still holds | 
in the same vear he was chosen a life member of the New State Agricultural Society 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 91 

and on December 19 a correspondinji- member of the Oneida County Historical 
Society. In the spring of 1889 Mr. Cook suffered a severe attack of pneumonia con- 
tracted while attending the centennial celebration of the first president of the United 
States in New York city. He recovered, however, and spent some months at his old 
home, Wildbad, and also at Marienbad, returning to America in September. 

On January 1, 1890, after declining a renomination as secretary of state, Mr. Cook 
retired permanently to private life, and has since devoted his attention wholly to the 
care of his large and varied business interests. December 31, 1889, just before re- 
tiring, Governor Hill, on behalf of himself and his official associates, presented him 
with a costly watch with chime attachments, while the clerical force of the office gave 
him a much-prized collection of photographs representing the employees during his 
two terms, or four years, of service. But the crowning mark of universal esteem and 
popularity in Mr. Cook's brilliant political career was manifest at the Democratic 
State convention in 1894, when he was urgently solicited by a large majority of the 
party leaders to accept the nomination for governor of New York. With an untar- 
nished record of public service, and enjoying the full confidence not only of members 
of his own party, but of many influential Republicans as well, thoroughout the State, 
the probability of his election was exceptionally favorable, bnt to the regret of his 
numerous friends he steadfastly declined that exalted honor. 

It is impracticable to enumerate all the positions that Mr. Cook has filled. His 
has been a very active life, one of unceasing responsibility, and the sterling attributes 
with which he is liberally endowed make his name a power in business, political, 
charitable, and social circles. He has served as president of the Genesee Falls Rail- 
way Company and is extensively interested in numerous enterprises besides those 
already mentioned. On June 1, 1891, he was appointed by Governor Hill as one of 
the managers of the Rochester State Hospital for a term of nine years, and upon the 
organization of the board was elected president and re-elected every year since. He 
has been a Mason since February 17, 1862, when he became a member of Valley 
Lodge, No. 109, F. & A. M. He was a charter member of Ionic Chapter, No. 201, 
and on June 11, 1867, joined Cyrene Commandery K. T. February 12, 1878, he was 
made a charter member and installed the first T.P.G.M. of Germania Lodge of Per- 
fection. He is also a member of Rochester Council Princes of Jerusalem, and was 
created sublime prince of the Royal Secret 32d degree in Rochester Sovereign Con. 
sistory, A. A S.R. He is a member of the Rochester Mannerchor, which was organ- 
ized in 1854, and served as its president in 1874 and 1875; became a member of the 
Liederkranz on February 24, 1882; and was made an honorary member of Selye 
Citizens Corps 8th Separate Company N. G. S. N. Y. on January 8, 1887, and of the 
Albany Excelsior Corps on January 26, 1888. He is also a member of the Rochester 
Historical Society, and in February, 1893, he presented Peissner Pott, No. 106. G. A. 
R.. with a handsomely bound " Memorial Record Book," one of the finest works of 
the kind in existence. 

In 1853 Mr. Cook was married to Miss Catherine Yaky, of Rome, N. Y., who died 
in 1864. In 1865 he married Miss Barbara Ague, his present wife, by whom he has 
one daughter. 

Mr. Cook's career, as distinguished as it has been successful, affords an illustration 
how, under our form of government, even the humblest citizen may attain the highest 



92 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

positions of honor and trust. His I'fe is an example of a self-made man, his work 
the result of his individual efforts, and his achievements the crowning glorj' of youth- 
ful struggles. 



DON ALOXZO WATSON. 

Do.N Alonzo Watson was born in Palmer, Mass., Jane 17, 1807, and died suddenly 
at his home in Rochester, N. Y., January 1, 1892. Within that period of less than 
eighty-five years was compassed a life of unostentatious success, a career of quiet 
but marked usefulness, and a full measure of rare business achievements. As a boy 
Mr. Watson received the educational advantages that his town and time afforded, 
and supplemented them with practical experience and application. While yet a 
youth he went to Boston and mastered the machinist's trade, which he followed for 
a time in Skaneateles and Newark, N.Y. In 1882 he came to Monroe county, stop- 
ping first in Rochester, but going soon afterward to Honeoye Falls, where he met 
the Hon. Hiram Sibley, whose warm friendship he retained until the latter's death. 
The two formed a partnership and purchased the Tinker manchine shop there, the 
village at that time being known as Sibleyville. They contmued a large and suc- 
ces.sful business for eight years, or until Mr. Sibley's election as county sheriff in 
1840, when the firm was dissolved and the shop sold. Mr. Watson very soon fol- 
lowed Mr. Sibley to Rochester and engaged in discounting commercial paper for 
several years, in which he became more extensively interested than all the local 
banks combined. 

Immediately after his marriage in 1855 to Miss Caroline M. Manning, of Gilberts- 
ville, N. Y., he went to Europe, and during his absence Mr. Sibley inaugurated the 
movement which led to the formation of the Western Union Telegraph Company. 
Upon his return Mr. Watson was induced by his life-long friend to become a heavy 
stockholder in that great corporation. At the same time he invested large sums in 
railroad stock of the Vanderbilt system, and probably became the heaviest holder of 
Central-Hudson securities outside of New York city. He was a firm believer in the 
future of the country, and although it was then (1857) in the throes of a disastrous 
panic, he bought thousands of railroad shares at a small figure. His motto was to 
buy with good judgment, and never sell, and these investments were the foundation 
of his great wealth. A man of quick perception he made few if any business errors; 
he was a personal friend of Commodore Vanderbilt and co-operated with the latter's 
sons and grandsons. He was a trustee of the Reynolds Library, but excepting this 
never held office, invariably refusing positions of trust, althougli frequently urged 
to accept them. In religion he was an Episcopalian. 

He was a man of retiring disposition, and always shrank from public life, yet he 
manifested a keen interest in the city's prosperity and general welfare. Charitable, 
benevolent, and unostentatious, he liberally supported all worthy objects and regu- 
larly contributed to the maintenance of various local in.stitutions; his endowment of 
the Chair of Political Economy in the University of Rochester is but a single in- 
stance of this. He bore the confidence and esteem of all who knew him. His 
widow and three children — James S. Watson, Mrs. G. A. Hollister, and Miss 
Elizabeth C. Watson, all of Rochester — survive him. 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 93 

vSIMON L. BREWSTER. 

Simon L. Brewster, son of Elisha Belcher and Eunice (Hull) Brewster, was born 
in Griswold, Conn., July 27, 1811, and is a descendant of Elder William Brewster, 
who came over with the Pilgrim Fathers in the Mayfloiuer in 1620. He received his 
education in the common schools of his native county. At the age of twenty-one he 
engaged in manufacturing in Jewett City, Conn., and continued about ten years, 
when he moved to Rochester. He was engaged in merchandising until 18o9, when 
he retired from business. For a number of years he had been connected with what 
is now the Traders National Bank as its vice-president and a member of its board of 
directors. In 1863 he was elected its president and took charge of the bank, in which 
he has ever since continued. Under his able administration the business of the bank 
has grown from a discount line of less than $300,000 to $3,000,000; the surplus fund 
from a few thousand to over §700,000 ; and the bank has become the leadmg fiduciary 
institution in the city. During the past twenty-five years his son, Henry C. Brewster, 
now representative in Congress from this district, has been associated with him in 
the management of the bank as its cashier and later as vice-president. Besides this 
son he has one daughter, who is unmarried. 

Mr. Brewster has never held public office except many years ago, when he served 
one term as a member of the board of supervisors of Monroe count v. He is a director 
in the Flour City Hotel Company and a trustee of the First Unitarian church. 



ELON HUNTINGTON. 

Elon Huntington was born in Shaftsbury, Bennington county, Vt., September 3, 
1808, and descends from one of the oldest and most respected families in England and 
America. His paternal ancestor, Simon Huntington, left England for this country 
in 1633, but died during the voyage, his body being consigned to an ocean grave; his 
widow and three sons, Christopher, Simon, and Samuel, settled in Connecticut, and 
are believed to have been the progenitors of all the Huntingtons on this continent, 
one of the grandsons being the Samuel Huntington who signed the Declaration of 
Independence, was President of the First Congress and Governor of Connecticut, 
Amos Huntington, .sr. , grandfather of Elon, was captain of a company of militia 
which was raised in Shaftsbury, \'t., to oppose Burgoyne's invasion during the Rev- 
olutionary war. Taken prisoner by the British at the battle of Hubbardston, July 7, 
1777, he was confined in a prison ship in New Jersey for some time. He had moved 
with his family from Norwich, Conn., to Shaftsbury, Vt., in 1776, and finally died 
and was buried there in 1822. Amos Huntington, jr., his eldest child, was born Au- 
gust 21, 1768, and married March 9, 1794, Pamelia Hard; he was for many years a 
magistrate of Shaftsbury and a member of the Baptist church, and died there Sep- 
tember 24, 1848. Of his nine children, all born in that town, the subject of this 
sketch was next to the youngest. 

Elon Huntington was educated in the district schools and reared upon his father's 
farm. At the age of sixteen he began teaching school and continued for several 
terms. When twenty-one he started on a business trip to Boston, New York, Phila- 



04 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

delphia, P>altim()rc', Washinjrlon, and interveninji points, and at (leorgetown he met 
the widow Iterbide and her son, the latter afterwards emperor of Mexico. Return- 
ing home he followed agricultural pursuits for a time. Later he went to New York 
and thence to New Orleans, and with his younger brother, Calvin, carried on the 
mercantile business between those two cities for two years. He then spent several 
months in traveling over Louisiana, copying and perfecting maps for his own use, 
paddling along the bayous for more than 1,000 miles, and locating land for prospect- 
ive purchasers. In this he acquired valuable information and experienced no litttle 
adventure. But here came the turning point in his career. Having friends in Roch- 
ester who had become involved in real estate speculations he was induced to come 
to this city and look after their interests, and on March 4, 1887, he took up his per- 
manent residence here. After .satisfactorily adjusting their claims he formed a part- 
nership with John M. French, as John M. French 8c Co., and engaged m the foundry 
busmess, manufacturing stoves, etc. This firm also had a large blast furnace in 
Ontario, Wayne county, and successfully conducted both concerns for several years, 
Mr. Huntington being the financial manager. Meanwhile he had also engaged in 
banking as cashier of the Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank, of which A. G. Smith was 
president. He subsequently purchased Mr. Smith's interest, reorganized the insti- 
tution, and finally sold it to Drew, Robinson & Co., of New York, but remained as 
cashier for about two years. They were succeeded by Gen. Jacob Gould, and Mr. 
Huntington, after a successful banking career, withdrew to commercial enterprises. 

He then assumed the management of the Duryea & Forsyth Manufacturing Com- 
pany, manufacturers of scales, iron safes, etc., which through business connections 
had passed into his hands. He converted it into a stock corporation, and success- 
tvilly carried on the business for several years. In 1845 he purchased a lot of ten 
acres on North St. Paul street, where now stands one of the oldest mansions in 
Rochester. He had previously bought 164 acres of lots T ;ind Y, all of which now lie 
within the city limits. He was instrumental in establishing a large nursery, of which 
he finally assumed the active management. After the war closed his son-in-law, 
Capt. Horace B. Hooker, became his associate and afterward the proprietor of the 
nursery business. Since then Mr. Huntington has lived in retirement, devoting his 
time to the care of his large property interests. For about twenty five years he has 
spent the winters at Mandarin, on the St. John's River in Florida, where he has an 
orange grove. 

Mr. Huntington was one of the founders of the Uuiversiiy of Rochester and is the 
only living member of its first board of trustees. He was not only a founder of that 
institution, but one of the prime movers in originating the plan and pushing it to a 
successful issue, and devoted both time and money to the cause. He has been a 
trustee since the organization and nearly all the time a member of the executive 
committee, and has never been absent from a meeting of the board or from com- 
mencement exercises. This is a noteworthy record, inasmuch as it embraces a 
period of forty-five consecutive years, or since 1850. He is a member of the Roch- 
ester Academy of Science, the American Association for the advancement of Sci- 
ence, and the Rochester Historical Society. He has devoted considerable time to 
the study of technical problems, in which he finds an agreeable recreation. En- 
dowed with scientific attainments of a high order lie has evolved original theories 
which place his among the talented minds of tlie country. He is the auth(jr of a 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 95 

'nrochure entitled " The Earth's Rotation and its Interior Heat." wiiich has been 
well received. 

October 17, 1835. Mr. Huntington was married to Miss Annjenette Cole, daughter 
of Peleg and Olive (Mix) Cole, who was born in Shaftsbury, Vt., April 9, 1814, and 
died at Mandarin, Florida, March 14, 1883. She was the youngest of ten children. 
A devout Christian, she was for many years a prominent member of the Second 
Baptist church of Rochester. In her home, her gracious presence and genial man- 
ner gave a rare charm to her hospitality that is an abiding memory to all 
who knew her. The children were: Alcesta F., born October 27, 1837; Al- 
bert, born October 25, 1839, first lieutenant in the 8th N. Y. Cav. during the Civil 
war, and now a resident of Jacksonville, Fla. ; Susan Pamelia, born August 18, 1841, 
married in December, 1861, Horace B. Hooker, who served three years as captain m 
Colonel Bis.sell's engineer corps in the Union army during the Rebellion, and now 
resides in Rochester; Frank, born July 14, 1848, one of the as.sociate editors of Apple- 
ton's Encyclopedia, of New York; Kate, born April 19, 1850, wife of Dr. James M. 
Taylor, president of Vassar College; Carrie, born August 18, 1852, wife of John C 
Jessup, of New York city; and Willie, born June 18, 1854, died July 29, 1856. 



CHARLES DONALD McLEAN. 

Charles Dunai.d McLean, A.B., LL.B., president of the State Normal School at 
Brockport since 1869, was born of Scotch parentage in County Antrim, Ireland, No- 
vember' 7, 1834. The family descends from a rugged race of Scotla~nders, members 
of the clan McLean, royalists, who took an active part on the side of the Stuarts in 
the wars of the Pretender, and becatise of those struggles fled to the Emerald Lsle 
about 1775. Thence they emigrated to Preston, Canada, about 1830. Charles Mc- 
Lean, father of our subject, was posses,sed of a liberal education. He married Jane, 
daughter of Thomas McHendry, and died in 1835. Soon afterward his family re- 
moved to Watertown, N. Y., and in 1837 to Clarkson, Monroe county, where Charles 
D. attended the public schools and the academy. In 1850 Professor McLean was 
graduated from the old Brockport Collegiate Institute. He subsequently took the 
degree of A. B. from the University of Rochester, studied law in the office of Judge 
Henry R. Selden, and received the degree of LL.B. from the Albany Law School, 
being admitted to the bar immediately afterward. 

The practice of law, however, had little attraction for one who had developed de- 
cided inclinations for teaching, and leaving the legal profession he .soon entered upon 
his lifework, in which success has constantly attended his efforts. Acting upon the 
invitation of Dr. McVicar, then president of the Brockport State Normal School, he 
accepted in March, 1865, a position as teacher in that institution, and two years later 
was made its vice-president. In these capacities he gave evidence of a peculiar ap- 
titude for educational work and made friends of all with whom he came in contact. 
In 1869 he succeeded Dr. McVicar as president, a position he has filled ever since 
with great credit and distinction. 

Professer McLean is oae of the noted and most successful educators in the United 
States. He enjoys a wide reputation and is recognized as one of the al)lcst of teach- 



96 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

ers. Under his a'lmirable management the school has constantly increased in attend- 
ance and importance, being now nearly fourfold larger than when he became its ex- 
ecutive head, and ranking high among the prominent seats of learning in the country. 
Its growth and usefulness are largely due to his individual labors, while his standard 
of excellence is wholly the result of his ability and able .supervision. For more than 
thirty years he has devoted his time and talents to its interests, and during twenty- 
six years of that period has officiated as its chief. 

In 1858 Professor McLean married Miss Wealthy Paine, who died in 1876. In 1882 
he was married to Martha Bro.ss, by whf)m he has two sons, Donald Charles and 
Waldo Bross. 



FRANK M. JONES. 

Frank M. Jonrs, sou of Chester and Hannah (Millard) Jones, was born at Union 
Hill in the town of Webster, Monroe county, November 18, 1847. Chester Jones, a 
native of Madi.son county, N. Y., came to Union Hill with his father, Joseph, about 
1817, being then twelve years of age, and died there August 8, 1867, aged sixty-two. 
Joseph was a tanner and shoemaker and followed those trades in connection with 
farming, dying at the age of fifty-three. He had ten children. Chester Jones was 
practically a life-long farmer, but for five years prior to his death he also conducted 
a grocery store. For half a century — the period covering his active life and resi- 
dence in the town — he bore the respect and esteem of every one who knew him. He 
married Hannah, daughter of Samuel Millard, a captain on the Niagara frontier in 
the war of 1812, and they were the parents of twelve children, of whom ten are liv- 
ing, three of them in Webster. Mrs. Jones was a native of Rhode Island, and died 
in February, 1885, at the age of seventy-four. 

Frank M. Jones was educated in the district school at Union Hill, but supple- 
mented the knowledge acquired there by constant reading, close observation, and 
practical experience. Inheriting the characteristics of a New England ancestry he 
is pre-eminently a self-made man. He remained on the farm until the age of twenty, 
when, his father dying, he succeeded to the store, which he conducted about three 
years. In December 22, 1869, he married M. Louise, daughter of William T. Cran- 
mer, of Ontario, Wayne county, and later removed to that town, where he carried on 
a general .store for four years. Selling his business there he returned to Union Hill 
and built the main store now owned and occupied by W. H. Stokes, and continued a 
successful country trade until the fall of 1886, when official life and other interests 
impelled him to sell out, which he did to the present proprietor. While a merchant 
there he secured and named the post-office, was appointed the first postmaster, and 
held the position about ten years, being succeeded on June 25, 1889, by Mr. Stokes, 
his former clerk. Soon after disposing of the store Mr. Jones started a hardware 
establishment there, which he continued until the fall of 1890, when he sold to E. W. 
Bancroft and removed to Webster village, where he shortly afterward jiurchased his 
present extensive general store. His business life has been one of almost uninter- 
rupted success, and is characterized throughout by honesty of purpose and fairness 
of dealing. 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 97 

Mr. Jones has been a life-long Republican, and from the age of majority has taken 
an active interest in the progress of his party, which has frequently placed him in 
nomination for positions of trust. In Ontario he served one year as town clerk and 
assessor (to fill vacancy), and was re-elected assessor for a term of three years. 
While a resident of Union Hill he was the Republican nominee for supervisor, but 
owing to a factional fight was defeated by seven votes. In 1885 he was renominated 
by the Republicans and elected by a large majority, and for four successive years 
was re-elected without opposition, being endorsed by the Democrats and polling the 
votes of both parties. In the Board of Supervisors he served on various important 
committees and was tendered the chairmanship, but declined, preferring the more 
active work of the floor. During the last four years of his service on the board he 
was inspector of the Monroe County Penitentiary. In the fall of 1890, while yet 
supervisor of the town, Mr. Jones was elected to the Assembly, taking his seat Janu- 
ary 1, 1891, and was re-elected to the same office in 1891 and 1892, each time by 
handsome majorities. In the Legislature he served on a number of important com- 
mittees, such as on water, gas, and electricit)-, on railroads, on Indian affairs, etc. 
He introduced the bill authorizing the incorporation of the Wolfe Island Bridge Com- 
pany for the purpose of constructing a bridge over the headwaters of the St. Law- 
rence River for the use of the Canadian Pacific and New York Central railroads. He 
was also the author of several other measures for public benefit, all of which became 
laws. 

In all these capacities Mr. Jones faithfully and conscientiously labored for the wel- 
fare of his constituents, and made a record of which any man may be proud. Asaxiti- 
zen and business man, ever progressive, public spirited, and enterprising, taking an 
active interest in town and county affairs, and promoting the cause of good govern- 
ment and universal advancement, he has alwaj's enjoyed the respect and esteem of 
the entire community. 



JOHN C. SCRIBNER. 

The pioneer days of the Genesee country are marked by deeds of heroism and 
periods of suffering, and no men are more worthy of imperishable memorials than 
are those who braved the privations of frontier life for the purpose of carving homes 
out of an unbroken wilderness. To their indomitable perseverance and hard labors 
are due the numerous conveniences enjoyed by the present generation. Among the 
notable pioneers in this section of the State was Nathan Scribner. sr. , who removed 
with his family from Connecticut and settled on what is now the George Clark farm 
in the town of Penfield, Monroe county, in 1805. He was of English descent and a 
veteran of the Revolutionary war, and came hither by means of a sled, being 
guided by means of blazed trees. Like other immigrants of the time, his worldly 
possessions were limited, but in personal characteristics he was liberally endowed 
with all the sterling attributes of enterprising New Englanders. In this respect his 
wife was equally qualified to plant the standard of civilization in a new country. 
Both lived and died in the town. Among their children was Nathan Scribner, jr., 
whose birth occurred on May 5, 1793, and who participated in the war of 1812, being 
present at the battle of Lundy's Lane, the sortie on Fort Erie, and other engage, 

M 



98 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

merits on the Niagara frontier. Educated in his native State — Connecticut — which 
he left at the age of twelve, his knowledge of books and common English was neces- 
sarily limited, but being a great reader he was tliroughout life well posted on general 
topics and by constant practice became a good penman. He was always a Whig in 
politics, and died on the farm now owned and occupied by his son John C. on No- 
vember 1, 18");! He married, first, on August 28, 1825, Sally Morey, who was born 
March 20, 180;5, and whose death occurred June 7, 1887. Their children were Oliver 
C, of Fairport, N.Y., born December 1, 1827, and Moses, of Detroit, Mich , born 
October 10, 1831. On August 8, 1837, Mr. Scribner married for his second wife Mrs. 
Elizabeth Spoor, who was born September 9, 1806, and died July 28, 1873. Their 
children were Sarah Jane (]\Irs. John R. Mulliner), of East Penfield, born October 22, 
1838; Nathan H., of Penfield, born December 13, 1839; and John C, the subject of 
this .sketch. 

John C. Scribner, the youngest child of Nathan, jr.. was born on his present farm 
in Penfield on August 24, 1841, and received his education in the district .schools of 
his native town. He has always followed the vocation of a farmer, and has spent 
his life upon the parental homestead of fifty-five acres, to which he succeeded on the 
death of his mother in 1873, and to which he subsequently added seventy-five acres 
more. This farm has become one of the finest and most productive farms in the 
county. It comprises valuable orchards and is adorned with a set of handsome and 
commodious buildings — the result of Mr. Scribner's industry and enterprise. He is 
emphatically a representative agriculturist and prominent among the leading pro- 
moters of local public improvements. In town affairs he is ever foremost, and in 
politics his influence is exerted in the cause of good government and the advance- 
ment of the Democratic party, with which he is affiliated. True to his convictions, 
an unswerving advocate of right and justice, and a firm believer in the underlying 
principles of manhood, his life from fir.st to last has been exemplary to a fault and 
replete with the deeds of a respected citizen. He has exerted a noteworthy in- 
fluence in the progress of local education, serving as trustee, etc., of the district in 
which he resides. In sustaining religious work he has been especially active, and 
with his family is a member of the Penfield M. E. church, of which he has served as 
a trustee for several years. He is al-so a member of Union Lodge No. 154, F. Sc 
A. M., of Penfield, and both he and his estimable wife were charter members and 
among the organizers of Penfield Grange No. 750, which was instituted in 1891. 

February 2, 1876, Mr. Scribner was married to Miss Christina Elizabeth, daughter 
of Fredrich Schiedhelm. She was born at Bechtheim on the Rhine, Germany, Sep- 
tember 13, 1854, and came to America in 1872. They have had three children, viz. : 
John Clyde, born May 27, 1877; Cornelia Elizabeth, born June 8, 1878; and David 
Wilson, born November 30, 1881. 



FREDERICK LEE HEUGHES. 

Frkderick Lkk Heughes, one of the best known and largest iron manufacturers 
in the State, was born in Rochester on March 24, 1850, and is a son of William 
Heughes, who settled here in 1843 and became one of the first book publishers in the 
Genesee Valley, Attending the public .schools of his native city, and graduating 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 99 

from the old High School in 1866, he served an apprenticeship in his father's printing 
office, where he acquired the rudiments of a mechanical training, and to which he 
brought a naturally inventive and progressive mind. There he origmated and pat- 
ented a press for printing in colors, a working model of which is now in the Patent 
Office at Washington. This was one of the earlier inventions of the kind in Amer- 
ica, and had Mr. Heughes followed it up he would undoubtedly stand to-day among 
the foremost in the pnnting business. But circumstances turned his talents into 
other entesprises. After recovering from a severe illness he entered, in 1871, the 
employ of W. H. Cheney, at 190 to 200 South St. Paul street, as bookkeeper, and later 
became general manager. This was the pioneer architectural iron works in Western 
New York, having been established by Mr. Cheney in 1888. 

While there Mr. Heughes saw, with true mechanical insight, the various uses to 
which rolled beams, as girders, joists, etc., could be put. In 1877 he became an iron 
contractor, with an office at No. 10 South Water street, and has ever since been 
heavily identified with that business with almost unparalleled success. In 1879 Mr. 
Cheney was succeeded by the firm of Little & Rowe, whose affairs three years later 
were not especially bright. It was then that Mr. Heughes, although extensively 
engaged in iron contracting, was importuned to take a controlling interest in the 
concern, which he did, becoming the active and moneyed partner under the style of 
Little, Heughes & Rowe, and succeeding in placing the business upon a sound finan- 
cial basis. Mr. Rowe withdrew in 1885, and a few years later Mr. Little's interest 
was purchased by Joseph Peiffer, the superintendent of the company and a practical 
man, and these changes brought into existence the present firm of F. L. Heughes & 
Company, one of the largest concerns of the kind in the State outside of New York 
city. They carry on an extensive business as iron founders and manufacturers of 
iron fronts, columns, lintels, and architectural iron work. 

It is as an individual contractor, however, that Mr. Heughes is most widely and 
favorably known, As such he is one of the largest and most prominent in the State, 
enjoying a reputation for ability and integrity which extends even through the coun- 
try. He is an extensive iron contractor and dealer in iron structural work, making 
fire-proof construction a specialty. This business exceeds in volume and importance 
his other enterprises, and has been individually conducted by him since starting in 
1877. For a number of. years he has handled exclusively the output of the Carnegie 
Steel Company in this part of the State, his dealings with that great corporation be- 
ing on an extensive scale. During that period he has erected the iron work of a 
large number of imposing and magnificent buildings, including the following: The 
Powers Fireproof Hotel, Wilder building, Sibley, Lindsay & Curr buildings, Keeler 
& Kimball new building, new court house, German Insurance building. Powers block 
addition, Monroe County jail, P. Cox building, North Water street viaduct, Brush 
Electric Light Company's plant, Bartholomay Brewing Company's ice houses in 
Rochester; Reformatory extension at Elmira; Hygienic Institute at Dansville, 
N. Y. ; the court house and library at Syracuse: and hundreds of other fireproof 
structures. 

Mr. Heughes has achieved remarkable success. His integrity and great executive 
abilty, his probity of character and pre-eminence as an iron contractor, his business 
capacity and universal prominence, are unquestioned. Commencing active life with 
no capital but perseverance, energy, and shrewd foresight, he has attained, through 



]00 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

his own efforts, a hijjh position among the leading manufacturers of the country. 
Prompt, upright, and candid in business transactions, he has never given or re- 
ceived a promissory note, his word being always considered as good as his bond. 
Few men have ever enjoyed the wide and enviable reputation which he has acquired 
and fewer still rank higher in their chosen calling. He is largely interested in Roch- 
ester real estate, and has built up, literally speaking, more of the city than any other 
man. In politics he has always been a Republican, and is an advocate of sound 
money on a gold basis. His home life is especially happy, and his leisure is spent 
amidst the social environments of his family. In 188IS he was married to Miss Effie 
M. Kinne, of Lockport, N. Y., and they have had three sons, Herbert F. , Walter Lee, 
and Benjamin A. 



CHAUNCEY B. WOODWORTH. 

Among the pioneers of Monroe county was the family of Spencer Woodworth, who 
came from South Coventry, Tolland county. Conn., to the town of Gates, in the sum- 
mer of 1819. They located one and a half miles west of the city of Rochester, on 
what is known as the " Chili road." Their journey from Connecticut to Rochester 
was made in one of the large covered wagons used in the early days, there being no 
other means of travel in this section. On the 9th day of June, 1819, they arrived at 
the tavern of Oliver Culver, in Brighton, where they halted for the night. The 
following day was entirely spent in reaching their new home. So little had been 
done towards openmg a road, they travelled by the way of the " Rapids" following 
as best they could a line of marked trees. In the family of this pioneer was an in- 
fant son, who was born on the 25th day of February, 1819, and consequently, at the 
time of migration to the Genesee county was about four months old. This was 
Chauncey B. Woodworth, one of the leading citizens of Rochester, and one of its 
most prominent business men, and the subject of this sketch. He remained under 
the parental roof, devoting a share of each year to the acquirement of such education 
as was then available, until he was twenty-one, when he engaged in the grocery 
business on the corner of East Main and North St. Paul streets, Rochester, thus for 
the first time identifying himself with the business interests of the city, that has 
since felt in so many ways the influence of his energies and ability. About 1841 Mr. 
Woodworth disposed of his grocery business, purchased a farm at Irondequoit, where 
he established a large saw mill. This he operated for several years. In 1853, in 
company with Jones and Osborn, he built the Crystal Palace block on Main street. 
About this time he moved to his present residence at 41 South Washington street. 
Down to this time success had crowned his efforts. He now engaged in the business 
that has ever since occupied a large share of his attention, and has made his name a 
household word throughout the length and breadth of the land. Woodworth's ex- 
tracts and perfumes are known wherever such goods are in demand, and that is al- 
most everywhere. To supply his great and growing industry with bottles he, in 
1860, associated himself with Dr. Frederick H. James in the manufacture of glass. 
Three years later (in 1869) Mr. Woodworth succeeded in the manufacture of extracts 
and perfumes by his sons, Frank E. and Harry vS., who in the .spring of 1894 organ- 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 101 

ized and incorporated the C. B. Woodworth Sons Company, which still continues tlie 
business with the same high standard of influence and popularity. 

Not alone has Mr. Woodworth been content with his great and growing busmess. 
To him Rochester is in a great measure indebted for her great and successful street 
railroad system. In the year 1868 when the Rochester City & Brighton Railroad 
Company's property and franchise was sold under a mortgage foreclosure, Mr. 
Woodworth purchased it out and out. He then joined with others, reorganized the 
company, extended the tracks and other facilities until there were few cities in the 
country more thoroughly and satisfactorily supplied with street car accommodations 
than Rochester. In 1889 Mr. Woodworth sold these interests to a syndicate which 
in turn has put in the electric system. Being one of the heaviest tax payers in the 
city he is largely interested in Rochester real estate and intimately connected with 
the city's growth and prosperity. He has just completed the Woodworth building, 
corner of State and Piatt streets, which is one of the finest and largest commercial 
structures in Rochester. It is of steel, faced with brick, and absolutely fireproof. He 
also owns a number of buildings of equal prominence. 

Mr. Woodworth is a strong man in party politics, but has never sought public 
office. In 1852 he was elected sheriff of Monroe county, and served faithfully and 
well. He was formerly a trustee of the Mechanics' Saving Bank, and for many years 
has been a trustee of the Rochester Theological Seminary. From 1864 to 1894 he 
was a director of the Flour City National Bank and for ten years its first vice-presi- 
dent. He is a director and second vice-president of the Rochester Trust and Safe 
Deposit Company, its largest individual stockholder, and was foremost among its 
originators. He has been a member of the Second Baptist Church for more than 
forty years, and a trustee most of the time. Mr. Woodworth is a direct descendant 
of Walter Woodworth who came to America in 1648 from Kent county, England- 
Several of his early ancestors were prominent in the Revolutionary war, notably his 
maternal grandfather, John Clark, who served for seven years in that struggle. 

On the 5th of January, 1841, Mr. Woodworth was married to Miss Martha J. Smith, 
daughter of Clark Smith, of Boston, Mass. They have had five children: Chauncey 
C, Frank E., Harry S., Helen A. (Mrs. Elmer C. Smith), and Lillie (deceased). 



D. B. DE LAND. 

Danif.i, Brown De Land, the pioneer manufacturer of soda and saleratusin West- 
ern New York and founder of the Fairport Chemical Works, was the third son of 
Levi and Hannah (Brown) De Land, and was born in the town of Candor, Tioga 
county, N. Y. , May 14, 1823 His father, a native of Hebron, N.Y. , was a volunteer 
at the age of nineteen in the war of 1812, and soon afterward married his wife at 
Oswego, N. Y. When nineteen the subject of this memoir shipped as a sailor before 
the mast of a whaler for three years. Returnmg home, he was married on Decem- 
ber 25, 1848, to Miss Minerva A. Parce, daughter of Justus Parce, of Norwich, N. Y., 
and for nearly two years thereafter followed farming in Wisconsin. He then en- 
tered the employ of his father-in-law at Norwich in manufacturing saleratus. The 
methods in vogue at that time were crude and cumbersome and the business was 



102 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

necessarily prosecuted in a small way. But Mr. De Land studied it clo.sely, familiar- 
izing himself with all its details, and accumulating knowledge which subsequently 
proved of inestimable value. In the fall of 1851 he settled permanently in Fairport, 
Monroe county, where he purchased a small building on the bank of the Erie Canal 
and in a modest way commenced the manufacture of soda and saleratus. The busi- 
ness grew rapidly and raised the village from a hamlet of a few houses and commer- 
cial interests to its present important standing. His enterprise proved successful 
from the start. But he was not content with producing a qualitj' of goods equal to 
the best then in the market ; he aimed at .superiority. Making two trips to Europe 
he gleaned information from the leading establishments of the old world and equipped 
himself with the best literature on the subject. This persistent study and applica- 
tion enabled him to manufacture an article that was soon in demand beyond success- 
ful competition. 

vSeveral years later he admitted his brother, H. A. De Land, and brother-in-law, 
J. Y. Parce, under the firm name of D. B. De Land & Co. In 1868 Mr. Parce with- 
drew, leaving the concern in the hands of the brothers, who steadily increased its 
capacity until D. B. De Land's death on December 20, 1872. The firm then became 
H. A. & L. J. De Land & Co. L. J. De Land, eldest son of Daniel B.. at that time 
became a partner and the superintendent of manufacture. In 1874 the tonnage out- 
put of the establishment was larger than that of any similar firm in the world, and 
the De Land products became a household word throughout the L'^nited States. 
The business was successfully continued until February 5, 1893, when the entire 
plant was consumed by fire. It was soon rebuilt on a larger and better scale and 
is now one of the leading enterprises of the kind in the countiy. The proprietors 
are Mrs. D. B. De Land and her sons, L. J., and \V. M. De Land, who are able and 
influential bu.siness men. 

Judge De Land, as he was familiarly known, was a man of indomitable energy 
and perseverance, of rare ability and foresight, of strict integrity, and of unfailing 
resource. His eminent success as a manufacturer placed him among the foremost 
business men of the time. He achieved distinction as enduring as it was brilliant. 
He was a life-long Democrat, a trusted and influential local leader, and frequently 
carried the standard of his party to the verge of victory notwithstanding the fact 
that it was vastly in the minority. During the war he was twice a candidate for 
member of assembly and once came within three votes of an election. He often 
went as a delegate to political conventions, and in 1858 was chosen a justice of ses- 
sions, whence his title. He was a staunch friend of education and for some time 
served as a trustee of the Rochester Theological Seminary, to which he was a liberal 
contributor. He also contributed to Richmond College in Virginia, and for the bene. 
fit of its students built and donated a handsome cottage. Against strong opposition 
he was one of the few who successfully founded and established the present excellent 
.«chool system of Fairport and was a member of the first Board of Education, a posi- 
tion he held almost continuously until his death. He was charitable, kind, and be- 
nevolent, a strong Baptist, and prominent among the laymen of that denomination 
in Western New York. For many years he was a deacon of the Baptist church of 
Fairport and always a liberal contributor to its objects. 

Mr. De Land was married aspreviouslystated, to MissMinerva A. Parce, who survives 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 103 

him and resides in Fairport. They had five children: Levi J., senior member of the 
firm of De Land & Co., of Fairport; Leora A. (Mrs. Walter A. Hubbell), of Roches- 
ter; Minnie P., deceased; Stella >G., wife of Rev. James T. Dickinson, pastor of the 
First Baptist church of East Orange, N. J. ; and Wayland M., junior member of the 
firm of De Land & Co. 



PART III 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 



Gordon, George C, president of the First National Bank of Brockport, was born 
in Rushford, Allegany count}', July 1, 1S49, and his father, Luther Gordon, was a 
native of the same place. The grandfather, John, came from Cavendish, Vt. . about 
1809. In 1809 John G. visited the site of Rochester, but not liking it, settled in Ru.sh- 
ford. Luther Gordon, the second son, formed a partnership with Samuel White in 
the furnace business, during which he invented the Genesee Plow. Disposing of 
the furnace business, he afterwards erected a large store at Rushford and engaged 
in general merchandise and the buying and shipping of stock. In IH'tCt he bought 
the lumber business of Boswell, Walker &: Hood at Brockport, and in 185S erected 
the family residence, to which he removed his family a year later. For some time 
he gave his attention to the lumber business, buying large tracts of western lands, 
mostly in Michigan. In 1863 he organized the first National Bank of Brockport, aad 
was elected president, which office he held to the time of his death, March 26, 1881. 
He married Florilla Cooley of Attica, Wyoming county, who died in 1869, leaving 
one son, George C. The latter was educated at Brockport College, and fini.shedwith 
a business course in Rochester. In 1874 he married Ida M., daughter of Thomas C. 
Hooker, and they have these children : Luther, George C, jr., William H., Frederick 
H., Thomas C, of whom William H. died in infancy. In 1881 our subject was elected 
president of the bank, which office he now tills, having bugun his banking experience 
with Waters, Bishop & Co. In June, 1863, he was assaulted by thieves, thrown into 
the vault, and when aid reached him life was nearly extinct. Mr. Gordon is the 
leading business man of his town, and interested in all that tends to its advancement. 

Raymond, Alonzo B., was born in Chenango county, July 18, 1819. His father, 
Alphius, was born in Massachusetts, and married a Miss Daniels. They first settled 
in McDonough, Chenango county, but in 1830 came to Monroe county and settled in 
the town of Byron, and later in Parma. Alonzo B. was educated in the common 
schools and is pre-eminently a self-made man. At the age of nineteen he began 
teaching school, and continued for four years; was engaged in the mercantile busi- 
ness at North Parma, Spencerport, and Adams Basin for about twelve years, after 
which he confined himself to dealing in produce. In the spring of 1860 he was ap- 
pointed pastor of the Universalist Church at Portage, Wyoming county, remaining 
in the ministry four years, after which he again engaged in the produce business and 
has so continued. In 1843 he married Elizabeth A., daughter of Samuel Wyman, 
and their children are A. Clayton, attorney at Detroit, Mich., counsel for the Grand 
Trunk and Canadian Pacific Railroad; and George H., of Buffalo. Our subject is one 
of the representative men of the town. 



t LANDMARKS OP MONEOE COUNTY. 

Holmes, Daniel, was born in West Bloomfield, September 11, 1828, ason of DanieU 
sr., a native of Massachusetts, who, with his father, Alpheus, came to Ontario about 
isi 1, among the pioneer settlers of that town. Daniel, sr., served in the warof 1812, 
and was at the burning of Buffalo by the British, lie married Susan Stuart. Dan- 
iel, ir., was educated at Brockport Collegiate Institute in 1846, and was graduated 
from Yale College in 1848, after which he taught school in Woodford count3% K}'. , 
for two and a half years, spent a year in Canandaigua as professor of Latin, and then 
began the study of law. He was admitted to the bar in 1852, and married Mary J. 
Hawes of Brooklield, Mass., the well-known writer of fiction. Our subject has served 
in various positions of public trust and responsibility, and is regarded as one of the 
cultured and intelligent men of the town. 

Richards, Dorwain, was born in Fulton county, N. V., March 11, 1844, a son of 
Rev. William I. Richards, a native of Vermont, who came to Monroe county in 1860, 
and settled in the town of Clarkson, where he bought a farm, and remained to re- 
cover his health. In 186:3 he resumed his labors in the ministry, which were con- 
tinued up to the dale of his death in 1875. Dorwain Richards was educated in the 
public schools, to which he has added by reading and close observation. In August, 
1S62, he enlisted in Co. A, 140th N. Y. Vols., and participated in the battles of Fred- 
ericksburg, Chanccllorsville, Gettysburg, Mine Run, and the Wilderness, receiving 
an honorable discharge in 18()5 at the close of the war, returning to the farm, where 
he remained till 1875. He then came to Brockport, and entered the employ of D. S. 
AV)i'g'i". remaining till 1888, then established his jiresent business, carrying a full 
line of fire, life, and acc'dcnt insurance, and deals also in real estate. In 1868 he 
married jane IC. Moore, and their children are Mrs. Maliel E. Mitchell, and Jessie G. 
Richards. 

Telfair, Dr. William, was born in North Carolina in 1857. He graduated from the 
University of Baltimore, Md., in 1882, and studied in the medical department of ihal 
institution, graduating the same year. He practiced in New York city eight )ears. 
After a scientific investigation of the treatment of inebriates for the past .si.\ years, 
lie opened, on March 1, 1893, a sanitarium at Fort Erie, Canada, which he conducts 
with success. In Uie course of a year he came to Rochester, and made arrangements 
to open the Telfair Sanitarium on West Avenue, which up to date has been a great 
success, especially in the treatment of inebriates, who are also addicted to the use of 
opium, etc. Almost every day some lil)erated ca])tive goes forth from this institu- 
tion a free and happy man. 

( )wens, John, was born in Roscommon, Ireland, March 1^3, 18:}4, and came to Amer- 
ica in 1851. He settled in Brockport, where he followed farming a few years, and in 
1S.56 started in the grocery' business in a small way, and now has the leading store in 
that line in the town, doing both a wholesale and retail business. Our subject is one 
of the representative men of Brockport, who by his own efforts has been able to 
achieve a fine success. 

Cole, Mary I., of Pittsford. — Her paternal grandfather, Abram Cole, was born in 
in 17iK{ at Pittstown, Rensselaer county, to which place his jiarents had removed 
from Rhode Island. When he was eighteen years old they removed to Mendon, 
then part of Bloomtield, and the center of an almost unbroken wilderness. With our 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 5 

present facilities for easy and rapid transportation, it is difliciilt to realize the real 
hardships attendant upon such an exodus, but the men of thcjse times were sturdy 
and the women were brave, and soon found contentment within the rude log cabins 
which sheltered themselves and their household goods. Abram Cole was endowed 
with the most estimable qualities of head and heart, and impiessed something of his 
virtues and principles upon those who came within the sphere of his inHueuce. In 
1818 he married Polly Benjamin of Phelps, and they had seven children. The elder 
son, Elijah M., married Catholine ShuUers, the mother of our subject, and also of 
Charles H. Cole, of Pittsford. 

Killmer, Harry A , general secretary of the Y. M. C. A., of Fairport, was born De- 
cember 14, 1869, at Hudson. Owing to delicate health in childhood he was unable 
to attend school, but under the home tuition of a good mother he acquired a rudi- 
mentary education, supplementing it later by persevering personal research. Prior 
to 1893 he had been associated in a clerical capacity with a building and loan com- 
pany, and al.so in life insurance, but in 188!) assumed an active position in liie affairs 
temporal of the M. E. Church, and having long been impressed by the work and 
methods of the Y. M- C. A., accepted in 1893 a call to Fairport as secretary, in which 
capacity his labors have been surrounded by success, and the association placed on a 
sound linancial footing and suitably equipped for its great work. 

Pierce, Martin, is a son of Martin R., who was a native of Jefferson county, and 
came to Honeoye Falls in 1828, having resided previously in Yates county, 
where he married his first wife, Nancy Bartlett. They had two sons, Francis and 
Byron. Mrs. Pierce died soon after coming to Mendon, and he married second, 
Emily M. Graham, also of Yates county, by whom he had eight children. Of these 
Martin and Seymour are in the lumber business, and have a factory at Honeoye Falls; 
Mrs. M. L. Briggs, and Mrs. J. M. Pride, also of Honeoye Falls; Mrs. D. D. Adams 
of Livonia; and Mrs. Dr. Smith of Rochester. The elder Pierce was quite a strong 
temperance man, an active member of the Methodist Church, and a prominent busi- 
ness man. Martin, jr., was born in Honeoye in 1837, reared on the farm, and edu- 
cated in the public schools. In the spring of 1861 he went to Missouri, and while 
there enlisted in the war. Later he re-enlisted in the 136th N. Y. Vols., serving till 
the fall of 1863, when he was severely wounded at the battle of Bristow Station. Re- 
ceiving his discharge he returned home and married Mary Ritchie of Buflalo, and 
they have one son, Charles R., who is cashier in the local bank. 

^ Hawley, Wm. S., w'as born in Greene count}', and came to this town in 1829, where 
his father, James Hawley, engaged in farming. He lived with his father until the 
year 1847. Mr. Hawley then engaged in the business of nurseryman and farming 
until the j'ear 1858. He then went to the State of Illinois and engaged in the nursery 
business for two years. In 1860 he came back to the town of Webster and conducted 
the business of farming and fruit-growing until the year 1870. . Mr. Hawley then en- 
gaged in the mercantile business with W. H. Stratton, known as the firm of Hawley 
& Stratton, for a term of ten years. In the year 1880 Mr. Hawley built the store on 
the southeast corner in the centre of the village, and was in business with his son 
until the year 188S. The store is now conducted by his son, George N. Hawley. 
Mr. Ilawlej' was for many years trustee of the Webster Union Schcjol, being one of 



6 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

the building committee that erected the present Union School biiildint^. Mr. Haw- 
ley has one son, Jay R. Hawley of Jordan, N. Y. 

Hanford, Frederick S., was brtru in the town of Greece, Uanford's Tyanding, now 
in the city of Rochester, in 184;^, a son of Frederick, whose father was Jesse C, one 
of seven brothers who came from Connecticut in 18UU by teams to the (lenesee coun- 
try, and bought a great tract of land of the Indians. Frederick and Abram, two of 
the brothers, built the Steamboat Hotel; Frederick was also connected with various 
enterprises and became in company with his brother Charles quite wealthy. Haynes 
built a store near the Steamboat Hotel, while Jesse C. and Gorham were farmers. 
Frederick, son of Jesse, married Elvira Sexton and reared two children, Frederick S. 
and Mrs. M. H. Goodsell, a practicing physician and lecturer in the medical college 
at Minneapolis. Frederick S. was educated in Rochester, and came to Honeoye 
Falls in 1861. He clerked in a store until 180"), when he married Eliza J., daughter 
of William Campbell, and went into the dry goods business, on his own account, in 
which he has been successful. He has one son, Fred C, who was educated at Fort 
Plain and Cornell University, and studied law. He married Kate, daughter of S. B. 
Dewey of Rochester, where lie is now i)racticing law, and is assistant district attorney 
of the county. 

Adams, J. W., was born at Adams Basin in October, 18:5:5. His father, William, 
was a native of Connecticut, who came to West Bloomficld witli his parents when an 
infant; this was in the year 17i)(». William married Lurany, daughter of Ashbel 
Beach, and of their nine children four survive. Julian, only brother of J. W., was 
the first soldier in Sweden to respond to the call of Abraham Lincoln for 75,000 men 
in 18()1, and died in the army after the second battle of Bull Run. Mr. Adams was in 
the custom house in New York for several years. From 1878 to the present time he 
has been interested in business and mining enterprises in Colorado. In 18.52 he mar- 
ried Loania, daughter of Alexander S. Brown, and they have two children, James S. 
and P'rederick W. The mother of Mrs. Adams was Alice, oldest daughter of Hiel 
Brockway, the founder of Brockport. 

lulgett, Harriet Roscoe, of I^'airport, was a daughter of the late Caleb Roscoe, of 
.Suig Sing, N. Y. In 1825 Mr. Roscoe bought the Westchester Herald, and devoted 
his life and best energies to its editorship and management, being then twenty-five 
years of age, and the son of Luke Roscoe, who came from England in 1790. Caleb 
Roscoe made himself a power in Westchester county affairs, and his talent and force 
were allied always with its best interests. He was one of the original Board of Di- 
rectors of the Westchester Mutual Insurance Company, incorporated in 1837 ; was 
prominent as a school trustee, and in Sunday school and temperance work, and for 
thirty-four years was treasurer of the Westchester County Bible Society. In 185() his 
newsj^ajwr buildings were destroyed by fire, and thenceforward his life was one of 
comparative retirement. Harriet, his elder daughter, married, in 1848, A. S. Edgett, 
who was the pioneer ot the great fruit-preserving industry of Central New York, 
erecting in 18.5:3 the first plant west of New York city devoted to that work. July 17, 
1885, he died in Fairport, aged fifty-seven years. His living children are Mary H. 
Edgett of Fairport, and Mrs. F. (). Edgett of Minneapolis. Mrs. Roscoe Edgett is 
widely known as the author of many beautiful poems, chiefly of a pastoral and devo- 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 7 

tional character, and she inherits much of her father's Hterary talent. For many 
years she has acted as local correspondent for the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. 
The whole family were God-fearing people, consistent, earnest and practical in the 
execution of their religious duties. 

Ewer, Spencer, was born at Irondcquoit June 8, 18;;i4, a son of Natlianiel, a native 
of Sandwich, Mass. He came to this county about 1825 where he was for many 
years a leading farmer. He married Rhoda Mosher. He was recognized as a'man 
of conservative character and strict Quaker principles. He was the lirst man to open 
Irondequoit Bay as a summer resort. His death occurred in 18G1, at the age of 
sixty-eight. Spencer Ewer was educated in the common schools, and in 1865 mar- 
ried Martha Rush. In 1866 he came to Brockport and established his present busi- 
ness, which he has continued in the same location up to the present time. He is rec- 
ognized as one of the leading business men of the town. 

Cornish, Clement, was born in Marion, Wayne county, N. Y., January 28, 1838. 
His father was William, who in early life was a printer by trade and for many years 
a compositor in the office of Harper Brothers at New York. By his first wife he had 
three children, Albert, Maria, and Clement, the elder son being deceased. Edwin S. 
and Charlotte A. were the children of a second wife. Clement Cornish has made his 
own way in life, acquiring a good business education by personal research. He is a 
very popular and genial gentlemen, but steadfastly refuses political i^referencc. 
Prior to making his home in Fairport in 1860 he had been engaged at farming in 
Cold water, Mich., for four years. December 17, 1867, he married Harriet A., daugh- 
ter of Francis Dunbar of F' airport. Both are members of the First Congregational 
church, and much esteemed. 

Reichel, Rev. George Valentine, was born in the city of Brooklyn on June 6, 186B. 
He is a son of Richard L. Reichel, a native of Cassel, Germany, who came to America 
in 1850 and settled in this country, where he soon became engaged with the Bureau 
of Emigration in New York city. George V. was educated in Boston and New York, 
and in 1883 entered the Auburn Theological Seminary, from which he was graduated 
with honor in 1886. In the same year he located at Dryden, N. Y. , as pastor of the 
First Presbyterian church. In 1890 he received a call from the First church of Brock- 
port, where he now is, and where his efforts have met with much success. His 
church has a membership of over three hundred, great activity prevailing in all its 
departments of work. He is an entirely self-made man. Some years ago he re- 
ceived several honorary degrees in recognition of special attainments. He is also a 
well-known writer on religious subjects and a contributor to our current literature. 
In 1885 he married Miss May L. Arnett of Auburn, N. Y., daughter of Silas H. 
Arnett. Their children are May, Haines, Paul and Christabcl. Mrs. Reichel is a 
graduate of the Auburn Young Ladies' Institute, and is an efficient co-laborer with 
her husband in church work. 

Watson, W. S., postmaster of Fairpf)rt, was appointed to that office December 12. 
1894, proving a most efficient and popular man for the place. Mr. Watson's first 
public service was as deputy county treasurer (1876-79), under James Harris, and in 
1883 was made deputy county clerk associated in that office with Henry D. McNaugh- 
ton. He was born in Penfield, a son of the late John M. Watson, an early settler 



8 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNT'f. 

from the State of Maine, and his principal business has been farming. In 1864 he 
married Mary Riley of Greece. Their .son, John M. Watson, is a farmer of Perinton. 
An only daughter, (Jertrude, died in 1S!)0, aged twenty-six. She was the wife of 
Dr. A. J. Burns of Fairport. 

Scribner, O. C. , long a jjersonal landmark of this locality, was l)orn m IVnIield, 
December 1, 1827, the oldest of two sons of Nathan and Sarah Scribner. The 
younger son, Moses, is a resident of Windsor, Ontario, and by occupation a broker. 
Oliver C. Scribner is a veteran of the Mexican war, enlisting in Co. D, 10th Infantry, 
in 1847, and serving with credit two years under Winfreld Scott. Prior to 1874 he 
was engaged in various enterprises, and largely as foreman in the construction of 
railroad and canal work. In 1862 he married Julia Midvaney of New York, whose 
children are Milton W., Frank V., Sarah J. and Julia Isabcll. Milton, the elder son, 
is i-ngaged in the jewelry business at Fairport. Mr. Scribner has served as trustee 
and marshal of the Fire Department since 1885. In 1874 he establi.shed the ])usiness 
bearing his name at Fairport, dealing in family groceries, (lour, feed and gi'ain. 

Miner, John E., was born in Clarkson April 5), 183(). His father, Hiram, was a 
native of Littleton, N. H., and came to Monroe county in 1824, bringing his young 
wife (Mehitable Martin, also of Littleton, N. II.), and a few necessaries for house- 
keeping, and settled in the western part of the town of Sweden. In 18:31 he removed 
to Clarkson and settled on the farm now owned by his youngest son, John E., a part 
of which was owned by Hiram T., another son, who died in 1881. Besides these two 
sons there were four daughters born to Mr. M., of whom only one is now living — 
Mrs. Abigail Miller of Brockport. In 1875 the wife and mother died, a few months 
after they had celebrated their fiftieth marriage anniversary, a happy event, in which 
their children and grandchildren joyfully anticipated. In 1878 he married Mrs. Mari- 
etta Butler of Brockport, who died in August, 18!)2, about three months previous to 
his own death. Mr. Miner was a man thoroughly interested in agriculture; in poli- 
tics a staunch Republican. He was a man honored and loved by all who knew him. 
An earnest Christian worker, one ever ready with heart and hand to aid in the causes 
of religion and education. For sixty-five years he served as trustee of the M. E. 
church of Brockport, and was chairman of the board for forty-five years. He died 
in 1892 in his ninety-second year. John E. Miner was educated in the public schools. 
In 1859 he married Louise A., daughter of Smith Glidden of Clarendon, Orleans 
county. They have one daughter, Charlotte H. Our subject has followed in the 
footsteps of his father, and has filled various positions of trust and responsibility in 
the town. 

Benedict, Allen, late of Fairport, and a valued member of .society and church, was 
born in Tioga county, January 30, 1834. His father, Nathan, came to Penfield in 
1844, engaging in farming, as did Allen until 1876, when he removed to Fairport. 
During the late war Mr. Benedict .served eighteen months in the 8th N. Y. Cavalry, 
after which his health was greatly impaired, and his death occurred Sei)tember 10, 
1893. He married Lovinia J. Gowdy of Watertown, N. Y., in 1884, who survives 
him. A constant attendant of the Congregational church, he was one of the trustees 
for several years. Reserved without l)eing morose, strict without a censorious spirit, 
his (juict thoughtful ways won the esteem of all who were intimate with him. 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 9 

Kingsbury, John H., was burn in Bn.ckport, August 10, 1844, a son of Samuel, a 
native of Tolland county, Ccnin., who married Phoebe, daughter of Silas Snaulding. 
The Spauldings trace their lineage back to England and the year 1300. Samuel 
Kingsbury came to Monroe county about 1835, settled in Brockport, became one of 
the leading business men of the town and engaged in the produce business. He 
died in 1855. John H. was educated in Brockport, and later took a business course 
at Eastman's Business College, Poughkeepsie, and returning to Brockport was ap- 
pointed clerk in the canal collector's office, where he remained three years. In 18G5 
he entered the First National Bank as teller, and remained seven years. In 1872 he 
established the private bank of Allen & Kingsbury, and on Mr. Allen's withdrawal in 
1875, the business was continued by Mr. Kingsbury, who has since conducted it. In 
1874 he married Emily, daughter of Ezra H. Graves, and they have had three chil- 
dren, John C, Emily M. and Ida G. Mr. Kingsbury has served five terms as village 
president, seven years as treasurer, and for ten years has served as a member of the 
Local Board of the State Normal School, being its treasurer for five years. He has 
also filled the position of junior warden of St. Luke's Episcopal church for ten years. 

Berry, Thomas C, was born in the town of Riga, September 6, 1832, a son of John, 
born in Manchester, England, who settled in Riga in 1830 with his parents, Thomas 
and Elizabetli Berry. They bought a farm on Black Creek, where the father died 
shortly after, leaving his wife to take care of a large family. John and Mary Berry, 
his wife, resided at Hardack Corners for several years, later, in 1832, coming to 
Brockport, where he followed trucking for a time, and also engaged in the coal busi- 
ness. His death occurred in 1891, in his eighty-fifth year. He was a prominent 
factor in town aiTairs, and was poormaster for nine years. Thomas Berry was edu- 
cated at Brockjjort Collegiate Institute, and learned the moulder's trade, being fore- 
man of D. S. Morgan & Co.'s works for years; also a stone mason. He has also been 
engaged in the whip, glove and mitten business. In 1856 he married Mary E. Lewis 
of Syracuse, who died in 1888, leaving three children: Thomas L. , Ed. J., and Katy 
A. He is now living with his second wife, who was M. J. Kelley of Brockport, N. Y. 

Gee, Horace B., was born in the town af Virgil, Cortland county, May 11, 1859. 
His parents moved to Arcadia, Wayne county, N. Y. , in 1861, and he was educated 
in the public schools and the Normal School at Mansfield, Pa. He studied medicine 
at Newark, N. Y., with Dr. Nutten a1)out three years, and was also in the medical 
department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and in the medical depart- 
ment of the Buffalo LTniversity, graduating therefrom in 1885. He practiced in West 
Bloomfield, Ontario county, two years, and is now located in Rochester, in which 
city he has practiced for the past seven years. He is now editor of the New York 
State Medical Reporter, and a member of the Monroe County Medical Society. Sep- 
tember 23, 18S4, he married Ellen W. Da Foe, of this city, and they have had two 
children, Ethel (t. and Mildred W. 

CJoff, Henry H., who since 1879 has been well known throughout this State as sec- 
retary of the New York State Grange, was born in Henrietta September 20, 1821, a 
son of Roswell Goff, who married Betsey Thompson. The grandfather. Elder CJofT. 
was an earnest worker in the Baptist ministry, and came to Western New York be- 
fore 1800. He settled in Rush in an early day, and the place was named GofFs Set- 
to 



10 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

tlenient jifter him. Here he died after forty-two years in the ministry. Roswell 
Goff was a farmer in Rush for many years, and died in Michigan. At the age of 
nme years Henry (ioff began work for himself. His motlier had died during his 
young ehildhcjod, and he was forced to make his own way in life. At the age of six- 
teen he began teacliing, which he continued winters for ten years. He was then 
chosen town superintendent, and finally county superintendent for the western dis- 
trict, in both of which capacities he served with satisfaction. We next find him as a 
teacher in the House of Refuge, but failing health compelled his retirement. He 
came to Spencerport in 1850, and taught school one year, but soon became interested 
in the construction of the railroad through the town, and he was appointed first sta- 
tion agent, in 185*2. He removed to Holley in 1H.'j4, and was agent there several 
years. In Ix^lh i)laces he was interested in the jiroduce business, his local partner 
at Spencerport being Charles Brigham. Their association continued about twelve 
years, when in 1.S74 Mr. Goff succeeded the firm. In this year he joined the then 
infant (rrange, and soon became a leading member. In 1879 he was elected secre- 
tary of the .State organization, which he has iilled lo the present time, much of its 
success being due to his efforts. Mr. Guff purchased the old Colonel Hrown farm in 
Ogden, in iyC2, where he has smce resided. In 1850 Henry II. Goff married Sarah 
E. , daughter of Harvey J. Wright, and their children are Frank M., a practicing 
lawyer of Rochester, and Burton M., connected with his father's produce business in 
Spencerjiort. 

Drake, John N., was born in Clarkson, N. Y., February 2, 1854. His father, Elijah, 
was a native of Cayuga county, and came to Monroe county in 1832. He married 
Martha E., daughter of Rev. Morris Bull, D. D., and died January 26, 1889, in his 
sixty-ninth year. The family trace their descent to Sir Francis Drake. Samuel 
Drake, his great-grandfather, was a colonel in the Revolutionary war. John N. was 
educated at the Brockport and Geneseo Normal .Schools, graduating in 1872. He 
began the study of law in Rochester, and was admitted to the bar in 1870. Remov- 
ing to Brockport in 1881 he established a general practice. In 1878 he married 
Loui.se E., daughter of Rev. Alfred A. Graley, and their children are Merle G., 
Henry J., Margaret L., and Catherine M. Our subject has served as justice of the 
peace ten years and clerk and attorney of the village of Brockport since 1883. He 
has comjHled and jiublished a volume entitled "The Village Charter," which is a 
complete compilation of the laws governing all villages in the State. 

Foskett, William A., was born at Walworth, Wayne county, May 29, 1834, of an 
old Massachusetts family. His father, Asaph G. , was instantly killed, December 23, 
1834, by the bursting of a threshing cylinder at his farm. Mr. Foskett in 1887 en- 
gaged in the grocery trade at Fairport, retiring from that business in 1891. He is a 
man of wide information, original character, and independent views. He has for 
many year&been a notarj^ public here and in Wayne county, and a trustee of the vil- 
lage of Fairport. His earl)' educational advantages were limited, but he has by per- 
sonal research become thoroughly conversant with legal and business forms, and his 
services have been in frequent demand in formulating testamentary documents and in 
the settlement of estates. He married, February 4, 18G3, Lucy V. Wymau, daughter 
of Abel and Artemissa Wyman of Walworth, Wayne cOuuty, N. Y. 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 11 

Nichols, Isaac, one of the pioneers of Oj^dcn, came from Becket, Mass., in l.sul, 
cleared a place in the forest, built a log cabin, and returned for his family, which 
comprised two sons and three daughters. He died at the age of sixty-four. Of his 
sons, Charles K. was for many years an enterprismg farmer of Ogden. He married 
Wealthy Wheeler, by whom he had six children: Isaac, Lester S., Hiram I)., Kim- 
ball C, Wealthy A., and Warner. Mr. Nichols died January 27. \H*M, and his wife 
in 1890. Lester S. Nichols, one of Ogden's enterprising business men, was born 
February 8, 1829, and his life has been one of constant activity. At the age of 
twenty-six he bought a farm of fifty acres in Ogden, where he lived seven years, then 
purchased the flour mill at Spencerport, which he rebuilt and conducted from 1861 to 
1867 with success. Later he was a merchant at Spencerport. He has also folhjwed 
farming, and is the owner of one of the finest farms of the town. In IS,").') he married 
Parley K., daughter of Josiah Rich of this town, and their children are Fleming W. , 
a merchant at Spencerport; Nancy M., Ernest L., in business in Paris, France; Alice 
P., wife of Dr. F. A. Winnie of Brockport; and Sidney S. Lester S. Nichols has 
been a prominent factor in county politics, having served as assessor nine years, 
supervisor two terms, postmaster under Cleveland's first administration, trustee of 
the village several years, besides holding other positions of tru.st and I'esponsibility. 
Josiah Rich came from Washington county in an early day, and in 1818 kept a hotel 
at Spencerport village, where he died in 1844. His first wife was Hannah Skinner, 
by whom he had six children ; his second wife was Polly M. Brookins, and they had 
eight children. 

Cook, Willis C. M. D., was born in Bergen, Genesee county, June 25, 18;J2. Was 
educated in the common schools and in 1883 entered the medical department of the 
Niagara University of Buffalo ; in 1884 he entered the Northwestern University of 
Ohio, medical department, and in 1885, graduating from the Toledo Medical College 
in the same year. . He located m Brockport where he engaged in the practice of his 
profession, and is now enjoying a very large practice. In 1855 he married Adeline 
Hawks, who died in 1857; second he married Mary, daughter of Philip Williams of 
Paw Paw, Mich., and their children are Francis W., Karl R., Jay W., Curtis L. and 
Lenoir. Dr. Cook served during the late war as follows : First enlisted in Novem- 
ber 16, 1861, as a sergeant in Co. K, 13th Mich. Vol. Inf., and was discharged at De- 
troit for disability November 3, 1862; enlisted again as veterinary surgeon 9th Mich. 
Cav., and served till the close of the war, being discharged at Lexington, N. C, July 
21, 1865. His father, Curtis Cook, was a native of Pompey Hill, Onondaga county, 
and settled in Bergen in an early day, later moved to Clarendon, Orleans county, 
where he died December 1. 1883, aged eighty-one years; he married Betsey Snow 
Brown, daughter of Elijah Brown of Vermont, who was one of the first three white 
men to settle in Byron; took a farm where he died in 1852, at the age of eighty-six 
years. Lemuel Cook, grandfather of Willis Cook, was a native of Norwich. Conn., 
and served in the Revolutionary war under General Washington, who personally 
signed his discharge papers. After the war he settled at Pompey Hill, and later 
moved to Bergen, from there he went to Clarendon, where he died at the advanced 
age of one hundred and seven years, the only Revolutionary soldier known to be 
alive at that date, March 6, 1863.' Betsey Snow, wife- of Curtis Cook, still lives on 
the old homestead in Clarendon at the age of ninety-one years. 



12 LANDMARKS OP MONROE COUNTY. 

McGill, J. W., M. 1)., one <>f the foremost medical practitioners of Fairport, was 
horu in Durham county, Canada, March l»l, ]S(i2. His father was Henjamin McCJill, 
of Scotch ancestry, who has spent much of his life as a farmer; he died February 7, 
lM!>r), in Peterborough, Canada, at the advanced a^e of eighty years. His wife was 
Jane Byers, of Irish nativity, by whom he had ten children. Our subject began his 
medical studies with Dr. P. D. Carpenter of Pittsford in 1882, later entering the 
University of Huffalo, from which he graduated in March, 1880, and began practice 
at Fairport, where he is already highly esteemed, both as a man and a physician. 
His wife is Sarah Helen, daughter of Julian McVeau, who died in Wheatland, Mon- 
roe county, March 20, 1895, and a niece of Alexander McVeau of Rochester. N. Y. 
They have a son, Donald Cameron, born May 11, 1891. At the present writing Dr. 
McCJill is engaged in the completion of an elegant residence at No. 28 South Main 
street, Fairport. 

Arnold, William B., who died July 16, 1888, was one of the best known and most 
induential men Ogden has ever produced. He served as justice of the peace thirty- 
four years, and supervisor several terms, and enjoyed the highest esteem and confi- 
dence of his fellow townsmen all his life. He was born April 2:?, 1827, and was a son 
of Enoch Arnold, and a grandson of pioneer Daniel Arnold. William attended 
school at Brockport, and later at Rochester, graduating from Union College in 1850. 
He also read law, though he never practiced, having promised his father to live on 
the farm in Ogden. However, he possessed the qualifications of a successful lawyer, 
and his abilities were appreciated by those in authority, for he was frequently ap- 
pointed manager of estates and property of deceased persons. He was chairman of 
the Republican County Committee two years, and for many years trustee and clerk 
of the Center Presbyterian Church. His farm, which comprised ;}<l(l acres, he 
worked, though doing little of the manual labor himself. In 1S5() he married luuma, 
daughter of Rev. A. Sedgwick, by whom he had six children; William S. , of Adams 
Basin ; Fred, Anna, who married Charles J. Smith ; Ida, Fred W. 2d, and Edward W. , of 
( )gden. Rev. Alvin Sedgwick was a native of Connecticut, agraduate of Williams Col- 
lege, and entered the ministry in early life. His first pastorate was Ogden Center, 
and his service has covered a period of twenty-five years. By his first wife, Lucy 
Whitman, he had three children, Heniy, Emma L., and George F. His second 
wife was Harriet Thompson, and they had one child, Hattie L. 

Bown, George G., who in 18(52 established the Fairport Carriage Works, was born 
at Ancaster, Ontario, November 1, 1835. His father, Edwin A., was a blacksmith, 
and in straitened circumstances, so at the age of thirteen George came to live with 
an uncle at Penfield, and thereafter made his own way through life. He first learned 
blacksmithing, which he followed several years, locating first at Walworth, later at 
Penfield, and in 18(52 came to Fairport, where he began carriage making in a smal) 
way. In 188(5 the factory was destroj'ed by fire, but rebuilt the next year, when Mr. 
Bown took his three .sons, F. F., G. W. and W. E. Bown into partnership, the firm 
being George Bown & Sons. A younger son, Byron A., graduated from Colgate 
University in 1894, and is reading medicine in Buffalo. Mr. Bown had three daugh- 
ters: Mrs. H. Leavens of Rochester; Mrs. R. L. Estes of Fairport; and (Jertrude, 
who died a short time after her marriage to Rev. W. A. Harris. Mr. Bown married 
in 1856 Mary Forman of Walworth. In the Baptist Church of Fairport, in local poli- 



Family sketches. 13 

tics, in business circles and society in general Mr. Bowii lias always taken a leading 
part and has done as much or more than any other citizen towards l)uilding up the 
place by building and general improvements. 

Butcher, Ephraim, whose excellent farm in the eastern part of Parma is among 
the best in the county, was born in Suffolk county, England. Witli his father, 
Charles, he came to Parma in 185(), and worked by the month two years. About 
1859 he bought a farm of sixty-four acres and lived on it seven years. About 18()f] 
he bought the farm he now owns and lives upon, which is north and directly oppo- 
site the first farm he owned. His father moved to Yates county about twenty years 
ago. Mr. Butcher has been a farmer since his youth and is a man of much determi- 
nation of character, hence his success in life. He is a member and trustee. of the 
Christian church. I;a Parma Mr. Butcher married Sarah Rushforth, by whom he had 
five children; Charles E., and J. Milton, of Parma; Alfred R., of Klniira; William 
Wadsworth, of Parma; and one other, who died in infancy. 

Staples, Robert, was born in Branfonl, Conn., in 1798, and came to the town of 
Sweden in 181 G, where he was recognized as one of the largest farm operators in the 
town. He married Eunice, daughter of Perry G. Smith, and of their family one 
daughter, Mrs. Kendall of West Sweden, survives. Our subject was one of the lead- 
ing men of the town, holding office as supervisor, assemblyman (two terms), and 
being active in all charitable and benevolent works. His hand was ever extended to 
the needy, and his influence given to advance and benefit his townspeople. His 
death occurred September 4, 18!)1, in his seventy-eighth year. 

Spencer, Joseph A., was born at Spencerport September 12, 1828, a son of Daniel 
Spencer for whom the village was named. When Joseph was six years of age his 
father died, but the mother kept her family together, and sent our subject to school, 
and later to the then famous Canandaigua Academj'. At the age of seventeen Jo- 
seph began work for himself, and engaged in farming, soon being regarded as one of 
the town's active and successful young men, and to-day has a competency as the re- 
sult of his early industry. A part of his father's estate came to him, independently 
of which Mr. Spencer has been a self-made man. A leader of his jiarty in the town, 
he is by no means an office seeker. The farm on which he now lives was taken up 
by his uncle, Austin vSpencer, in 1808, the latter purchasing of John Carl Joseph A. 
Spencer married Isabelle G., daughter of Harvey Wright, by whom he had four 
children: Foster W., of vSpencerport ;' Frederick C, who died aged twelve ; Mary B., 
wife of Burton H. Goff; and Edward C, of Spencerport. The wife of our subject 
died in August, 1890. 

Walker, Henry A., although but a recent coiner to Fairport, is already rated high 
as a man and citizen, as well as an attorney. He was born at Charlestown, Mass., 
in 1844. His father, George Walker, was a sea captain in the East India trade. 
Although but a boy at the outbreak of the war, he ran away from home and enlisted 
in Co. A, Fifth Maine Infantry, and during his service, which continued from April, 
1861, to February 10, 1866, he was for personal bravery successively promoted to first 
lieutenant, captain, and brevet-major; he was severely wounded at Malvern Hill, 
and while a member of General Sheridan's personal staff, was again severely wounded 
at Cedar Creek. After the war ' he studied law at Harvard College, and in 1871 



14 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

opened at office at Boston, Mass., afterward.s removing to West Mechvaj-, Mass. He 
was sent to the Massachusetts IvCgislature in ]87;5 and 1874, and was for twenty one 
years a justice, besides holding various other minor official offices. 

(ioetzman, Charles, has been one of the active business men of Webster since 1870, 
when he bought the store then at West Webster, and in 1873 built the store now con- 
ducted by his sons, Charles L. and John E. Mr. Charles Goetzman represented his 
town on the Board of Supervisors in 1882-83, '84-85, has also served as postmaster 
since 1870, which position he now holds. Before coming to this town he conducted 
a store in Rochester for ten years. 

Payne, George W., was born in South (Jreece, Monroe county. May 17, 1840. He 
was educted in the public schools, supplemented by two terms of academic instruction 
at Parma Institute. He was a farmer until the age of thirty-one; at thirty-three he 
became foreman for Henry Brinker & Co. , of South Greece, in the general produce 
business, for four years. At the age of thirty-five he began a business in evaporating 
fruit, to the e.xtent of many thousand bushels annually, which he carried on for thir- 
teen years. He has also been a produce dealer in connection with the above, for the 
past six years, doing a very successful business. June 20, 1894, he married Hattie 
P. Gorsline of Lake Avenue, Rochester. Mr. Payne's business is at South Greece, 
but since his marriage he resides in Rochester. His father, Seth P., was born in St. 
Lawrence county, August 3, 1817, was educated in the schools of that day, and was 
a carpenler and later a farmer. In 1843 he married Rachel S. Bull of this county, 
and they have hUve had four children : Julia E., who married John Hart ; (ieorge W., 
as above; Manley PL, and Sarah L., who died in her fourteenth year. Seth P. Payne 
came to this town in 1839, and now lives retired, as one of the town's representative 
men. 

Holmes, Harris, was born in Franklin county, Vt., January 1, 1844. His father, 
Lucas Holmes, was a native of the same place, and the family were pf English de- 
scent, settling at an early date in Connecticut. Lucas Holmes married Jane M., 
daughter of Alfred Wheeler, and came to Monroe county in 1848, where he was iden- 
tified with the farming interests of the locality. He died in 1S8.") in his seventy-third 
year. Harris Holmes received his education in the common schools, and in 1883 
married Mary E. , daughter of James Sime. 

Capcn, Franklin F. , was born in Brockport, June 15, 1835, a son of Benjamin F. 
Capen, the latter a native of Scipio, N. Y. , who came to this town in 1818, where he 
engaged in farming. He married twice, his first wife having died early in life. His 
second wife was Phoebe Fitch of Salem, Washington county, N. Y. F. F. Capen 
was educated in the common schools and at Brockport Collegiate Institute, and fin- 
ished his studies at the M. E. Seminary at Lima. Returning to the farm, he married 
in 1857 De Ette Baker of Bridgewater, Oneida county, and in 1882 removed to the 
village of Brockport and engaged in the sale of agricultural implements, fertilizers, 
harness, etc. In 1887 he organized a shoe factory, and in 1892 organized a piano 
factory, being president of both companies, which are now in successful operation. 
Our subject is a leading business man in his town, identified with all interests tend- 
ing to promote the growth of the cimimunity, and has served as president of the 
village, supervisor, etc. 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 15 

Henion, E. B., was born in Kendall, Orleans county, Aug-ust 31, 1840, a son of 
William C. of New York city, whose father, David, came from Holland before the 
Revolution, moved from Albany to Buflalo by ox team and bought 200 acres of land 
at Cold Spring near Buffalo, later purchasing the Craig property, where he died in 
1833. William C. Henion married Elizabeth B, daughter of Courtlandl Elliot, and 
was a farmer. He died in 1892 in his eighty-fourth year. 

Efner, Charles, of Fairport, dealer in coal, produce, wagons, etc. About 1T!»8 
three brothers, Jonathan, Silas and Lewis Leonard, then aged respectively eighteen, 
twenty, and twenty-two, left their Connecticut home on foot, carrying f)n their backs 
their earthly possessions, also provisions for the journey, and after cndurnig the 
usual hardships of such a trip, with minor adventures, such as crossing the (ienesee 
River on a broken ice-floe at Hanford's Crossing, and getting lost in the dense 
woods, they at last reached Atchison Settlement near Parma Center, where they 
located. Undiscouraged by hardships they hewed their way to comfortable homes, 
and all lived to extreme old age. Silas, the older brother, became the father of Mrs. 
Lucinda Efner, she being the youngest of a family of nine. Mr. Efner was born 
March 13, 1828, in Middleburg, Schoharie county, N. Y., where his father, Harvey, 
was a dealer in boots and shoes. He reached the age of ninety-four, and in fact the 
family on Ijoth sides are noted for their longevity. Charles Efner has spent most of 
his life in Monroe county, and has always been an active factor in business circles. 
In 1865 he kept a general store and lumber yard at North Parma, where he was for 
three years a director during the building of the R. W. & O. Railroad. After the 
opening of said railroad he conducted a coal and produce business at North Parma 
until 1895, when he established, with George Holman the extensive business con- 
ducted under the style of Charles Efner & Co. He has held all the official positions 
within the gift of his townsmen, from supervisor to postmaster, and was for si.xteen 
successive years a justice and twenty-six years a notary. 

White, A. M., was born in the town of Sweden November 13, 1845, and now re- 
sides on the land settled by his grandfather, John White, in 1821 ; he is a son of L. 
S. White, also of this town, who removed to Painesville, O. , in 1851, and has since 
lived in Ohio and Michigan. He married Anna, daughter of Rev. Moses Gillctt. 
A. M. White returned to Sweden in 1806 and made his home with his uncle, Chauncey 
S. White, who was a prominent and successful farmer and business man in his town, 
and commanded the respect and esteem of all who knew him. He represented 
Sweden in the Board of Supervisors for the years 1859-60; he was a life-long and 
very useful member of the Sweden Presbyterian church, and an honorable, upright 
man. He died March 11, 1880. A. M. White married, in 1868, Sara M., daughter of 
Lucas Holmes, and they have three children, Mrs. Margaret M. Decker, Burton A. 
and John H. White. 

Allen, G. H. (deceased), was born in Brockport March 24, 1825, a son of George, a 
native of Fairfield, Conn., who came to Brockport in 1819. He married Mary, daughter 
of Thomas Hart, and was a merchant during his lifetime. George H. , his son, married 
Mary, daughter of Hon. Jeremiah E. Cary, and their children were Joseph M., an at- 
torney of New York city, Mary H., Elizabeth B., and Margaret. Mr. Allen was always 
identified in advancing the best interests of his town. In 1852 he entered into part- 



16 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

nership with \V. II. Seymour and D. S. Morgan, manufacturers of reapers, and in 
1874, m connection with J. H Kingsbury, purchased Raines Rrothers' banking busi- 
ness, and at the reorganization <^f the D. S. Morgan works he was elected treasurer 
of that corporation. He also served as a member of the Local Board of the State 
Normal School of HrockpcMt for many years, and at his death was president of the 
board. He was called upon to fill numerous positions of honor and trust, but it was 
difficult to obtain his consent to accept office of any kind. His dciith occurred July 
4, 18'J2, in his sixty-eighth year, mourned by all who knew him. 

Chapman, H. D., was born in the town of HeUron, Washington county, N. V., 
September 34, 1829, a son of Steven Chapman, who came to Wyoming county in 
1837. He was a millwright by occupation, and a man "of uj^right character who had 
the esteem of all who knew him. H. 1). Chapman was educated in the c(jmm<Mi 
schools and engaged in agriculture. In 1874 he removed to Brockport, and engaged 
in the fruit business. In 1877 he began evaporating fruit, and now has an output of 
al)out 30,0(10 jxiunds of dried fruit per year. In 18.14 he married Jennclt, daughter of 
Reuben Mather, and they l^ave one daughter, Mrs. Ella Wilson. Our subject takes 
an active part in all local affairs, and has served as commissioner of highways. He 
has also been an active Sabbath school worker for forty years, and is interested in 
the Y. M. C. A. of Brockport; also in all institutions which have for their object the 
upbuilding of suffering humanity. 

Murray, William, a native of County Down, Ireland, was born in 1818, a sun of 
Robert and Agnes (CroU) Murray, who had twelve children. Si.xof these, and the 
father, died in Ireland. The rest of the family came to America, William being the 
first to come. He went to South Bristol and engaged at farm work for Colonel J. M. 
Rarmley for six years. He then married Rose Smyth, who was reared in his native 
county, and he then rented a farm of 800 acres in vSouth Bristol. He remained there 
four years, then went to the Henry Shelters farm for two years, then on a farm he 
bought in Lima for twelve years. He then lived on a rented farm for seven years, 
which he conducted with great success, then came to the Daniel Gillett farm where 
he afterwards lived. When he landed in New York in 1842, he had but twenty-five 
cents; he now owns the Gillett farm, which cost him !iil5,000, all made by hard work. 
There were seven children, of whom three died, two in infancy and John at the age 
of twenty-one. The other four are Sarah (Mrs. Thomas McKenna) of Canandaigua; 
Susan, William, and Robert T., all living on thahome farm. William married Ellen 
Jennings of Ilcjneoye Falls, and had six children. Mr. Murray suffered the great 
loss of his life in 189;5, when his wife died. The family arc devoted members of the 
Catholic church, 

Newman, Williani M., .senior member of the firm of Newman cV Son, one of the 
leading manufacturers of Fairport, was born at Enfield, Tompkins county, September 
1. 182(5. He is the elder of five sons of the late Nathaniel and Hannah (Davenport) 
Newman. The family is of English nativity and among the earlier settlers of Pawl- 
ing, Dutchess county. James, the father of Nathaniel, was a caj)tain in the Revolu- 
tion.. William is the builder of his own fortune. Beyond a single term at the Ithaca 
Academy, his education was acijuired in the common schools of his native town. 
His business life began at Byron, (ienesee county, where he was for live years en- 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 17 

gaged in mercantile business, coming in ISOG to Fairport as an employee of the late 
D. B. De Land, in whose employ he remained for twelve years. In 1874 he estab- 
lished the business now operated by Newman & Son, manufacturers and dealers in 
baking powder, soda and saleratus, spices and extracts, which has grown into one of 
the important industries of Fairport. Mr. Newman is a citizen of character and in- 
fluence. He has filled many positions of local trust and responsibility, and took an 
active part in the prohibition movement in Fairport. A prominent member of the 
Baptist church, he was in 1892 their historian, and prepared an exhaustive and mas- 
tcrcly resume of its temporal and spiritual affairs, dating from 1843. His first wife 
was Permelia E. Nelson, a daughter of Rev. C. Nelson, who died after twelve years 
of married life. Her children were Willard U., Ida, and Lena P., the latter alone 
surviving, and is a teacher in the Deaf and Dumb Institute of Rochester. Mr. New- 
man married as second wife Mrs. Susan Leonard, a sister of his first wife, and they 
have had two children, Arthur B. and Mary D., wife of Prof. Carey De W. Brown, 
of the High School at Erie, Pa. 

Newman, Arthur B., town clerk of Perinton, was born in the village of Fairport 
June 31, 1863, the only son of William M. Newman, the well known manufacturer. 
Having graduated from JFairport Union School and spent a year at the University of 
Rochester, where he was a member of the Delta Psi College fraternity ; he entered in 1883 
the sophmore class at Cornell, designing to follow architecture, in which he had already 
received practical training in the office of Walker & Nolan of Rochester, Ijut owing 
to impaired eyesight he was forced to relinquish that career, and in 1888 became as- 
sociated with his father as a partner, the firm of Newman & Son dating from Janu- 
ary 1, 1888. In 1889 he married Louise, daughter of Jeremiah Gould of Syracuse, 
and their two sons are Roy M., born July 17, 1890, and Herald G., born Ai^ril 16, 
1894. Mr. Newman's personal popularity is unbounded, and to such men as he 
preferment comes unsought. A director and treasurer of the local Y. M. C. A., and 
a trustee of the village, he was also elected in March, 1894, clerk of the town of Perin- 
ton. He has also made a study for many years of the microscope and has a collection 
of over one thousand mounted slides, a good microscopical library, and is a member 
of the Royal Microscopical Society of England and the American Society of Micros- 
copists. He has also done considerable work in amateur photography and chemis- 
try (as applied to baking powder, soda and other branches connected with his busi- 
ness). 

Van Voorhis, James, was a native of Passaic county, N. J., descended from an old and 
noted Holland Dutch family. In 1816, James, who was a harness maker, drove with 
his team to Western New York, located in Wayne ct)unty, andjafter ten years settled per- 
manently a little north of Parma Center, where he became a successful farmer and busi- 
nessman. Hischildren were John, Albert andCatherine,born in New Jersey; and Albert 
2d, Rachel A., wife of William McKinney, born in Wayne county ; Ralph and Hannah 
J., wife of John Van Derbeck, born in Parma. Ralph was born July 19, 1H26, and 
at the age of twentyrone he worked his father's farm, continuing until 1858, when lie 
went to Michigan au'd bought a farm near Kalamazoo, but ill health forced him to re- 
turn and he located at Parma Center as a blacksmith. A little later he bought a 
farm in Riga, living there a year. After working for a lime on his brother's farm, 



18 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTS. 

Mr. Van Voorhis purchased a farm in the nortlicast part of the town of Ogden, which 
he still owns, and where he resided until IHHH, when he removed to Spencerport. 
Ralph Van Voorhis has always been an industrious and reliable man. He began 
business with but little means, but has by energy and thrift obtained a competence. 
He has been a member of the M. E. Church since childhood, and for more than 
thirty years has been its trustee, being now steward and treasurer. He has twice 
crossed this continent, and in 1878 crossed the Atlantic Ocean and visited Europe 
and the eastern continent. He is much interested in Indian relics, of which he has 
several of note. His first wife was Mary Fowler of Riga, by whom he had two chil- 
dren, who died young. He married second, Harriet A. . daughter of Gilbert Reynolds 
of Pittsford, and widow of Henry Colt. Gilbert Reyuc^lds came from Putnam county 
in an early day, and died in the town of Pittsford at the advanced age of ninety-four 
years. 

Willey, Sylvanus C, was among the early settlers of this town, coming from 
Westmoreland, Oneida county. He married in 1823, and located on the town line 
between Greece and Ogden, where he lived many years, but later removed to Spen- 
cerport, where he lived retired until liis death. His wife was Malinda Atchinson, 
and their children were Sophia M., who married John 1). Brigham of Ogden; Elivia 
v., who married Amos Colby of Ogden; Arsinoe V., who married George Shipman 
of Niagara Falls; Ogden S., now in Indiana; Alvin A., who died young; Carrie M., 
who married Frank M. Grove of Ovid; and Miranda A., of Ogden. Mr. Willey was 
a man much respected in the town, and died in March, 1876, and his wife in April, 
1892. John D. Brigham, son of the pioneer John, married vSophia M. Willey in 1845, 
and they had five children: Alvin W., of Rochester; Virginia, wife of Allen B. 
Welch of Bloomfield; Florence A., wife of Christie J. Pierce of Ogden ; Ella May, 
who rnarried Frank K. Austin of Owasco; and Cora M., wife of Charles Decker of 
Owasco. Mr. Brigham died in Ogden October 28, 1894, aged seventy-four years. 
He was assessor several years and for twenty-one years a trustee of the Congrega- 
tional church of Spencerport. 

Kleni & Hendricks. — Among the stirring young business men of Webster may be 
mentioned the firm of Klem & Hendricks, who, after working some years for the 
Rochester Moulding Company of Webster, started in bu.siness for themselves in the 
manufacture of mouldings in 1892, and after carrying on business for a time in the 
old structure near the railroad, in 1894 leased the Rochester Moulding Company's 
plant, where they employ from thirty to forty hands. 

Bowernian, Luther B., was born in Fairfield, Me., in 1823, a son of Joseph Bower- 
man of that place, who was one of four children of Harper Bowerman, a Ouaker of 
Maine. Joseph, father of our subject, was a farmer and settled in South Wheatland 
in 1827, where he spent his last days, a man well known and honored for his honesty 
and integrity. Like his father, he was a believer in the (Quaker doctrine. His wife 
was Alice Estes, whose father was Benjamin Estes. Their children were Luther, 
Sarah, Daniel, Adaline, and Elmer. The former at the age of twenty-four conducted 
the homestead, working also at carpentry. He spent 1845 and 184<Jin Illinois, thrash- 
ing grain. In 1848 he married Martha, daughter of Thomas Shadbolt of Wheatland, 
and resided with his father-in-law until 1852, when he removed to his present farm 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 19 

of 103 acres of choice land, all under cultivation. Mr. and Mrs. Bowerman have had 
three children : Mariette, who died aged twenty-two ; Mrs. Alice Cox, of Chili ; and 
Homer T., deceased, who married Elizabeth Mallock of this town, and had three 
children: Homer E., Etta A., and Bertha E. Mrs. L. B. Bowerman died in 18H2. 

Palmer, Fred, was born in Clarkson, September 4, 1853, a son of Isaac, born in the 
town of Sweden, July 15, 1809. His father, Simeon, came to Monroe county in 1808 
and located in the fourth section, and through life was engaged in the manufacture 
of pearlash, and also was one the first brick manufacturers in the county. Isaac, his 
youngest son, is the only survivor of the family. He married Eliza B., daughter of 
Wright Spencer, and has been a prominent man in his town. He has been variously 
engaged in farming and the manufacture of drills for grain, and was also one of the 
builders of the gas works at Brockport. As a young man he studied law, and was 
admitted to the bar and to practice before the United States Supreme Court. Fred 
Palmer was educated in the Brockport Normal School, also the Academy of Roches- 
ter, after which he engaged in the same business as his father, and entered the store 
of the latter in Rochester. In 1873 he came to Brockport and took charge of the gas 
works. In 1876 he married Alice, daughter of George Grace, and their children are 
Isaac, Frederic S., and William N. 

Search, Charles W., was born in Henrietta in 1854, a son of Wesley, a native of 
Pennsylvania, whose father. Lot, removed to Henrietta in 182G and settled on the 
farm where he died. Wesley is one of the leading citizens of this town, where he 
has resided since boyhood. His wife was Pollj^ Hovey, born in this town, a daugh- 
ter of Luther Hove)-, of Massachusetts. Their children are Lewis, Electa, Martin, 
Isabella and Charles. Our subject began for himself as a farmer in Henrietta. He 
is a member of the A. O. U. W., .'and a deacon in the Henrietta Baptist Church. lu 
1876 he married Carrie, daughter of Robert A. and Harriet M. (Fenner) Martin. 
They have two children, Claud A. and Cora. 

Roberts, William H., was born in Westford, Otsego county, December 5, 182!(. 
His father, Horace, was a native of Litchfield, Conn., and married Rachel Lowrey, 
who was a descendant of Sir Gawen Lowrey, who came to the colonies with William 
Penn. Horace Roberts was an agriculturist of Otsego county where he died. In 
1852 William H. married Fannie, daughter of Peter Platner, her mother having been 
Pamelia Howe, daughter of one of the first settlers of the town of Westford. Will- 
iam H. Roberts came to Hamlin, Monroe county, in 1864, and in 1868 removed to 
Brockport and engaged in the general produce business, where he is now engaged in 
business with his son, Charles A. In 1894 they bought the electric light plant at 
Brockport. Our subject is one of the representative men of his town, actively inter- 
ested in the growth and welfare of the place. 

Oliver, George, was born in Sussex county, England, June 13, 1818, where he was 
also educated as well as boys were in that early day in England. He learned the 
trade of harness making, and came to the United States in 1838, locating at Han- 
ford's Landing, in the town of Greece. After the lapse of some time he began busi- 
ness on the Ridge Road, and is now just on the corner of Lake Avenue and the above 
road. This was fifty years ago, and he is now doing a successful business. He mar- 
ried Mrs. Harriet Richardson, nee Batt, of Canada, and she had one son by her first 



20 LANDMARKS OP AfONROE COUNTY. 

Inisband, namclv, William 11. Kicliardson, wlm is an architect iu Rochester. Mrs. 
( )liver died December 14, issr>, a^ed si.xty-five years. His father, John, was born 
at the old home, married Elizabeth Waters, and had eleven children, of whom George 
was the seventh. 

Ives, LydiaR., widow of the late J. H. Ives. Mr. Ives was a builder and also a 
jeweler, born at Great Harrington, Mass , August 15, 1815; and settled here in 1855, 
establishing at that time a jewelry store on Main street. Mrs. Ives, also of Massachu- 
setts family, wasbcjrn iu Fairport, N. Y., February 18, 1817, her father, the late Peter 
Ril)ley, having come to this town in 1814. Their children were Mary A., Henry 
D., and Emma Lydia, all now deceased. The elder daughter was married to Charles 
D. Case of Fairport, June 28, 1871. 

Brigham, (Jrville P., oldest son of pioneer John Brigham, was born in Ogden, 
September 9, 1818. His wife, Delia Barnard, who survives him, was born in Roch- 
ester, April 15, 1821. They were married January 27, 1842, and their children were 
Charles H., and Edward D., of Palmyra, Frederick G. of Spencerport; J. Clifford, 
of Ogden: Clara B, wife of Wesley A. Whittier; and Elbert W., of Ogden. Mr. 
Brigham died October 22, 1885. He was an upright man and a public spirited citi- 
zen, also an earnest worker in the cause of temperance. He was a founder and lead- 
ing member of the Congregational Church of Spencerport. Jehiel Barnard was a 
native of Oneida county, born in 1789, and in 1812 came to Rochester and bought a 
lot where the Arcade Building now stands, where he kept a shop, and later had an- 
other store where the Powers Building now is. In 18'57 the family came to Ogden 
and bought a farm, but in 185(1 the old pioneer returned to Rochester, where he died 
in 1S(;5, and his wife in 1882. Their children were Henry, who died in Virginia in 
1877; William, who died in Iowa; Delia, who married O. P. Brigham; Jehiel, a busi- 
ness man of Rochester; George, who died in Dubuque, Iowa; Sophronia, who mar- 
ried James D. Brown and died in Rochester iu 1882. Jehiel Barnard and Delia 
Scranton were married in Rochester October 8, 1815, which is said to have been the 
first marriage celebrated in that village. 

Tooley, Norman, was born in the town of Wells, Rutland county, Vt., March 9, 
1827, was educated in the common schools, and is a self made man. In 1855 he 
married Charlotte, daughter of Oliver and Sarah Gould, and they have one son. 
Prof. Arthur Tooley, of Brockport Normal Scho(jl. In 1874 our subject came to 
Brockport, and in 187(5 engaged in the coal business, which he still continues. Prof. 
Arthur Tooley graduated from Brockport Normal School in 1879, and the same year 
entered the Rochester University, graduating in 1883. In 1884 he was elected jirinci- 
pal of the Academic Department of the Normal School there, which jwsition he has 
since filled. Uno.stentatious and unassuming, he has ever been ready to further all 
Christian and benevolent enterprises. 

Chapman, Ansel, was a native of East Haddam, Conn., and came to Ogden with 
his family in 1820, settling on the farm now owned by John Chapman. He was a 
])ioneer in this locality, and for a number of years lived in a small log house. He 
brought the first team to this locality, and when he first visited the place Rochester 
had but two hotels. His wife was Abigail Chauncey, a sister of Ilenry Chauncey, 
one of the founders of the Panama Railroad. His wife was but si,xteen years of 



Family sketches. 21 

age when she was married, but bravely withstood the trials and hardsliips of pioneer- 
ship. Ansel Chapman died October 6, 1849. and his wife November 15, 1865. Their 
children were Timothy, for many years a merchant in Rochester; JohnC, of Ogden ; 
Francis, who resided many years in Rochester, and died in New York ; Catherine T., 
born in 1820; Elijah, who died young; Russell, who married Ruth Webster, and died 
in May, 1882; Mary, who died aged twenty-four ; Sarah, who died aged seven; Mi- 
netta and Janette (twins), the first dying aged eleven, and the latter having married 
a Mr. Mills; and Henry M., who was killed by a horse when a boy. Ansel Chajiman 
took a farm of fifty acres, which he afterwards increased to over 200 acres, but the 
great improvements on this place were made by John C. Chapman, whose life and 
energies have been devoted to farm work. The latter was born March 11, 1S16, and 
for the last forty years has been an energetic business man. His sister, who shares 
with him the comforts of the old home, has been f<n- tifty-two years a memljer of the 
Presbyterian Church. 

Davis, Martin, was born in 1863 in Honeoye Falls. His father, John M., was born 
in Lima in 1S20, of parents who came from the eastern part of the State, though the 
Davises were originally from New England. The father of John M. located in Men- 
don about 1833 on the farm near the Friends' meeting-house. Here John grew to 
maturity and married Mary, daughter of Israel Wolsey, a sea-faring man, who came 
to that town from Perinton. John M. Davis was one of eleven children, but one of 
whom, Moses C, lives in this town, most of the others having settled at different 
points in the west. John bought and moved ujxjn his present farm after his mar- 
riage. Of his four children, two died in infancy, the others being Martin and Olive, 
who now occupy the homestead farm of 240 acres. John M. Davis belonged to the 
Society of Friends. He served as supervi.sor several terms, and represented his 
district in the State Legislature in 1869. He died in 1891, and his wife a year later. 
Martin and Olive attended the Rochester public schools, the academy, and Olive 
later graduated from Wellesley, and Martin from the University of Rochester and the 
Albany Law School. He has a law office in Rochester, but retains his home on the 
farm, which is the best in the county. 

Harroun, Oliver, came from Cambridge, Washington county, in 1835, and bought 
the Oliver Olcott farm on LTnion street, where he died in 1880. Of his si.\ children 
two reached maturity: Mary J., who married Charles Tarbox, and is now deceased; 
and Ira D., who lives on the homestead. The latter was born October 22, 1840. 
July 23, 1862, he enlisted in Co. B, 108th N. Y. Vols., and was on detached service 
most of the time. May 6, 1864, he was severely wounded at the battle of the Wilder- 
ness, and was several months unfitted for duty. In 1862 he married Etta Harris of 
Ogden, who died in 1S64 on returning from Washington, with her wounded husl)and. 
Mr. Ilarroun was mustered out of service March 13, 1863, and returned to the farm, 
where he has sirce lived. In 1867 he married Laura S. Kellogg of Ogden, and they 
have two children, Etta M. and Frank M., both at home. John Harroun, father of 
Oliver, was a Revolutionary soldier, and a native of Colerain, Mass. 

Anderson, John, was born in Oneida county in 1806, and settled in the western 
part of Ogden in 1S28. In 1839 he married Eunice, daughter of Ornn Cooley of 
Sweden, and their children were James, Nancy, John H., Lucy. Eunice, Orrin, Fred. 



22 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

iMr. Anderson bej^an life here without means, and by perseverance and industry ac- 
cumulated a comfortable competence. His death occurred in 187(t, at the age of 
sixty-four. He took little part in town affairs, was originally a Republican, but later 
a Democrat. Of their children, James died in infancy; Lucy died in 1870; Orrin 
died in 1860. In 1867 Nancy married George B. Stone; they had three children. 
In 1879 Eunice married Ira Goodridge; they had three children. In 1885 Fred mar- 
ried Clara Brooks; they had two children. Orrin Cooley came from Oneida county 
and .settled in Sweden, though he was born in Connecticut. He came to the Genesee 
country as early as 1815, and here resided the most of his life, dying in Allegany 
county. By his wife, Nancy Howard, he had eight children, of whom three grew to 
maturity. He married a second time in Allegany county. 

Olney, Franklin, one of the old and highly respected residents of Fairport, was 
born in the town of Columbus, Chenango county, May 14, 1817, the second son of the 
late Joseph Olney, who settled in Mendon in 1823. The family is of English ances- 
try, the first representatives settling in Rhode Island. Mr. Olney's boyhood was 
passed in Mendon upon the farm, and at the age of twenty-four, he, with a brother, 
purchased a farm in Perinton. In IS-l^i he married Eliza Ben.son and went to Wis- 
consin, where she died in 1845, leaving one daughter, Eliza J., now the wife of a 
physician in Detroit. Mr. Olney married .second in 1848, Anstis Root, who died in 
1873 without children, and in 1875 he married Mrs. Margaret C. Wilcox, nee Cole of 
Fairport. After the death of his first wife Mr. (Ilney returned to Perinton and in 
1870 to Fairport. His political and social sympathies are with prohibition of the 
liquor traffic, and he was for a number of years one of the village assessors of Fair- 
port. 

Hillman, H. Benjamin, was a native of Cambridge, Washington county, but a pio- 
neer of Napoli, Cattaraugus county, having come to W^estern New York in an early 
day. He was a shoemaker by trade, but followed farming chiefly. In 1841 he and 
his family settled in Parma, where he died in 1885 and his wife in 1887. Their chil- 
dren were: Eroy D., of Parma; Lovinus, a physician of Greece, now deceased; 
Calpherna, wife of E. S. Benedict; Caroline, wife of William Clark; and Clemen- 
tine, who married John" Webster, and is now deceased. Eroy D. Hillman, who is 
known throughout this locality as an energetic, active, and successful business man 
and farmer, was born in Cattaraugus county May 18, 1823, and at the age of twenty- 
five married Harriet Castle. A year later he bought a farm of his own, and has 
since been an independent farmer. In connection with agriculture, Mr. Hillman has 
for twenty years carried on an extensive business in agricultural implements and 
machinery. He has also been an active factor in county politics, having served as 
supervisor, and justice of the peace several terms each. The children of Eroy D. 
and Harriet (Castle) Hillman were Charles, who died in infancy; Alice, wife of 
George V. Fowler, and Mary, wife of Frank J. Fowler, both of Waterloo, la. ; Nellie 
E., wife of Adelbert Bass of Parma, and Benjamin S., a young business man of 
Waterloo, la. 

Barker, William II., one of the prosperous and substantial citizens of Pittsford, 
was born here March 1(5, 1837, and is the oldest living of six sons of David and Sarah 
Barker, and a great-grandson of Jared Barker, who was a pioneer of this locality, 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 23 

and whose name is prominently mentioned in early records as school commissioner, 
and prime mover in any movement calling for enterprise and public spirit. David 
Barker vi'as widely known and esteemed for his many good qualities, and by energv 
and perseverance with careful management added largely to the improvement of the 
^own, beside acquiring a large property for his own family. He died in 1H7J), and 
his widow, Sarah Barker, in 1894. The youngest son resides on the old liomestead. 
In 18(50 William H. married Clarinda, daughter of John Eckler of Springfield, Otsego 
county, N. Y., and purchased the farm of 150 acres where he now resides, and where 
he erected, in 1883, a fine residence. Four children were born to them; the oldest, 
Franklin, resides just opposite the homestead; the others arc Satie B., Marie and 
Lillie ; the latter died in 1889 at the age of fourteen. 

Loughborough, Ira E., was born at Cleveland, O., November 4, 1833, where his 
father, the late John F. , was a prominent builder and contractor, who spent his last 
days in retirement at Pittsford. He was a veteran of the war of 1812. Ira entered 
the employ of the N. Y. C. R. R. in 1854 as painter and decorator at the Auburn 
shops, where he remained until 1870, when he was appointed foreman of Section No. 
2, and has been a resident of Pittsford for over half a century. He has now com- 
pleted forty-one years of service for the company. In 1855 he married ElmaC, 
daughter of Gilbert Reynolds, and their children are four daughters and three sons, 
one of the latter managing the homestead farm near Pittsford. Mr. Loughborough 
has taken an active and influential part in public affairs. He is a member of the A. 
O. U. W., and of the Masons, and has held vaiHous positions of public trust, among 
them being that of commissioner of highways and town clerk. 

Light, Mrs. Mary Helen, was born in the house where she now resides, and which 
was built by her father, the late Sylvester Shepard, who came here about 1828 from 
Berkshire county, Mass., taking up 140 acres of land, then but partially cleared. 
The trees now shading the pleasant lawn about the house were planted by his wife, 
and the mother of six children, who were William, Henry, Theodore, Catherine, 
Mary H. and Emma J. The first Theodore died in infancy, and another son was 
given the name, but died from exposure in defense of his country at Bull Run. 
Catherine is the wife of Prof. Ephraim Hines, owner and president of Hempstead 
Institute of Long Island. William Henry is a druggi.st at Buffalo, N. Y. Emma 
is a physician's wife. Dr. Campion of Camden, N. J.* July 37, 1861, Mary Helen 
Shepard became Mrs. Harvey E. Light, and they removed to Greenville, Mich., 
where Mr. Light engaged in the nursery business, but was soon called to the battlefields 
of the South, going out as captain in the 10th Michigan Cavalry, and returning with 
the rank of major. Mr. Light is the inventor of the Light Patent Eureka Steam 
Boiler for sanitary heating of residences, and at present is traveling in the West in 
its interest, three of his .sons being in the business at Saginaw, Mich. 

Madden, H. S., was born in Cortland, N. Y., June 22, 1855. His father, Samuel, 
was a native of Ulster, Ireland, born May 23, 1830. He with his father's family, 
came to America and settled in Cortland, N. Y., in 1840, where he later engaged in 
the boot and shoe trade. His wife was Sarah S. Clark, a native of Monroe county, 
and whose father, Daniel Clark, was an early resident of Brockport and publisher of 
one of its early newspapers. He died at the age of twenty-seven. In 1858 the 



24 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

family removed to the town of Hamlin, and in 1871 came to Brockport. H. S. Mad- 
den was educated in the State Normal School of Brockport, after which he entered 
the employ of D. S. Morgan & Co., in 1875 taking the position of ofHce boy, and has 
served that corporation in every department of its busincsa, being now secretary and 
treasurer of the company. In 1883 he married Bertha C. Barnard of Rochester, and 
their children are John II., Dayton M., and Sarah Bessie. At the death of D. S. 
Morgan, our subject, by provision of Mr. Morgan's will, became one of the trustees 
of the estate. He has served four years as trustee of the village, is a member of the 
Local Board of llic Brockport Normal School, vestryman of vSt. Luke's Episcopal 
church, and is identified with all the leading interests (jf the place. 

Howard, Judson, a well-known resident of this county, was born in Henrietta in 
February, 1825, a son of Ezra Howard, who was a native of Connecticut, born in 
1785), a son of Manassa Howard of Connecticut. Ezra came to Henrietta in 1813, 
and bought fifty acres of land, which was partially cleared, to which he later added 
more land and became wealthy and influential. He was a mechanic, and "when he 
began in Henrietta made his own chairs, tables, etc., as well as many farm imple- 
ments for him>5elf and neighbors. The plows were made of wood, with iron points. 
He was an active and public spirited man, and so patriotic that when the war of the 
Rebellion broke out, he offered and gave from his own purse ten dollars to every 
man who would enlist from his town. He died in 1864. He represented his town 
on the Board of Supervisors and in other ofhcial capacities. In 1815 he married 
Permelia Herrick, and their children were Lucy, Anson, Minerva, Mary A., Judson, 
Mary, Anna J., and William. The mother died in 1880 at the age of eighty-two. 
Our subject began for himself on his present place (a portion of which lies in the town 
of Mendon), and in addition to his home farm of one hundred and fifty acres he has 
other lands in this town. In 1851 he married Miiry, daughter of John and Elizabeth 
(Flory) Mook. Mr. Mook was born in Union county, Pa., and his wife in Lancaster 
county. Mr. and Mrs. Howard have had two children : Martha M., who died aged 
eighteen, and Duayne J., who resides at home. 

Bly, William B., a prominent contractor and business man of Fairport, was born 
in Sand Lake, July 12, 1883. Joseph, his father, was a millwright and lumberman 
of that place, and at various times a town official, having been commissioner of high- 
ways, justice of the peace, etc. W. B. Bly first engaged in the lumber business, 
afterwards farming for a time, and in 1867 came to Fairport and bought an interest 
in the planing mill. In 1855 he married Sarilla Vary, who died in 1870, leaving two 
children, a daughter, I'^va, who married Harvard Spcer and lives in Washington, 
and a son, Will 1., who is traveling salesman in the Western States. After his wife's 
death Mr. Bly spent two years in California, returning to Fairport in 1872, and has 
since given his whole attention to building. Besides many residences, he erected in 
1890 the handsome Bown Block on Main street, and in 1892 rebuilt the De Land 
Chemical Works. Mr. Bly is prominent in church and society, an exponent of Pro- 
hibition, has been trustee of the village, and in every way is identified with it.s best 
interests. In 1872 he married Mrs. Emma A. Hill of Fairport. 

Doty, Anson, was Iwrn in Albany in 1811 and came to this county in 1819 with his 
father, David, and the family were among the proiTjincijt farmers of the town. An- 



FAMILY SKETCHES. jr, 

son married .Sophronia, daughter of Joseph Hutchinson, and their chiichxMi were Hi- 
ram, Mrs. Ehiiira Craig, Mrs. Mary Sharp, Mrs. Hannah Hendee, Mrs. Harriet 
Webster, and Mrs. Adda Kerr. One daughter, Mrs. Clarissa Allen, died in 18!)4, 
and one son, Reuben, died in 1884. Our subject is a practical and successful man, 
and has taken an active interest in town affairs. 

Meserve, Samuel H., came from Goshen, N. H., in 1845, and settled in the town 
of Parma. Previous to that time he had lived for two years in Rochester and vicin- 
ity. Of his five children, three grew to maturity: Laura, Luthera and Xathau, the 
latter alone surviving. Samuel died in 1872 and his wife in 1889. Nathan Me- 
serve was born November 6, 1826, and being an only son, always made his home with 
his parents. In 1849 he married Matilda J. Hegeman of Greece, and had five chil- 
dren: Charles, who died in 1890 at Batavia; Addie, wife of Henry Miller of Roches- 
ter ; Lydia, whose twin died in infancy ; Hattie wife of Theron Peck, of Wichita, 
Kan. William Hegeman came Flatbush, L. I., in 1845 and settled in the southwest 
part of Greece. He died in Rochester about 1868, and his wife in 1862. 

Wansey, Lyman S., a son of John and Rebecca (Davis) Wansey, was born in Ogden 
June 9, 1824, and was one of the foremost men of the tow^n, having a farm of 140 
acres, which was among the best in Ogden. In 1857 he married Maria E., daughter 
of George P. and Mary A. (Day) Hodges, and they had three children : Charles, 
Frank, and a daughter who died in infancy. Mr. Wansey died in Ogden August 12, 
1894, having served long terms as assessor, road commissioner and trustee of the 
cemetery. George P. Hodges came from Clarendon, Vt. , and settled in Ogden in an 
early day. With him came his wife and two children: Eliphalet D. and Mary J., 
both now deceased. After living twenty years on the old place Mr. Hodges reriioved 
to Ogden Center, where he died in 1873. His children, born in Ogden, were Maria 
E., who married Lyman S. Wansey; Wealthy A., now of Vermont; and George H., 
of Ogden. 

Gaskin, E. W., of Pittsford, prominent as a builder and architect, and a resi- 
dent of the village since 1846, was born in WaterviUe, Oneida county, November 30, 
1830. Edward, the father, was an English gardener and florist, and in 1822, accom- 
panied by his wife and family of five children, came to this country, having as capi- 
tal less than $500. He engaged in farming, and was successful. The family resi- 
dence at various times during our subject's boyhood has been in Oneida, Madison, 
and Chenango counties, and the educational facilities afforded him were quite limited. 
However he possessed a strong bent for the acquisition of knowledge, and during 
his youth, after coming to Pittsford, took up practical surveying under the tuition of 
L. L. Nichols, whose daughter, J. Adelaide Nichols, was Mr. Gaskin's second wife, 
and the mother of Bertha Adelaide, now the wife of George Hooker of Pittsford. 
Mr. Gaskin's first wife was Martha Simonson, who died in 1862, leaving two daugh- 
ters: Florence May and Myra M. The present Jklrs. Gaskin was Emily, daughter of 
John S. Agate of Pittsford, and her children are Emily N. and R. Edward, who is at 
present a .student at the Rochester Business College. Mr. Gaskin, not only as archi- 
tect and builder, but as a citizen in private and official capacities, has been closely 
identified with the growth and prosperity of Pittsford. In 1870 he was instrumental 
.1 



26 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

in procuring a new charter. He was a village trustee for not less than sixteen years, 
and several times its president, besides serving as justice of the peace and assessor. 

Taylor, George C, was born at Meridian, N. Y., September 20, 1885, a son of Dr. 
A. L. Taylor, who died in May, 1861. The latter was for some years prior to his de. 
cease engaged in the preparation of patent medicines, a business which has been 
greatly enlarged and extended in the hands of his son, and which now sends its rep- 
resentatives to all parts of the country. Mr. Taylor first engaged in business in Ira, 
where he remained eight years, locating at Fairport in 1865. In 1872 he established 
the Fairport Herald, and erected the laboratory, corner Main and High streets. In 
1861 he married Miss Fuller of Springboro, Pa. It is a singlar fact, and one to which 
must be attributed the lightness with which he bears his years, that notwithstanding 
his long experience as a traveling salesman and manufacturer, he has never yet 
tasted tobacco or liquor. Beside the widely-known "Oil of Life," Mr. Taylor deals 
largely in other medicines, and in all standard drugs and chemicals usually kept by 
general stores. 

Gomph, George H., the well-known educator and clergyman of Pittsford, was born 
at Albany, November 4, 1842. His father, George, was of German birth, a skilled 
artisan and musician, who established his manufacture of piano fortes in Albany 
about 1858. Our subject's early days were passed in Albany, and he was educated at 
Hartwick Seminary. His earlier theological studies were at Philadelphia Lutheran 
Seminary, from which he graduated in 1869. The same year he took up his residence 
at Pittsford, where he has for more than a quarter of a century been intimately con- 
nected with its best interests. The German Lutheran Society was organized here in 
1867, and their church erected. Rev. Valentine Miller being the first pastor, but it has 
since May, 1869, looked to Mr. Gomph as its spiritual leader. Largely, also, to his 
personal energy are its temporal affairs due for the solidity of their tenure. In 1883 
the contiguity of the new West Shore Railway detracted so much from the old church 
as a place of worship that a new edifice was erected on Morningside Park, having 130 
families connected, and a communion membership of 425. From 1870 to 1881 Mr. 
Gomph conducted a parochial school with excellent results, and he has been instrucor 
in the German language at the Union School. This institution owes in a measure 
its present status, with modern building and academic curriculum to his personal 
effort as chairman of the Board of Education. August 31, 1869, Mr. Gomph married 
Maria Clark, the preceptress of Hartwick Seminary, and their children are Mina, a 
musician of culture and ability as a teacher; Catharine, of the Normal College at 
Albany, and George, now a student at home. 

Benedict, Edgar, was born in Wilton, Fairfield county. Conn., (October 2, 1830. 
His father, Frederick R., was a native of the same .State, and the family trace their 
descent to Thomas Benedict, who came from England in 1638. F. R. Benedict mar- 
ried Mary A. Osborn, who died in 1846, and his second wife was Amanda Rockwell. 
Edgar Benedict was educated at Wilton, and in 1852 came to Brockport and engaged 
in the retail shoe business, which he now carries on in the same store where he first ' 
located. The firm was first C. Wickes & Co., afterwards Wickes & Benedict. In 
1875 Mr. Wickes retired and Frank Benedict, a brother, was admitted to the firm, 
since which it has been Benedict Brothers. In 1858 he married Mary E., daughter 



FAMILY SKETCHES. '27 

of Joseph Staples, and their children are Frederick S., an architect of New York city ; 
Homer B., a law student; George E., now in the office of D. S. Morgan & Co. Our 
subject has served as town clerk for ten years, and four years as one of the trustees 
of the village. He is a member of the Local Board of the Brockport State Normal 
School. He has been for twenty years one of the ruling elders of the Presbyterian 
church, and has been delegate to the Presbytery and Synod. In 1892 he was a com- 
missioner from Rochester Presbytery to the Presbyterian (xeneral Assembly, which 
met at Portland, Oregon. 

Corby, Stephen L., was born in New Jersey in 1815, and was a shoemaker by 
trade The family originally came from England and settled in New Jersey when 
the country was new. Mr. Corby came to Lima in 1886, remained a short time, then 
went into Monroe county, locating at North Bloomfield. Two years later he came to 
Mendon Center, near which he has resided since. He has owned various farms, and 
worked at his trade. By industry and thrift he accumulated a comfortable property, 
and has always stood high in the estimation of his townspeople. He married in 1845 
Lydia, daughter of George Marsh, who moved into the town in 1828. Mr. Corby 
bought his present home in Mendon Center in 1876, and it is the same spot where he 
lived nearly sixty years ago when he first came to the town. Mr. Corby was twice 
married ; his first wife was Mary, daughter of John Supener, by whom he had four 
children, namely : Caroline, who married George Canfield of Pittsford ; Cady, of North 
Dakota; Bentley, who died in boyhood; and Emily, who married John Bone, but she 
is now deceased. Mr. Corby's children by his second wife are as follows: Bentley, 
of Pittsford; Sarah A., who married William Woolston of Fishers, she is now de- 
ceased ; and Adellia, who married Daniel Woolston of the town of Perinton. 

Sime, George W., was born in Morrayshire, Scotland, April 1, 1844, a son of James, 
who came to this country in 1850, and settled in the town of Sweden. He married 
Annie, daughter of John Brown, and their children are George W. and Mr.s. Harris 
Helmes. George W. was educated at the Brockport Collegiate Institute, then taught 
school for a number of years. In 1869 he married Adelle F., daughter of Hiram 
Peake, and they have six children: Annie D., Jessie, George B., William J., Arthur 
H. and Chester R.. Mr. Sime has served as school commissioner for six years, super- 
visor three years, member of the Legislature (1886-87), and has been active in town 
work. 

Wagar, Dexter S., is a son of Amos, and grandson of George Wagar, who came 
here in 1819. Dexter S. lived on part of the old homestead and devoted himself to 
farming until 1889, when he removed to Webster village, and erected a fine residence 
in 1892. His wife was Mary, daughter of Rev. George McCartney of New Jersey, 
and they have six children : Charles, Arthur, Raymond, Glenn, Hettie and Minnie. 
Mr. Wagar is now serving his second term as poormaster of his town. 

Hubbell, William, came from Sheffield, Mass., and settled on the Ridge in 1840. 
Ten years later he removed to Ogden, and still later to Clarkson, where he died in 
1885. Of his eight children, Jane, born in Massachusetts, married Albert Shears; 
Eliza, Oreb T., Almeda, Carrie, Mary, Martha and Alice were natives of this county. 
Oreb T., so well known in Ogden and this locality, was born March 4. 1844; has been 
a successful and energetic farmer, and takes much interest in local politics, having 



2S LANDMARKS OF iMONROE COUNTY. 

» 

served fcnir years as overseer of the poor, etc. July 20, 1SG2, he enlisted in Co. C, 
4th N. Y. Heavy Artillery, and served without serious mishap until the Reams 
Station battle, where he was wounded, captured, and held a prisoner for over six 
months. He was finally paroled, and mustered out of service July 20, 1805. He then 
returned to the farm and has since been a re.sident of Ogden. He has three times 
served as commander of Martindale Post, G. A. R., in which he has also held other 
offices. In IHTO Mr. llubbell married Clara, daughter of Timothy Howard, of ( )gden, 
and tliey have had six children, five now living. 

Burton, Leonard, was born in the town of Mendon, in 1838. His paternal grand- 
rathcr was Stephen, a native of Massachusetts, who was one of the earliest settlers of 
the town, locating there in 1802, and taking up land northeast of the falls now owned 
by Daniel Fish and George Wood. He had a family of four sons and three daughters, 
of whom Asa, an infant when the family came to Mendon, grew upon the farm there 
and spent his life. He married Elsie Richardson, of Livonia, whose father, Joseph, 
was killed by the Indians in the battle of Black Rock, and was buried at Livonia. 
The Richardson family came from Livonia to Mendon in the early days. Asa Bur- 
ton, besides being a successful farmer, carried on the business of brickmaking, and 
made all the brick used in the locality for many years. He reared a family of nine 
children, and died in 1871, his wife dying in 1885. Leonard Burton has always lived 
on a farm. He received a common school education at Honeoye Falls, and in 1802 
enlisted in the 108th N. Y. Vols., serving in the Army of the Potomac until the close 
of the war. He was slightly wounded at Chancellorsville, which kept him in hospital 
until the battle of Gettysburg, but was at the front the rest- of the time. After the 
war he bought a farm east of Honeoye Falls, in company with his brother Parley 
(who was also in the army), and the next year he married Sarah C, daughter of John 
Fishell, of Rush. They have these children: Alice V., Leonora M., J. Elmer, Clyde 
H., Josephine B., Jay, and Luetta. Mr. Burton has a farm of 120 acres and carries 
on quite a business in well drilling. He has served two terms as overseer of the 
poor. 

Malone, Patrick, for more than half a century a central figure in iiublic life in this 
vicinity, was born in County Clare, Ireland, in 1822, where his father was a merchant. 
Emigrating in 1825, they settled first at Montreal, .seven years later removing to 
Rochester, and in 1835 came to Mendon. (iraduating from the academy at Henrietta 
in 1838, Mr. Malone began life as a teacher, in which profession he was eminently 
successful. During this time he traveled to what was then the occidental boundary 
of civilization, teaching at Paris, Ky. ; and at Lexington, Mo., he entered the employ 
of a large mercantile house as a bookkeeper. In 1839 he returned to this county, and 
in 1844 married Delia Lord, of Mendon. Their three children are Mrs. Delia Lewis, 
Mrs. N. C. Steele, and Mrs. Harry Stalter, all resident of Pittsford. Three sons are 
deceased, Thomas, Joseph and Albert; the latter being twenty-four years of age at 
the time of his death, a clerk in the Monroe County Bank, and a man of great promise 
and ability. Mr. Malone is a Democrat of the old school, and represented his town 
in the county legislature from 1804 to 1872 inclusive, and also in 1879. He was for a 
period of twelve years manager of the State Industrial School, and is still notary 
public. Despite advancing age, his scholastic attainments are apparent at once, as 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 29 

he is in all ways a citizen whom his townspeople delight to honor. He served as 
inspector of the Monroe County Penitentiary sixteen years. 

Case, Nathan, one of the oldest residents of Egypt, settled here in 1k:5T. His 
record of a long life well spent is without startling event, but of a character without 
blemish. In 1838 he married Margaret Pierce, who was his companion for thirty 
years, and the mother of four children : Albert Case, of Michigan ; Mrs. Henry Stout- 
enburg, of Pittsford, N. Y. ; Geo. Case, residing on the homestead, and Mr.s. Charles 
Townsend, of Rochester, N. Y. His present wife is Charlotte F. Ritter, nee Gunni- 
son, of Troy. Mr. Willard Ritter, the well-known traveling salesman for De Land 
& Co., of Fairport, is her son. Mr. Case has been an invalid since 1.S85, a sufferer 
from paralysis, but with mental faculties unimpaired. In his prime he was a man of 
political and social note, a deacon in the Baptist church, and an assessor of Perinton. 
He was born in Hoosick in 1814, and accomplished the removal here by driving his 
own team overland, a journey of five days. 

Danforth, Robert, came to Ogden from Livingston county, but was born in Massa- 
chusetts in 1782, and was a .soldier in the war of 1812. In Hillsboro, N. H., he married 
Betsey Dowe, a native of Londonderry, Vt.. and they had eight children, three born 
before the family came to the Genesee country. They were Phineas A., Nason, and 
Leander. The latter was born in Royalton, Vt., January 30, 1807. The children 
born in New York State were: Aurelia A., Betsey E., Adeline L., Loemma E., and 
Robert A. Robert Danforth died in Ogden in 1872, aged eighty-nine, and his wife 
died in 1852. Leander Danforth, for many years a farmer in Ogden, and a man 
well respected in the town, married in 1835, Eunice K. Manning, of Bradford, N. H., 
by whom he had three children: Eudora E., Florence A., and Rosalie A. Leander 
Danforth died July 8, 1882, and his wife died in 1892. He was a consistent member 
of the Ogden Center Presbyterian church. Florence A. Danforth and (ieorge Stamp 
were married in 1868, and they have one son, Clarence G. Mr. Stamp died in Con- 
neaut, Crawford county, Pa., May 31, 1871 Clarence George Stamp married, Janu- 
ary 2, 1895, Myrta E. French, of Ogden. Leander Danforth was a Republican and 
an ardent abolitionist. Robert Danforth was a Democrat. 

Reeve, John, one of the substantial and con.servative farmersof Pittsford, was born 
in 1832, in the town of Henrietta. William Reeve, his late father, was of English 
birth. He landed in America about 1816, settling in Henrietta, purchasing a large 
farm there ten years later. He was closely identified with initial operations on the 
Erie waterway, beginning with surveying, and later taking contracts for its comple- 
tion on various divisions of the great work. His personal recollections of those days, 
when a few scattered domiciles constituted the city of Rochester, and when the com- 
mon center of to-day was but a morass and dumping ground, are vivid and enter- 
taining. John Reeve removed from Henrietta twenty-five years ago, and his farm 
of 160 acres in southern Pittsford is a marvel of its kind. February 17, 1870, he 
married Jane H. Proudly, and they have two children: Thomas J. and Ida A. 

Wilmot, Servetus, was born in Ogden. October 23, 1826, the third child of pioneer 
Amos Clark Wilmot, by his marriage with Elizabeth Hiscock, the family being more 
fully mentioned in the history of Ogden. Servetus was reared to farm work, and 
was educated in the common schools and Brockport Academy. At the age of twenty- 



30 LANDMARKS OP MONROE COUNTY. 

one he began for himself, and as a farmer Mr. Wilmot has enjoyed a fair measure 
of succe.ss, and in the estimation of his fellow men occupies an enviable position. 
Durmg the past ten years he has been identified closely with the cause of prohibition. 
The family are members of the Presbyterian church of Ogden Center. In 1849 Mr. 
Wilmot married Margaret, daughter of pioneer Hendnck D. Vroom, and they have 
had these children; Henry A., M.D., of Middleport; Herbert S., who died aged 
twenty-four; and Henrietta M., wife of George L. Hiscock, of Ogden. 

Gunsaul, John S., superintendent of canals since March 7, 1882, was born at Am- 
sterdam, N. Y., December 2Q, 1830, where his father, John Gunsaul, was a farmer, 
and later a boatman and grocer, removing in 1845 to Faii-port. J. S. Gunsaul began 
life as a driver on the canal, from which position Ife has worked his way up to the 
top of the ladder. Most of his life has been spent in connection with the Erie Canal 
in some capacity, although he was for a time a traveling salesman. He is a citizen 
of broad, liberal views and of sterling qualities, In 1857 he married Susan Mars, 
born in Vergennes, Vt., and their children are Willis A., who became an inspector of 
lumber at Bradford, Pa,, and whose death occurred in 1889; George M., a traveling 
salesman who makes his headquarters here; and Elizabeth M., who married Freder- 
ick S. Keeney, of Belvidere, N. Y. 

Spavin, Henry, was born in England in 1820, a son of John, and a grandson of 
Thomas Spavin. He came to America in 1831 with his father and settled in Oneida 
county finally, where he resided some time, but in 1801 came to Webster, where he 
is engaged in farming. The wife of our subject was Theressa, daughter of Henry 
Tibbits, of Oneida county, and they are the parents of two sons, Charles and John, 
and three daughters, Ella, Laura, and Allie. 

Search, Lewis, was born in Bucks county. Pa., in 1824, a .son of Lot Search, who 
was born in 1791, a son of Lot, sr., also of that place, who removed to Henrietta in 
1825, and cleared the farm now owned by our subject. Lot, sr. , was a Revolutionary 
soldier, and was in the battles of Monmouth, Brandy wine, etc. Of his six children, 
Lot, jr., was the second, and lived to the age of ninety-one. He volunteered his 
services in the war of 1812, and went to Washington to assist in defending that city. 
His wife was Sarah Scout, of Bucks county, Pa., and their children were Matilda, 
Henrietta, Wesley, Lewis, Lucinda, Edward and Jane. Lewis Search has spent his 
life on the homestead, and in addition to his home farm he has also dealt to some 
extent in farm lands. Since 1887 he has leased his farm, and retired from active 
work. He has served in various town offices. In 1846 he married Electa A. Brinin- 
stool, daughter of Jacob and Harriet Brininstool, who came to this county in 1808, 
where they endured all the hardships of pioneer life. The father died in 1882, and 
the mother in 1H89. Mr. and Mrs. Search have had four children ; Frances E. Corbin, 
of this town; vSarah J., deceased; H. Coralin Fenner, of Scrauton, P. ; and Bertram 
L. , who is discount clerk and teller in the Merchant's Bank, Rochester. 

Dailey, William, was born in Wlieatland, Monroe county, April 14, 1H46. His 
father, John, was a native of County Clare, Ireland, who came to America in 1835, 
and was identified with the farming interests of the county, settling in Chili. Will- 
iam was educated in the common schools, and is pre-eminently a self-made man. In 
1874 he married Jes.sie McGeary, and they have had nine children: John F., William 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 31 

G., James K., George R., Vincent S., Donald A., Oswald J., and M. Bertha. In 1879 
Mr. Dailey began the buying and shipping of grain and produce at Brockport, which 
he has continued to the present time. He takes a prominent position in the affairs 
of the town, and also in manufacturing enterprises. His home is a large and beau- 
tiful residence, with spacious grounds, on South avenue. 

Gleason Samuel W., M. D., was born in the town of Bergen in 1821, a son of Abi- 
jah Gleason, who was born in P:ilington, Conn. The latter married Susannah Hinck- 
ley, and settled in the town of Bergen in 1809, crossing the Genesee River on a log. 
He was a soldier in the war of 1812, after which he returned to Bergen and engaged 
in farming, being also a captain of militia, justice of the peace, etc. He died in 1875 
in his seventy sixth year. Samuel W. was educated at Brockport, and studied med- 
icine under Dr. Barnes Coon, of Ohio, also Dr. Robert Andrews, and he has been an 
active member of the profession for fifty-two years, twenty-four years in Bergen, 
Genesee county, N. Y., seven years in Kansas, one year in Michigan, thirteen years 
in Holley, Orleans county, N. Y., and seven years in Brockport, town of Sweden, 
where he is still engaged. In 1865 he married Harriet E.. daughter of Samuel Stone, 
and they have one daughter, Adelle. 

Wilbur, W. Montague, was born in Fairport, October 16, 1864, a son of Smith 
Wilbur. He was educated at the Union School and Colgate Academy at Hamilton, 
N. Y., and left school to assume a position with theW. H. Warner Company of Roch- 
ester, as superintendent of the mailing department, where he remained until 1892. 
He is now director of the Fairport Military Band, a very fine organization. Mr. 
Wilbur has been a member of several prominent church choirs in Rochester and 
Utica, as solo tenor, notably the celebrated Brick Church Quartette of Rochester, and 
has been director of the First Baptist church choir of Fairport five years. He has 
studied under some of the best ma.sters, among them being'Professor Wilkins of Roch- 
ester. His mother was for forty years leading soprano in the Fairport Baptist church. 
As a director of musical entertainments Mr. Wilbur has few equals, and was leading 
tenor in the Elliott Concert Company during their tour of this State in 1888. He is 
an enthusiastic advocate of Republican jirinciples, and is now president of the Good 
Government Club of Perinton. In 1891 he married Imogene Hanna of Rochester. 
Mr. Wilbur enjoys large personal popularity in bcjth Perinton and Rochester. 

Garland, Morey C. — Eighty-three years ago, in Kent, England, was born William 
Garland, the father of our subject. Defrauded of an inheritance, after protracted 
litigation, he was thrown on his own resources, without capital, and forced to make 
his own way in the world. With undaunted energy he turned his face toward Amer- 
ica in 1839, making his own way far west to Wisconsin, where he spent two years 
without material advancement of his fortunes. In 1847 he came to Pittsford, first 
purchasing a farm of fifty acres near his present home. Of his nine children only 
three lived to maturity, and two now survive: John, a resident of Mendon, and Morey 
C. William has not yet succumbed to the weight of years, but they press heavily 
upon him, and he lives chiefly in the past. Morey Garland was married August 20, 
1876, to Agnes Cattelle, daughter of John C. Catlelle, of English birth, a graduate 
of St. John's College. Cambridge, C. E. Their children are Elsbeth, Jay C, and 
Ralph I., a daughter. Crystal Anita, having died in infancy, in 1893. 



32 LANDMARKS OF MUNKOE COUNTY. 

Holden, Alexander M., was born in Mendon in 1848. His father was Timotliy M. 
Ilolden. a native of Charlestown, N. H., whi> was descended from good Puritan 
stock, and whose father and grandfather both served in the Revohitionary army. 
Timothy came to Rochester in 18:58, and soon after to Honeoye Falls. He clerked 
in a store for a time, his fellow clerk being Henry Keep, in after years a noted railroad 
man. Mr. Holden married Minerva J. Martin, whose father, Alexander, came to 
Lima in 1812 and was well known in that section. In 1845 he opened a store in Men- 
don where he remained till 1866. He was postmaster, and for many years super- 
visor of the town, and during the war, he was chiefly instrumental in negotiating the 
town bonds and in filling the town's quota of soldiers. In 1868 he returned to Hon- 
eoye Falls, where he lived as a banker and merchant until his death in 1892. He had 
reared a family of three children: Alexander M., Addison R., who died in 188S aged 
twenty-eight, and Anna E. Alexander went into mercantile business with his father 
in 18<iy. He started an exchange business and later, in 1876, sold the store and 
opened the Bank of Honeoye Falls. He married Eleanor L., daughter of Isaac L. 
Warner of Lima, a member of a family which celebrated its centennial in that town 
in 1894. He has one son, Raleigh W., who is preparing for college at Lima. Mr. 
Holden is an active member of the M. E. church, and has for several years been a 
trustee of the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary at Lima. He is also a director of the 
Rochester and Honeoye Valley Railroad, and the Lima and Honeoye Falls Railway. 

Ritzenthaler, Stephan, was born in Hartheim-on-the-Rhine, Baden. Germany, 
December 25, 1825. His father was Joseph and his mother Gertrude Freund, the 
former a wagonmaker and a natural mechanic, and of their family of thirteen chil- 
dren, Stephan was next to the youngest, and he and this youngest, a sister, are the 
only ones now living. She married Martin Shinzinger, and resides near Newark. 
In 1S46 Stephan went into the army, where he remained until 1850, having the rank 
of corporal, and was in the war between Germany and Denmark in 1848 in Schleswig- 
Holstein. After the return of the army to Baden the people rebelled against the 
Grand Duke Leopold, and the army of 30, (KM) joined them. Leopold apjiealed to the 
king of Prussia, who raised an army commanded by his brother William, afterward 
emperor of Germany, to put down the rebellion, which was done after a campaign 
of three months, the leaders being executed. Stephan was a prisoner of war for eleven 
weeks in the fortified city of Rastatt. After his release he emigrated to America. 
January 15, 1850, and landed in New York, March 4, 1850; he came to Rochester the 
next spring, where he went to work and learned the cooper's trade, which he has 
followed since. He was in Chapinsville three years, went to Chicago in 1854 and 
returned to Chapinsville the same year, moved to Rochester in 1861, and in 1862 
came to Honeoye Falls, where he engaged in saw milling and coopering, and for a 
number of years did an extensive business. In 1876 he discontinued the saw milling, 
and in 1878 opened his hotel. His wife was Elizabeth Kreag, who was born Novem- 
ber 4, 1830, in Seeheim, Darmstadt, Germany, who came here with her parents in 
1846. They have had these children: Pierce, who married a Miss Milbeyer of Syra- 
cuse; Christine (Mr.s. John Lapp), and Mary, all of whom live at the Falls; Henry, 
who died aged twenty-four; Katharine, who died aged five; Katie, who died aged 
five, and one who died in infancy. 

Howe, Dr. William J., for twenty years a successful practitioner of Scottsville, 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 33 

was born in Buffalo February 34, 1858, a son of Joseph H. Howe, of England, wlio 
was born in 1823, and came to this country at the age of twenty-eight years, bring- 
ing his father with him. He located in Buffalo, where he has ever since made his 
home. His wife was Sarah A. Hummel, by whom he had two children. William J., 
and Clementina, wife of Thomas Coulson, of Buffalo. Our subject attended the 
common schools, and later the Central High School of Buffalo, and then graduated 
from the medical department of the University of Buffalo, class of '74. He began 
practice in Buffalo, and the same year removed to Scottsville, where he has estab- 
lished an extensive practice, often being called into adjacent towns, and as coun.sel 
in adjoining counties. He is a member of the Monroe County Medical Society, and 
of the Western and Central New York Association. He has been health officer of 
the town of Wheatland since 1881 and is also resident surgeon for the Buffalo, Roch- 
ester and Pittsburg Railroad, and is treasurer of the Board of Education of Scotts- 
ville. In 1881 he married Ella G., daughter of the late Herman H. and Mary E. 

Miller of Scottsville. 
% 
Chadwick, Jeremiah, the well-known banker and philanthropist, late of Fairport, 
was born here in 1817. His father, Amos Chadwick, was one of the first settlers. 
He died in 1827, and Jeremiah became the mainstay of the family, but was undaunted 
by the difficulties and responsibilities of his position, and later in life never failed to 
recognize and assist any worthy applicant for his benevolence. He early learned 
the mechanic's trade of wagonmaking, and later conducted a grocery and general 
store. He was for many years postmaster of this place, and in every way an influen- 
tial citizen. The banking establishment of Chadwick & Becker dates from 1878, and 
the firm also dealt largely in produce. Mr. Chadwick's death occurred August 5, 
1887, and was considered a public calamity in Fairport. He left a widow, Elizabeth 
M. (Tillottson) Chadwick, formerly of Lowville. By his first wife, Maria Louise 
Smith, Mr. Cliadwick had four daughters and one son ; three of the daughter are liv- 
ing: Frances, wife of F. F. Schummers, hardware merchant; Margaret Lippincott, 
of Denver, Colo. ; and Harriet J. Moore, of Rochester. 

Williams, Rev. John H., who, since 1890 has acceptably filled the pastorate of the 
old and historic Ogden Center church, was a native of Wayne county, born Septem- 
ber 29, 1838. His parents were from New England, settling in Wayne county about 
1830; later locating permanently in Mendon. In the family were five children, three 
sons and two daughters. John H. was educated at Lima. N. Y. , and for a time 
taught in the seminary. Was ordained to the ministry in 1876. 

Whittier, J. Newton, was born in Ogden, December 1, 1837, the youngest of seven 
children of Edmund Whittier, who was a settler in the town in 1815, and who is 
more fully mentioned m the town history. When Newton was ten months of age his 
father died, but the mother kept the family together, and gave the children such ad- 
vantages as her slender means would allow. Our subject finally became possessed 
of the homestead, which he now owns, though since 1878 he "has resided at Spencer- 
port village. Mr. Whittier has always been a farmer and a successful business man, 
who has enjoj'ed the respect and confidence of his fellow townsmen. During the 
past ten years he has been identified with the cause of Prohibition, and occasionally 
has stood as its candidate for town office. He has been a member of the M. IC. 



34 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

church for forty-five years, and has filled the various society offices. He was super- 
intendent of the Sunday school for nearly twentj'-five years, and was succeeded by 
his son, Wesley A. In 1853 Mr. Whittier married Hannah Norris, bj' whom he had 
one child. After Mrs. Whittier's death he married second Mary A., daughter of 
Richard Hancox, the latter a former resident of Rochester, who died in Spencerport. 

Aldridge, Jennett A., widow of John O. Aldridge, was born in Webster, a daugh- 
ter of Orville Burr Smith and of Elizabeth Cook, his wife ; the grandfather, Ebenezer 
Cook, having been one of the first settlers in Webster. When very young Mrs. 
Aldridge married J. Henry Vosburgh, by whom she had two daughters, Augusta, now 
Mrs. Frank AVeller, and one who died aged two years. She afterwards married John 
(). Aldridge, and they had one son, John B., who died aged seven months. Mr.s. 
Aldridge has always lived in Webster, and now owns and lives on a part of the Ebe- 
nezer Cook farm. 

Schuyler, Benjamin D., was born in Sullivan, Madison county, in 1807, a son of 
David I. of Herkimer county, born in 1778, who.se father was Jacob Schuyler. Jacob 
was born in Albany, a son of Philip Schuyler, who, with his two brothers, Jacob and 
Peter, came from Holland and acquired many thousand acres of land along the 
Mohawk River, and who were the original settlers of Albany, of which city Philip 
was the first mayor. Jacob, the grandfather, went to Deep Springs from Albany 
about 1770, where he owned large tracts of land. Later he removed to Chittenango, 
where he kept the first public house. He guided Peter, father of the famous Gerritt 
Smith, through the woods by an Indian trail on horseback to the latter's possessions. 
The place later became Peterboro. He was a typical frontiersman, and could speak 
seven different Indian dialects. During the Revolution he was surprised while away 
from home, and taken captive by the Indians, and delivered to the British at Niagara, 
Canada, where he was a prisoner over three years. He died on his farm near Chit- 
tenango, at the age of eighty years. Of his three children, the youngest was David 
1., father of our subject. He was drafted in the war of 1813, serving as cavalryman, 
and he spent the greater part of his life in Madison county, but died at the home of 
Benjamin D. in Henrietta. His wife was Maria Woliver, and they had two children, 
Delilah and Benjamin. His mother dying when he was an infant, he was given, be- 
fore her death, to his Aunt Schuyler, who later became the mother of his wife. She 
in turn left him with his grandmother, with whom he lived until manhood. He came to 
this town in 1829, spent five years here, then went to Clay for the same length of 
time, engaged in lumbering. Returning to Henrietta, he has made seed growing a 
specialty since 1868. In 18;{() he married Anna Sternberg, of his native place, born 
in 1811, a daughter of William and Margaret (Schuyler) Sternberg. 

Wager, P. Kelsey, was born October 2, 1838. He was the only child of Micheal D. 
and Sally Ann, and a grandson of George and Abiah Wager, whose maiden name 
was Abiah Dunning, from Vermont. George Wager came to this place from Mont- 
gomery county, N. Y., in the year 1817 and settled on the farm. Being a carpenter 
he Vjuilt a house where he moved his family two years later. He died in 18:55, aged 
sixty-four, and Abiah, his wife, in 1859, aged eighty-six years. His son, Micheal D., 
remained on the farm, and in 1837 married Sally Ann, daughter of Cornelius and 
Hannah Wiser, who moved from Montgomery county in 1815. Micheal D. died in 



Family sketches. 35 

1882, aged seventy-six years, and his wife, Sally Ann, in 1894, aged seventy-nine 
years, when his son, P. Kelsey, succeeded him on the place. The latter has four 
children, two sons, John F. and Byron D., and two daughters, Ida A. and Clara A., 
his wife being Julyette E., daughter of Andrew J. and Mary C. Conrow. 

Buell, Bela, sr., was born in Newport, N. H., December 18, 1805, and his wife, 
Almira C. Allen, was born in 1809, she being a daughter of Capt. Samuel Allen, a 
.sea captain and merchant of Newburyport, Mass. They were married February 24, 
1831, at Newport, N. H., where the two sons. Samuel and Bela, were born ; moved 
to and lived at Norwich, Vt., nearly thirty years, where the younger sons, Charles 
and Ransom, were born. In 1865 the family came to Ogden, where a farm had been 
purchased by Bela, jr., ju.st north of Spencerport village. This splendid property 
was the gift of BelaS. to his parents, he being then a resident of Colorado, and a re- 
markably successful man of business. Bela, sr., died March 15, 1872, after a resi- 
dence here of seven years. He was a man of many warm personal friends. His 
children were Samuel A., who went to Colorado in 1862, and died in 1870; Bela S. , 
who went to that State in 1860, rapidly made a fortune, and was for many years one 
of the heavy mining operators of the State. He was a prominent figure in politics 
there, was clerk of Gilpin county five years, represented the county in the Legisla- 
ture in 1872, was treasurer of Lake county, and declined a nomination for State treas- 
urer. The third son of Bela, sr. , was Charles H., who always lived at home with his 
parents, and who died in Ogden June 6, 1894, distinguished more by family honors 
than any public ones. The youngest son was Ransom, born May 15, 1847, who died 
November 23, 1863. Mrs. Bela Buell, sr., now resides on the home farm in Ogden, 
and she and her devoted son, Bela S., remain the sole survivors of the family. 

Warner, Samuel, was born at Potter, Yates county, in 1843. Mr. Warner's life 
has been one of considerable travel and adventure, and his various business enter- 
prises a diverse theater for operation. He is the second son of Samuel Warner, the 
elder son, Fred, being a Fairport merchant, and the younger son, Henry, a Penfield 
farmer. Mr. Warner first learned the cooper's trade at Newark, and in 1866 engaged 
in farming in Kansas, returning seven years later. He is now a dealer in farming 
implements. In 1865 he married Maria J. Sammers of Sodus, who died August 30, 
1893, leaving three children: Franklin, Mary M., and Irving Henry. Another son. 
Harrison, died during their residence in Iowa in 1872, aged one year. 

Decker, Charles, was born in Clarkson, September 25, 1868, a son of Jonah D., 
who was a native of Washingtonville, Orange connty, and came here about 1858. In 
1860 he married Emily, daughter of Isaac Palmer, and their children were George 
P. of Rochester, Charles of Brockport, Mrs. W. A. Silliman of Clarkson, and Miss 
F. H. Decker of Richmond, Mo. Mr. Decker was admitted to the bar and practiced 
in Monroe county, and also established a private bank in Brockport, erecting for the 
purpose one of the largest blocks in that town, and was prominent in the political 
affairs of the county. He entered the army as second lieutenant of Co. A, 140th N. 
Y. Vols., and served during the war. He was for several years one of the managers 
of the State Industrial School at Rochester. He gave his best energies and business 
talents to the development of his town, and died in 1891 in his fifty-sixth year. 
Charles was educated at the Brockport Normal School, and in 1882 engageel in the 



3G LANDMARKS OP MONROE COUNTY. 

hardware business. In 1891 he went to California where he remained till 1893. Re- 
turning to Brockport in 1894 he formed a partnership with Mr. Minot, the firm name 
being Minot & Decker. In 1893 he married Margaret M., daughter of Alfred M. 
White, and they have one son, Alfred M. 

Wood, Giles S., was born in Henrietta, October 2, 1823. His father, John, was a 
pioneer in that town, settling there about 1818. He was born at Woodstock, Wind- 
ham county, Conn., and was in his earlier years a blacksmith by trade. Giles was 
one of a family of six children, and is now the only son living. When twentj'-six he 
removed to Perinton, locating upon a farm, but devoting most of his time to the 
practice of his trade, carpentry, of which he is a master. His home is mostly his 
own handiwork, and is embellished with many specimens of fine woodcraft. He has 
a cabinet filled with rare geological and mechanical curios, besides many samples of 
his own skill in taxidermy. In 1851 he married Maria Louise, daughter of Charles 
Baldwin, who was also an early settler there, and who marched to Albany under 
arms with the patriots of 1812 in charge of prisoners. Of their five children, three 
are living: Charles J., Verna M., and Orson B. ; J. Alexander and Myra L. being 
deceased. 

Freeman, Daniel C, was born in Clarkson September 28, 1832. His father, 
Chauncey Freeman, settled in this county about 1826, and his wife was Harriet John- 
son. He was a prominent and public spirited citizen. Daniel C. was educated at 
Clarkson and attended a course at Eastman's Business College at Rochester. He 
spent some time in Brockport and .six years at Suspension Bridge. In 18(50 he re- 
turned to Clarkson and engaged in farming, from which occupation he retired in 
188(5. He has been an inventor of considerable distinction, among the productions 
of nis genius being an elevator for crushed stone, a seeder for small grains, three 
diflferent designs of bean planters, a bean puller, and other small implements. He 
was employed by the D. S. Morgan Co. several winters and made valuable improve- 
ments on their implements. He was a stockholder in the Brockport Electric Light 
Co., helped to organize the company, and held the positions of treasurer, secretary 
and superintendent. In 18(50 Mr. Freeman married Sophia A., daughter of Isaac E. 
Hoyt, and they have three children: Edgar H. of Rochester; Mrs. Belle Steele, and 
Mrs. May Booth. ' Mr. Freeman is identified with all the leading events of his town, 
and for twenty-two years has been steward and trustee of the M. E. church. 

Caswell, Warren, was born in Randolph, Cattaraugus count)', in 1828, a son of 
Sylvester of Tioga county, whose father was Samuel, a native of Connecticut and a 
Revolutionary soldier. The latter came to this county in 1812, and later removed to 
Cattaraugus county, where he spent his remaining days. Sylvester, the father, re- 
moved from Henrietta to Cattaraugus county in 1824, where he died. He was a sol- 
dier in the war of 1812, and a strong Abolitionist. His wife was Violetta Acker, 
born in Rush, and their children were Thomas, Celia, Narcissa, Warren, Edward 
and Lovina. Our subject began for himself at the age of twenty as carjienter and 
joiner, erecting seven buildings the first year. Later he became a millwright, and 
in 1861 came to Henrietta and settled on his present farm of 180 acres. He is also a 
dealer in cattle. He has served as assessor several years, and for over twenty years 
has served as justice, being held in high esteem for his upright character and wise 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 37 

decisions. In 18(51 he married Mary, daughter of James McNall, and tlieir children 
are Samuel S., James, and Warren, jr. 

Goold, Albert H.— I.ewis Goold came from Hanover, N. H., many years ago. Re- 
moved from there to Fairlee, Vt. ; fr(->m tliere to Hyde Park, Vt. ; thence to Wash- 
ington county, N. Y., where he resided seven years, coming to Parma in 1854, where 
he afterward died. He was a soldier in the war of 1812 with (ireat Britain. His 
grandfather received a lieutenant's commissicm in the Continental army, was 
wounded at Benington, Vt., and died in Hanover, N. H., a pensioner of the Revolu- 
tion. In the family of Lewis Goold were three children: Lewis H., Albert H., and 
Harriet A., the first named also having a family when coming to Parma. He still 
lives in the town and is a farmer. The daughter died at Medina, Orleans county, N. 
Y., in June, 1894. Albert H., who for many j-ears has been numbered among 
Parma's successful farmers, was born at Fairlee, Vt., October 11, 18:^1, and was 
twenty-three years old when his father came to Western New York. He lived at 
home until 1861, when he enlisted in Co. I, 13th N. Y. Vol. Inf. He served seven- 
teen months, and at the second battle of Bull Run was wounded. He was then in 
the hospital six months, but rejoined his company and served until May 11, 18fi8, 
when he was mustered out and discharged. Returning to Parma he engaged in 
farming, and has now a fine farm of sixty acres in the central part of the town. In 
1866 Mr. Goold married Mary L. Salisbury of Troy, N. Y., by whom he had four 
children: Minnie H., Clark G., Seth M., and Raymond, who died when five months 
old. 

Fowler, Joshua, came from Westchester county in the spring of 1886 and settled 
south of Pittsford village. He was born in 1774 and died in 1852, and his wife, Jane 
Fowler, was born 1788 and died in 1866. Their children were William, who dietl in 
Pittsford, an accidental death; James, who died in Missouri; Jeremiah, who died in 
Parma; Chauncey, a miller and farmer now living in Parma; Frances, who married 
Abram Keifer and lives in Kansas; Jane, widow of George Dusenbury of Ogden ; 
Benjamin, who died young; Joshua, who died aged twenty; Mary, who married 
Zachariah Weatherwax, and lives in Middleport ; Emeline, deceased wife of William 
Scott; Luciuda, deceased wife of Jacob Liddy; Josephine, wife of II. H. Cronkhite; 
Elizabeth, deceased wife of Alvin Nj^e. Vincent, the eighth of these children, was 
sixteen years old when his father came to Western New York. He has been a suc- 
cessful miller for many years, and has operated at least a dozen grist mills in various 
parts of this State. About 1857 he bought a farm on the Ridge, where he residetl 
till 1883, when he purchased the Deacon Church property in Spencerport, where he 
has since lived in comparative retirement. In 1842 he married Rebecca A. Field, 
and their children have been Cortland F., George V., and Franklin J., who com- 
prised the Fowler Company, the largest and most successful wholesale grocery firm 
in Iowa, doing business at Waterloo; Arthur \V., the third son is a hardware mer- 
chant at Brockport ; and their only daughter, Cora A., lives at home. Wright Field, 
Mrs. Fowler's father was a former resident of Westchester county, and came to 
Henrietta in 1832. He died in Parma at the age of seventy-seven. . 

Smith, John, jr., came to Duanesburg, but early settled in Parma, where he be- 
came a prosperous farmer. His second, wife was Martha Strong, and their children 



38 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

were: Marcus J., Alniira, Sara and Rosa, all now living. John Smith, jr., married 
Lucinda Hiscuck, and had these children: William, Isaac, Marcus, Mercelan, Solo- 
mon, Silas F., Ellizabeth, Mary M. and Almira. Silas F. was born in Parma Feb- 
ruary 20, 1832, and has always followed farming, in which he has greatly prospered, 
and he has one of the best and most pleasantly situated farms in Ogden, to which 
town he came in 1866 from Parma. He has served as road commissioner, etc., and 
taken a leading part in town affairs. His first wife was Arzela M., daughter of 
Joseph Huell of Parma, and their three children are deceased. His wife died in 1892, 
and in 185J;5 Mr. Smith married Dora B., daughter of John Hiscock. William His- 
cock was the pioneer head of a large family of substantial descendants in Ogden. 
He came from Duanesburg and located east of Spencerport, where he died August U, 
1823. His wife died in 1847, and their children were: Isaac, who died in 1841 ; Will- 
iam, who died in 1814; Lucina, who married John Smith, jr., and died in 1846; John, 
who died in 1841; Dorothy, twice married, who died in Wisconsin in 1860; Sally, 
who married Roswell Smith, and is now deceased; James W., a Universalist clergy- 
man who died in Parma in 1892; George W., who died in Ogden in 1879; Elizabeth, 
deceased wife of Amos C. Wilmot; and John, who married Orpha Spencer. The 
children of John and Orpha (Spencer) Hiscock were: Charles S., Henry M., Louisa 
A. and Dora B. 

Wells, I. S. , whose residence commands a view of three counties — Monroe, Onta- 
rio and Wayne — and four towns, was born in Perinton in 1838. His father, the late 
Jacob J. Wells, settled here in 1813, coming from Montgomery county, N. Y. Of 
sturdy English stock and sterling personal character, he took an active part in local 
affairs, his politics being Democratic. He was several times justice of the peace and 
town assessor. He married Miss Catherine Snediker of Trenton, N. J., who died in 
1888. I. S. Wells is the only living child, the other having died in infancy. Mr. 
Wells was liberally educated, and has by personal research enlarged the scope of his 
scholarship and the breadth of his views. In earlier life for a time he was engaged 
in mercantile pursuits at Hornellsville, N. Y. , but at present devotes himself to farm, 
ing and the breeding of choice horses, having bred " Monroe Morgan," " Morgan 
Oueen," " Middy Morgan," etc., first prize winners of New York State Agricultural 
Society. His accomplished wife, whom he married in IH.")!), was Clara E. Benedict 
of this town. They have one child, Minnie E., who is the wife of Morton D. Bene- 
dict of Fail-port, N. Y. 

Baker, Mrs. J. S., is the widow of Hon. Jeremiah S. Baker, who was born at 
Iloosick, N. Y., in 1813, a son of Thomas Baker, who early developed mechanical 
ability, and with two others erected and equipped the first cotton mill in the State. 
Jeremiah, was throughout his life handicapped l)y delicate health and compelled to 
seek the retirement of farm life for recuperation. He was a leader in the councils of 
the Republican party, and was at various times supervisor, superintendent of the 
poor, and member of assembly, where his unassuming manners and efficient legisla- 
tion made him many friends. He was married, Octobor 8, 1839, to Adeline M. Stur- 
tevaut, who died September 1, 1867, leaving three daughters: Emma B., now Mrs. 
T. B. Wygant. of Egypt, N. Y. ; Frances A., Mrs. W. H. Woolston, of Denison, la. ; 
and Mary E., wife of Rev. F. W. Adams, an Episcopal clergyman of Los Angeles, 
Cal. He married again, in 1869, Miss Almira T. Pepper, who, with an only sister, 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 39 

Miss Catherine F. Baker, both of Fairport. N. Y., now survives him. His death 
occurred on April 3, 188:3. A friend in writinjr of him said; " Many years ago I 
learned from his own lips of his religious hope and faith. While not forward to ex- 
press his religious views, it was easy to see he had deep c(jnvictions and a firm faith 
in the word of God, great respect for the Christian church and Christian men of 
every name. From my acquaintance of over forty years I have always loved and 
respected him for his sterling character." 

Mason, John, was a native of Bedfordsliirc, England, and came to America in 
1828. He resided for a time in Rensselaer county and in Elba and Sand Lake, this 
county, and finally settled in Ogden in 1837. In 1872 he removed to Irondequoit, 
where he was a prosperous farmer, where his wife was taken sick, his daughter 
Mary, who was a widow with two children, went to live with him aud take care of 
her mother until she died. He then sold his farm and went to live with his daughter 
Mary, who had moved back to Rochester, where she owned a house and lot. He 
spent the remaining years of his Hfe with her and died at the age of eighty-six years. 
His family were well to do people. His children were Joseph, Enoch, John, Jona- 
than and Thomas, all born in England, and 'Mary, Rcjsetta, Maria and Sylvester 
born in this country. Enoch, son of John, was born November 23, 1821. coming to 
America with his parents as above. With the exception of two years spent in fish- 
ing, in which he was veiy successful, he has been engaged in farming. At the age 
of twenty-seven he started out to make his own way in life, working on a farm for 
several years, and finally bought the place which he now owns. In 1850 he married 
Lois C. Buell, of Orwell, Vt. , and they have had three children: Martha, wife of 
George Irish; Mary, wife of William Freestone; and Enoch, jr. , who died aged 
twenty-two. Mrs. Mason died in 1889. Although not a church member Mr. Mason 
supports the Congregational church at Spencerport. He has had no inclination for 
political life. 

Seymour, William H., was born in Litchfield, Conn., July 15, 1802. But four gen- 
erations intervene between him and his ancestor, Richard, whose name is inscribed 
on an old monument to the first settlers of Hartford in 1639. Richard came from 
Berry Pomeroy in Devonshire, according to an old bishop's Bible, still in the pos- 
session of the family, on which his name is written. William H. was the son of 
Samuel Seymour and Rebecca Osborn Seymour, and is the sole survivor of five 
children. Samuel, with his brother Moses, established a hat factory about 1760 in 
Litchfield. Moses Seymour was the grandfather of Gov. Horatio Seymour of New 
York State. James, son of Samuel, went to Pcmipey, where he was in the enijiloy 
of Henry Seymour, father of Horatio Seymour, to Ovid, Seneca county, and soon 
after to Murray Four Corners, Genesee county, and engaged as partner with him in 
the general mercantile business. In 1818 William H. entered the employ of his 
brother, and in 1823 removed to Brockport which was then the head of navigation 
on the Erie canal, and continued the same business. James was appointed the first 
sheriff when the county was organized in 1820. Soon after he removed to Roch- 
ester, leaving the business to his brother, who continued it till 1844. About 1845 he 
engaged in the furnace business, manufacturing the first McCormick reaper used in 
the field, and after .Mr. McCormick removed to Chicago, he invented the first self- 
raking reaper, known as the New Yorker, aud other improvements. 



40 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY 

True, George E. — In 1635 Henry True, from Yf)rkshire, England, emigrated to 
America and settled in Salem, Mass. After living in New England for four genera- 
tions, the direct descendants of Reuben True — Moses, William, Hannah and Betsey, 
with their children, Moses, jr., Ransom, Urcula and Nancy (descendants of Moses) 
and Elias, Sherburne, Levi and Amelia (descendants of William), removed from 
I'lainfield, N. fl., and settled in Monroe county about the year 1818. In 1821 Ezra, 
Ransom, Elias and Levi, came to the town of Ogden where they lived until their 
deaths. Ezra and Elias died iu 1871, Levi in 1872, and Ransom in 1898. As citizens 
they took a prominent part in local affairs and were always deeply interested in 
church and educational work. Ezra True was captain of a comjiany of militia, was 
supervisor of the town for several years, as well as school commissioner and t)ver- 
seer of highways. Elias was an influential citizen and held the office of justice of 
the peace for a number of years. Levi also held many important offices in the town, 
and at the time of his death was a leading member and deacon of the Christian 
church of which he was a founder. These brothers with other citizens combined 
and dug a well at the place now called Ogden, which was known for many years 
as Company Well or Town Pump, a ^ name which came to be applied to the place 
itself. This well was dug to avoid the inconvenience of drawing water from a place 
about two miles distant, which they had done up to that time. In 1850 a post- 
office was established and the name was changed from Company Well to Ogden. 
The descendants of their families still living in Ogden, are Seraph Walker (grand- 
daughter of Ezra True), Joshua, William and Martha (children of Ransom), and the 
sons of Levi True, James and George G. George True has always taken a promi- 
nent i^art in the affairs of the town, and has been always one of the first to engage 
in any enterprise for the public welfare. He received his education at the Brock- 
port Collegiate Institute, and Hillsdale College, and was a successful teacher for 
several years. Since then he has taken an active interest in school work It was 
under his direction that the school house was erected at Ogden in 1888. This build- 
ing was not only very pleasing to the inhabitants of the town, but was mentioned in 
the report of the superintendent of public instruction as being one of the finest dis- 
trict school buildings in the State. 

Parks, William H., was born near Rochester, October 14, 1844. His father was 
a native of Westchester county, and came to Rochester in 1835. He bought a tract 
of land on the north side of the city. In 1800 he removed to Kendall, Orleans 
countv- In 1868 William H. was married to Hattie S. Watson, who died in 1886; by 
her he had two children, Watson A. and Edith M. He married Hattie E. Adams in 

1887, by whom he has one child, Roy J. His attention was given to farming until 

1888, when he removed to Brockport, where he has been actively engaged in pro- 
moting various business enterprises, and dealing in real estate. 

Clark, Herbert M., was born in Henrietta in 1844, only son of Jeremiah Clark, and 
grandson of Joel Clark, who was a native of Connecticut, born in 1767. The latter 
entered the Revolutionary army in 1781 at the age of fourteen, as a drummer boy, 
with his father and older brother, serving through the war. He moved to Bloom- 
field in 1799, and to Henrietta in 1810. In 1823 he bought of Cornelius Charles Dix, 
of the Hague in Holland, what now comprises a portion of the Clark homestead, 
where he spent the balance of his life. He died in 1847 at the age of eighty. Jere- 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 41 

miah was the youngest of seven children, born in Victor in 1812, l)ein;4 four years 
old when they moved to Henrietta. He spent his active life as a farmer in Henri- 
etta on the homestead, and was a dealer in live stock for many years. In 1843 he 
married Sarah C. Richardson, born in Perinton in 1823. They had five children: 
Herbert M., Isabel! A., Clara S., Sarah E., and Florence L. In 185o he erected the 
fine residence which now stands on the homestead. In 1869 his wife, Sarah C. 
Clark, died at the age of forty-six. In 1872 he was married to Miss Elizabeth 
Barne-s. He died July 7, 1891, in the eightieth j^ear of his age. Herbert M. has 
devoted most of his life to farming. In 1866 he went to Michigan, where he en- 
gaged in teaching music. In 1868 he married Electa S. French of Kalamazoo 
county, near Vicksburg, where they resided until in 1892; they returned to Henri- 
etta and bought the old homestead of 150 acres, where, on January 16, 1895, after a 
short illness, Mrs. Clark died, mourned by all who knew her, leaving a family of 
seven children— Emily S., Lee, Merrill, Wilber, Isabell, Frank, and Herbert M. jr. 

Childs, Rufus, died in 1876, at Troy, on his return from the Centennial Exposition 
at Philadelphia. He is remembered as a man poor in this world's goods, but of strong, 
forceful character, sterling integrity, and as ever maintaining a high and C(jnsistent 
Christian character. He came from Sand Lake, Rensselaer county, to Parma, about 
1885. His occupation was that of carpenter and millwright. In his religious views 
he held strongly to the Freewill Baptist church, and was one of its most active mem- 
bers. He was for a long time justice of the peace, and held other positions of trust 
and responsibility. His w^ife held to like religious views, and also maintained the 
same consistent course, and was of strong force of character and moral worth She 
died in 1888. Of their children — twelve in number— five died in extreme infancy, 
and seven grew to maturity and are now living, with the exception of one daughter, 
Juliett, who died in 1894. The remaining children are Mariah, May A., Louisa, 
Maranda, Gilbert C, and Edgar V. Gilbert was born February 2, 1838, attended 
district school until he was fifteen, and then entered the shop of his brother-in-law, 
and learned the trade of w'agonmaker. Later on he attended school abroad, first at 
Hillsdale, Mich., for a shoi't time, and then at Whitestown. On his return to Parma, 
he resumed his occupation of wagon-making, which he conducted until 1863, when 
he moved to Fairport. While there he suggested to George C. Taylor, engaged in 
the compounding of medicines, the feasibility of establishing a newspaper in connec- 
tion with his recently purchased printing outfit, used in advertising; as an induce- 
ment, he offered his services to look after the editorial department without fee or 
reward. He entered upon this task with no conception of the magnitude of the job, 
and, as he afterwards said, with more zeal than literary ability. Be this as it may. 
the Fairport Herald was born of Mr. Childs's suggestion, and at once sprang to vig- 
orous growth. Upon the death of Mr. Childs's wife in 1876, he returned to North 
Parma and established himself in his old line of business, which he is still conduct- 
ing. Mr. Childs has always taken an interest in politics, but in local affairs was never 
ambitious to share in the honors, consenting to act only in municipal matters, both 
at his home and in Fairport. In 1866 he married P'rancis Elizabeth Clark, an accom- 
plished music teacher and graduate of Cortland Academy. By this union there were 
born J. R. Childs. at present telegraph editor of the Rochester LTnionand Advertiser; 
Henry O., teacher of music, of Rochester, where he is organist of the Park Avenue 
f 



42 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Baptist cliurch. His only daughter, Clara Louisa, is a graduate of Brockport Normal 
School, and now at Jamaica, L. I., engaged in teaching. Mr. Childs takes kindly 
to newspaper work, and is a well-known correspondent. 

McLaren, John. — Among the first pioneers of Webster was John McLaren, who 
came from Fulton county with his parents, John and Catharine McLaren, who 
bought and settled on a farm in the town of Penfield, known as the Woods Four 
Corners in 1803. At the age of twenty-one he bought a farm of 130 acres in the tow.n 
of Webster, and as it was nearly all woods, he cleared it up, and lived on the farm at 
the time of his death, which occurred in 1886, at the age of eighty-eight years. He 
lived a long and useful life, beloved and honored by all. In the year 1839 he married 
Aurelia Taylor, of Pittsford. Their wedded life was nearly fifty years, and she survived 
him only five weeks; she died at the age of eighty-five years. They were both mem- 
bers of the Presbyterian church of Webster, and he was a deacon of the same for 
fortv years. Their son, William McLaren, and their daughter, Catherine Elizabeth 
Mohr, both reside on the old homestead, each having a portion thereof. 

Brooks, Charles D., is a son of Ezra (whose father was Michael), born in Victor in 
1833. His father and grandfather came from West Stockbridge, Mass., to Victor, 
Ontario county, N. Y., in 1799, and his mother, Desire Lusk, was also from Massa- 
chusetts. The Brooks and Lusk families came together, bought land and settled. 
Michael had six children: Ezra died in 1835 at the age of thirty-eight, when Charles, 
his youngest child, was about two years old. Of his others, John died in childhood; 
Jared in 1852; and Michael resides in Union City, Michigan. Charles D. married 
Lucy, daughter of Richard L Hand, the latter a .son of Josiah, who came to Men- 
don from Montauk Point, L. I., about 1820. The Hands were English, whose 
earliest American ancestor, John Hand, was a leading member of a company that 
emigrated from Maidstone, Kent, England, in 1635 ; he was one of the original pat- 
entees of East Hampton, L. I., and whose name stands first in the documents relat- 
ing to the purchase of land from the Montauk Indians. Ten years after the death 
of Ezra his widow went with her sons to Michigan, remaining several years, but in 
1851 returned with Charles to Mendon. In 1862 Charles enlisted In Company K, 1st 
New York Mounted Rifles, and served in the Army of the James, receiving his 
discharge in December, 1865. After the war he went on to the Hand farm, north of 
Mendon, for several years, buying his present farm in the southeast part of the town 
in 1883. His two sons are Marion P. , who is in the postal service at Buffalo, and 
William H., on the home farm. Mrs. Brooks spent many years of hard work on a 
genealogy of the Lusk family, which she had nearly completed when her labors were 
interrupted by an attack of paralysis in 1893. 

Grinnell, J. W., son of Abner, and grandson of John, was born in Cattaraugus 
county in 1829, and came to Webster in 1834, and was brought up on a farm. He 
began his business career about twenty-two years ago at the completion of the R. W. 
& O. R. R., as a dealer in produce. In this he continued until 1884 when, in part- 
nership with J. A. Hopkins, he engaged in the coal business; this existed until 1893, 
when he purchased his partner's interest, and has since successfully carried it alone, 
and under his honorable and liberal management has built a business of which he 
may well feel proud. He has two large two-story warehouses located near the 



Family sketches. 43 

depot, and a large coal trestle adjoining the railroad tracks Mr. Grinnell is proba- 
bly one of the largest dealers in produce in the county. A fact worthy of mention 
is that about sixteen years ago he furnished the fruit for a banquet held in London, 
England, by Queen Victoria. He is engaged quite extensively in fruit evaporating. 
His business has always been conducted upon principles of liberality and honor for 
which all his transactions are noted and through which his success has been gained 
and maintained. He owns a large farm located on the lake road, which has been 
the homestead of his family for over sixty years. He was married in 1853 to Miss 
Sarah E. Allen, daughter of Mr. William Morley Allen, of Ann Arbor, Mich., one of 
the pioneers of that section. He has one son and two daughters; Mr. M. A. Grin- 
nell, who is assisting him in the management of his business ; and Carrie A. and 
Addie L., who are both married and have families. Mr. Grinnell has always taken 
a great interest in church matters and for many years has been a trustee and stew- 
ard of the Methodist Church. ^ 

Barnett, George F., was born in Bridgewater, Oneida county, N. Y. , August 30, 
1804. His father, Samuel Barnett, a native of Amenia, Dutchess county. N. Y., and 
his mother, Rachel Street, of Litchfield county. Conn. ; both were of English extrac- 
tion, their ancestors being among the early settlers of Connecticut. Mr. George Bar- 
nett came to this county in 1826, settling in Brockport while it was still a very small 
village, just beginning to feel the impetus occasioned by the opening of the Erie 
Canal. Here he first engaged in business as a builder and contractor, manifesting 
in this the same energy and fidelity that has characterized his life. In 1850 he 
established agricultural works, which were successfully carried on until 1886, when 
the death of a partner closed the business. In 1828 he married Catherine Lyell, 
daughter of Mr. Asa Thorpe of Galway, Montgomery county, N. Y., and to them 
five children were born, three of whom survive, Mr. Barnett is one of the leading 
men of his town, enjoying the respect and affection of all who know him. Char- 
itable, gentle in judgment, in manner, unostentatious and unassuming, in his old 
age he is reaping the fruits of a well-ordered and well-spent life. 

Spurr, Capt. Samuel, was born in Lenox, Madison county, June 12, 1820, a son of 
Amasa, a native of Massachusetts. The family trace descent from Germany, and 
were very early settlers of Massachusetts. In 1838 our subject came to Holley, Or- 
leans county, and was early identified with the freight and passenger service of the 
Erie Canal, beginning in 1836. He followed this business up to 1862, making a spe- 
cialty of the passenger traffic, until the completion of the N. Y. C. R. R., then gave 
his attention to farming, and in 1844 he married Sarah Arnold, daughter of Elisha 
Arnold of Portland, Chautauqua county, N. Y., who died in 1846. He married, 
second, Eleanor D., daughter of Richard Noye, of Buffalo, N. Y., and their children 
are William F. and Richard N., Mrs. Jennie Taylor and Mrs. Cornelia Kane; and 
Sarah A., died March 24, 1884, and Samuel A., died December 12, 1887. Our sub- 
ject is one of the represetative men of the town, interested in all public matters. 

Howard, D. J., of Fairport, may well be called one of the prominent landmarks of 
the locality. He was born in 1819 at Bridgewater, Plymouth county. Mass., a son 
of Ansel Howard, who came to Fairport in 1835, where he died eight years later, 
leaving seven children: Ansel A., Lorenzo T., John E., Daniel J., Marshall, Harriet 



44 Landmarks op monroe county. 

and Lucy. L. T. and J. E Howard were for many years carriage builders here, the 
l)ioneers in that line. Both are now deceased. Daniel has been engaged in farm- 
ing and stock business, and always has been foremost in all matters pertaining to 
the best interests of the community and its growth. In the Congregational church 
of Fairport he has been and is still a leading spirit. His first wife was Caroline M. 
Robinson. She died without issue in 1887, and in 1889 Mr. Howard married Mrs. 
Frances Root of Fairport, who has two sons, James M. Root, of Galesbug, 111., and 
Frank L. Root of Rochester, N. Y. 

Leggett, Charles, was born in Charlmont, Mass., in 1803, a son of William, of the 
same place, who moved to Otsego county, and thence to Madison county, and in 
1810 came to Henrietta and bought land, building a log cabin, and a year later he 
returned for his family, and spent his life on the place. He was a soldier in the 
War of 1812, and died at the age of seventy-nine. His wife was Sarah Holland, of 
Massachusetts, and they had six children: Sarah, William, Ivory Holland, Benja- 
min F., Charles and Stephen. Sarah was the first teacher in the town of Henrietta. 
At the age of twenty-one Charles began for himself as a farmer, which he has 
always followed. In 183() he married Hannah Murray, by whom he had one child, 
William, who died aged nineteen. His wife died in 1889. He is now a remarkably 
well-preserved man of ninety-two years, and resides on his farm with his niece, Mrs. 
Mattie Leggett Brininstool, only daughter of his brother Stephen, who also lived and 
died on the old homestead. He was a public spirited and energetic man, and served 
the town as assessor, poormaster, etc. He was captain of a company of State mi- 
litia, and was also a member of the Monroe County Agricultural Society, being 
president several years. His first wife was Mary Osborne, by whom he had one 
child, Franklin. He married, second, Mrs. Martha B. (Murray) Jackson, who had 
one daughter, Mattie, now wife of Alfred Brininstool of this town. Mrs. Leggett re- 
sides with her daughter. Mr. Leggett met his death by an infuriated animal on his 
own farm. Alfred Brininstool, one of the prosperous farmers of Henrietta, was bom 
in this town in 1851, a son of John Brininstool, who is also a native of Henrietta, born 
in 1823. The jjarents of the latter came to Henrietta about 1820, but later removed 
to Cattaraugus county, where they reared their family and spent their remaining 
days. John, the father, later came to Henrietta, where he settled, and became a 
prosperous citizen, active and public-spirited, serving his town in various offices of 
trust. His wife was Sarah Burr of this town, daughter of Asa and Polly Burr, and 
their children are Mrs. Margaret Hyatt, who died in 1855, Alfred, and Mrs. Ida 
Hamilton, of Caledonia, N. Y. Our subject began for himself at the age of twenty- 
two, and has devoted his attention to farming on the homestead. The place be- 
longed to his father-in-hiw, Stei:)hen Leggett, and became the property of his wife. 
Mr. Brininstool is a Mason. In 1878 he married Mattie E. Leggett, and they have one 
son, Charles Leggett, now preparing for the practice of dentistry. Mr. and Mrs. 
Brininstool are members of Brighton Grange No. 689, Monroe county, Pomona 
Grange, and Patrons Fire Relief Association. 

Brinker, General Henry, was born in Hanover, Prussia, in 1831. where he was 
partially educated. In 1851 he came to this country and located in New York city, 
where he finished his education and embarked in the produce and commission busi- 
ness. In 1871 he came to Rochester, where he conducted a branch of the same 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 45 

business, in connection with the New York concern, tlie firm beinj< Henry Brinkcr 
& Co. He has long been identified with the prosperity and welfare of his adopted 
country, especially Rochester, where he was largely instrumental in causmg the 
Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg Railroad to enter that city. He sold them the 
right-of-way through his property, and purchased the right-of-way of many others 
for the same purpose, thus increasing the shipping facilities of Rochester, and pav- 
ing the way for its greater prosperity. He is also a large stockholder in several rail- 
ways. June 17, 1855, he enlisted in the 3d Regiment, 1st Brigade, 1st Division N. Y. 
S. M., and August 5, 1857, was promoted second lieutenant, rising finally to be 
major-general of the 7th Division, and he has done efficient service in many parts of 
the State. In 1863 he married Annie Bruns of New York city, and they have four 
children: George H ,. Charles, Henry, jr., and Josephine. The general is a member 
of Germania Lodge No. 732, F. & A. M., lona Chapter No. 2\0 R. A. M., Cyrene 
Commandery No. 39 K. T., and is also a 32d degree Mason. 

Root, Henry, was born in Saratoga county, July 21, 1817, a son of Abel Root, a 
native of Connecticut, who came to this county in 1818, and settled in the town of 
Sweden, where he became a prosperous farmer, serving as justice, as.sessor, etc. He 
married Mary, daughter of Jabez Davis, and died in 183(iin his fiftieth 3'ear. Henry 
Root was educated in the district schools and Brockport Collegiate Institute and in 
1838 married Sybil Salisbury, who died in 1851 ; her children were Rufus H. Root, 
Mrs. F. E. Terry and Mrs. C. J. White. His second wife was Amanda E. Howard, 
and had no children. Our subject resides on the old homestead, which has been in 
the possession of the family for seventy-seven years. He has held nearly all the 
offices within the gift of his townspeople, and lias been president of the Brockport 
Agricultural Society for fifteen years. 

Hicks Fainily, The. — In 1621 the ship Fortune arrived at Plymouth, Mass., from 
London. She followed the Mayflower. With this second body of Puritans came 
Robert Hicks, the ancestor of the family in Amicrica. He settled in Duxbury, 
Mass. Two of his sons, John and Stephen, went to Long Island. John took a very 
active part in the affairs of the settlement, and at times filled the most important 
offices. A town in Long Island is named for the family; also a street in Brooklyn. 
Isaac Hicks came from Long Island to Wheatland in the beginning of the jiresent 
century. His children were Samuel, Edward, Norris, Isaac, John, Abigail, Eliza, 
and Phoebe, all of whom except Samuel came to this count)'. Norris came early 
to Ogden, then having one child, Mary, who afterwards became the wife of Daniel 
Lord. The other children of Norris were Sarah, Stephen W., William and \'ictor- 
ine. The family located on the farm opposite that now owned by Stephen W. 
Hicks. Norris was a man of great physical endurance, having at one time walked 
from New York city to Niagara Falls. He died at the age of seventy-nine. Stephen 
was born on the farm opposite the one on which he now lives, June 3, 1826, and has 
made for himself a comfortable home and fortune. He married, in 1850, Martha 
Ketch, by whom he had two children, Blanche, who died in 1886, and William of 
Ogden. Mr. and Mrs. Hicks have been members of the Baptist Church over forty 
years. Mordecai Ketch, the father of Mrs. Hicks, was b(irn in Vergennes, Vt.. in 
1805. A the age of sixteen he started for "the West," as Western New York was 



46 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COtJNTT. 

then called. He walked from Vermont to Steuben county in this State, where an 
older brother had previously settled. In 1827 he settled on a farm in Sweden, with 
his young wife, whom he married in that town. They were the parents of eight 
children. His only son, James I. Ketch, enlisted in the war of the Rebellion, was 
taken prisoner and died in Salisbury prison in February, 1865. 

Gardner, Melvin, was born July 12, 1850, at Springfield Center, Otsego county. 
Russell Gardner,'his father, removed from that county to the town of Penfield in 
1852 and engaged in farming. At the outbreak of the Rebellion he enlisted in Co. 
(t, 140th Regiment, and served three years without receiving an injury. He died in 
1886, aged sixty-two years, leaving five sons and one daughter. Melvin, the olde.st 
son, now a resident of Fairport, has besides farming dealt largely in agricultural 
implements and in raw furs of all kinds, shipping mostly to Boston. A staunch Re- 
publican, he held the position of commissioner of highways for five successive years, 
from 1888 to 1892. January 1, 1870. he married Mary Knickerbocker, whose father, 
the late Milton Knickerbocker, was born and died (aged sixty-five) in the house which 
is his daughter's home. One son, Chauncey M. Gardner, born June 11, 1873, a 
graduate of Rochester University, is now a traveling salesman for De Land & Co. of 
this town. 

Barnard, John, came from New Hampshire with his wife and two children and 
settled north of Adams Basin, in 1816. Pioneer Barnard had been a soldier in the 
war of 1812, and was at the battle of Plattsburg. His wife was Abigail Hackett, and 
their children, born in New Hampshire and in Ogden, were as follows: Sylvanus, 
who died at Adams Basin; Betsey, who married Robert Moore, moved to Michigan, 
where she died; William, of Ogden; John, who died in Michigan; and Rhoda, who 
married Lorenzo Baird. After living about forty years on the Ridge John Barnard 
removed to Adams Basin, and later to Allegany county, where he married a second 
wife, and there died. Captain William Barnard, as he was familiarly known, was 
born in Ogden, April 8, 1818, and when old enough began working on the State 
canal scow, first in the capacity of cook one 3'ear, then deck hand for twenty years, 
and was finally promoted to the position of foreman or captain, which position he 
now holds, having been in the employ of the State sixty-two years, without missing 
a single season. Captain Barnard, though seventy-seven years old, is still hale and 
hearty, and has many warm friends in Ogden and Sweden. His wife was Mary 
Warren, by whom he had five children: Mary, who married Charles Nobles; Will- 
iam, of Rochester; Hannah and Lamira, of Ogden, and Charles, who died in Texas 
January 2, 1894. 

Webster, Dr. John, who is remembered as one of the pioneers of Ogden, was born 
in 1780, and came from Berkshire county, Mass., in 1802, and settled on the farm 
now owned by his heirs. He was a soldier in the war of 1812. His wife, Susan, was 
born in the same year as her husband. They settled in the town early in the cen- 
tury, and the family became prominently identified with the local history of the 
locality. Mr. Webster practiced medicine in Ogden till his death in 1838. His wife 
died in 1842. Their children were Stephen, Asa, Jeremiah, Sylvester, Alvin, 
Huldah, William, John, William 2d, Hiram, and Susan. Of these children John, of 
Niagara county, and Dr. Hiram Webster of Michigan are now living. Alvin was 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 47 

born April 2, 1810, and was one of the most substantial farmers of the town. He 
married first Lucy A. Woodard, and their one child, Lucy A., died in infancy. His 
second wife was Cornelia, daughter of Simon and Prudence Bailey, and their chil- 
dren were Lucy A., who married Dr. William S. Millener ; Charles A., of Rochester; 
Judson, who died young; and Judson H., now of Lockport. Alvin Webster died 
January 25, 1890. He was one of Ogden's active men, and although originally a 
Democrat became in later years a strong anti-slavery advocate and zealous Republi- 
can. The principal station of the famous " underground railroad" was at his house. 
He was one of the founders of the Methodist Protestant church of Ogden, and a 
leading member. Simon Bailey settled in this town in 1835, his family coming from 
Hartford county. Conn., though he was a native of Windham county. He was the 
father of eight children. 

Vroom, Hendrick D., was born in Hunterdon county, N, J., in 1796, and his wife, 
Maria Beekman, in 1797. They were married in Readington, N. J., December 20, 
1820, by Rev. Peter Studdiford, and four years later left their New Jersey home and 
drove to Ogden, locating where Samuel W. Vroom now lives. The children of these 
parents were as follows; Peter Q., born February 26, 1822, now at San Francisco, 
Cal. ; Eliza, born November 15, 1823, who married Amos N. Colby; Henry, born 
November 7, 1825, now of San Francisco ; Margaret, born July 31 , 1827, who married 
Servetos Wilmot; Julia M., born August 18, 1835; Ellen J., born December 17, 1837, 
who died July 28, 1875; Samuel W. , born January 18, 1840; George, born August 16, 
1843, who died May 23, 1864. Hendrick D. Vroom died August 8, 1886, and his wife 
March 18, 1879. Samuel W. Vroom was born on his present farm, educated at 
Brockport Academy, July 26, 1862, enlisted in Co. B, 108th Regt. He returned to 
the old farm and has always there resided. Mr. Vroom married. May 24, 1871, Mary 
J. Tarbox, and had one child, George H., born October 14, 1873. His wife died 
October 17, 1873, and he married, March 25, 1875, Helen M. Gott, and they have one 
child, Clifford G., born October 15, 1876. 

Hallauer, George, was born in Webster, March 30, 1872, and is the youngest son 
of John W. Hallauer, who came from Switzerland in 1838, and later came to Web- 
ster, where he has been engaged in farming, and since 1882 has conducted a fruit 
evaporating business on a large scale, running at the present time in connection with 
his sons John and George, a factory in Webster, one in Rushville, one in Hulberton. 
Orleans county, and one at LTtica, Livingston county. Mo., also being part owner 
and manager of the canning factory at Webster. 

Newman, J., was born and reared on a farm at Enfield Center, Tompkins county, 
N. Y. At the age of eighteen he left the farm to learn the trade of cabinet making. 
In 1854 he went to the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., and engaged in the building business. 
In 1856 he married Augusta O. Hulse of Fort Hamilton, N. Y. After his marriage 
he moved to Grand Rapids, Mich., and continued in the building business until the 
death of his wife five years later. After taking her remains east to her former home 
for interment, he came to Fairport and engaged in the building business for two 
years; then he commenced the manufacture and sale of furniture, later taking a 
partner, and finally selling out to him. In 1866 he married Amy A. Howe, daughter 
of Dea, Charles Howe of Perinton. In 1873 he purchased the Fairport Herald of G. 



48 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

C. Taylor, associating himself with G. T. Frost of Rochester, and continued llic])ub- 
lication of the Herald up to 1874, then selling out to Mr. Frost, he engaged in the 
preparation of. flavoring extracts and perfumery, continuing in the same business up 
to the present time. Mr. Newman favors the cause of Prohibiti(jn, and has filled 
the office of town clerk and various other positions. 

Chappel, Guy (deceased), was a native of Great Harrington, liorn April 22, I.SOI. 
The family were of English extraction, and first settled at New London, C<mn. Guy 
Chappel came to the town of Riga about 1820, purchasing a farm in the wilderness, 
which he cleared up. He married Clarissa, daughter of Thomas Richmond, and the 
survivors of their family are Mrs. Sarah A. Orcutt of Minnesota; Mrs. Mary A. 
Walden, and Mrs. Clarissa Way of this town. Guy Chappel came to Sweden in 
1S32, and was known as one of the most successful and practical farmers in his town, 
taking an active interest in educational and religious matters, and he was a man 
whose judgment was sought by all who knew him. He died in 1883 in his eighty- 
second year. 

Friend, Joseph W. , the leading fruit grower in Henrietta, was born in Rochester 
in 1844, a son of Sebastian Friend, a native of Baden, Germany, born in 1SI2, and a 
cooper by trade. At the age of eighteen the latter came to this country (1830) and 
settled in Rochester, where he worked at his trade until his death. He married 
Mary Baggy, also of Germany, and one of ten children, all of whom came to Amer- 
ica with their parents, and settled in Rochester. Their children were Elizabeth, 
Joseph W., Anna, Amelia, and Barbara. At the age of fourteen our subject learned 
the cabinet-maker's trade, which he followed until 1884. Being somewhat interested 
in politics, he then received an appointment as janitor of vSchool No. 17 of Rochester, 
which position he held until 1890, then resigned, and in 1891 came to Henrietta and 
bought a small farm, where he has since been successfully engaged in small fruit- 
growing. In 1861 he enlisted in the army, but being under age, his father refused 
his consent. Mr. Friend is a member of the A. O. U. W., Flower City Lodge. In 
1867 he married Francis Minges, born in Rochester, and one of five sons and live 
daughters of John and Sophia (Wilhelm) Minges of Germany. Their children are: 
Delia, wife of William Turner of Henrietta; Mrs. Estella Nunn, of Rochester: An- 
geline, and Jerome J. Mrs. Friend is a member of Maccabees, Flower City Hive. 

Brown, William B. , was a native of Lyme, Conn., who came when a young man to 
Ogden, where he wtis a pioneer and one of the most prominent men of the locality. 
He was a .son of Elder Daniel Brown, who preached the first sermon in Rochester, 
crossing the river on horseback and delivering his sermon in a log house. where the 
Powers block now stands; he was a Revolutionary soldier, and died at the age of 
eighty-four. William B. was drafted into service during the war of 1812, without 
even the chance of bidding good-bye to his family before starting for the frontier. 
He was also one of the early judges of the county, and a man of more than ordinary 
ability and judgment. He was a successful farmer, having accumulated a good 
property, and his home stood where Henry H. Goff's re.sidence was built later. On 
this commanding site Judge Brown spent his days, his death occurring in 1854, at 
the age of seventy. He was one of the most influential men of his town, and was a 
representative in the State Legislature in 1833. He married first Miss Rachel 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 10 

Willey, and had two children, Maria, who married Rev. Lemuel Brooks, and Will- 
iam, lately deceased. Judge Brown married for his second wife, Sarah V. Toan. by 
whom he also had two children, Lydia, wife of George M. Cole, and Henry II., a 
merchant of Spencerport. Henry Harrison Brown was born December 20, 1851, and 
in 1874 first engaged in Inisiness in Spencerport, and with a brief intermission has 
since been a hardware merchant of the village. He is now president of the New 
York Retail Dealers' Implement Association, to which he has been twice elected. 
He has served as village president two terms, and as village treasurer ; being also a 
trustee of the Congregational Church. In 1874 he married Frances E., daughter of 
John S. Brown of Rochester. They have had one child, Lulu Florence. 

Snapp, Archibald T., was born in Warren county. Pa., in 18-55, and came tf) Rush 
in 1865, with his parents and two brothers. Of the latter, George is residing in this 
town, and Abram in Caledonia. His jjarents were George and Catherine (Scheuler) 
Snapp. Our subject bought the Judge Jones farm, north of Mann's Corners. His 
father died in 1877 and his mother in 1884. In 1868 Archibald married Emma 
Dietrich, born in Rochester in 1844. She was the daughter of Abram Dietrich of 
Rochester, who was drowned in Canandaigua Lake in 1846. He was the son of 
Jacob, who came to this town from Pennsylvania, later moved to Rochester, and 
died in Victor. Mrs. Snapp's mother was Margaret Filon of Rochester. She died 
in 1858. Mr. and Mrs. Snapp have two children, Mina, born in 1876, and Roy 
Filon, born in 1879. 

Post, Mrs. Sarah A., a lady of high social and business attainments, was born in 
this town, a daughter of Jonathan C. and Lucinda A. (Green) Babcock, of Rensselaer 
county. Her father was Jonathan Babcock, who came to town in 1828. He was an 
influential farmer of Henrietta, and was captain in the militia. He was born in 
1800, and was twice married, first to Ann Morey, by whom he had one child, Jane A. ; 
and second to Lucinda A. Green, by whom he had five children: Mrs. Lucinda A. 
Kocher, Mrs. William A. Bly, Mrs. Olive L. Dudley, Sarah A., and Jonathan C. 
The latter at the age of eighteen enlisted in the 108th N. Y. Vols., returned home 
sick, and died a month later. The parents died February 24, and March 8, 1858. 
Mrs. Po.st married, in 1861. Aldis A. Post, born in this town in 1822, a son of Abel 
Post, of Vermont, who settled here in 1816. Mr. Post was an active, energetic, and 
successful farmer, and his death occurred in 1885, since which Mrs. Post has ably 
conducted the busmess, and carried on the farm. She has erected a large, handsome, 
double dwelling, also well-planned barns, and her good judgment and fine taste have 
given her one of the most beautiful country residences in the town. In a portion of her 
home her niece, Cora Bly, whom she reared from childht)od, resides with her husband, 
Warren Markham, who conducts the farm. Mrs. Post is active in the Baptist 
church. 

De Witt, C. G., was born at Orangeville, O., March 24, 1851. His father, Jacob C. 
was at that time a carpenter, and removed to Fairport in 1875, and entered the em- 
ploy of the De Land Chemical Works as a cooper. Our subject enjoyed but such 
educational facilities as were afforded by common schools, but being of a studious 
and thoughtful temperament, made the best of his advantages, and has risen to a 
position of importance. In 1867 he came here and began " at the foot of the ladder" 



50 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

in th(j l)e Land factory, and is now at the head of tlie shipping department, and 
sinee 1884 has Ijccn superintendent of their travehng salesmen and agencies. lie 
has served Fairptjrt in many official capacities with credit and satisfaction, as village 
trustee and treasurer, police justice, water commissioner, clerk of the Hoard of Edu- 
cation, etc., and in the First Baptist church as deacon, treasurer and Sunday school 
superintendent. Personally very popular, his infiuenee is always given towards the 
furtherance of the greatest good to the greatest number. In 18*4 he married Ida J. 
Colman of Lee, Oneida county, and has one child, Minnie, born December 29, 1874. 
He lost two sons, Arthur C. , and Clarence E., aged respectively two and seven 
years. His maternal ancestry dates back to William Hyde, the first who came to this 
country from England iii 1633, and whose sister Anna married James II of Scotland. 

Nichols, Solomon, was bom in 1788, and died March 31, 1864, and came with his 
family to Ogden from Madison in 1837, settling on the farm now owned by his son 
Joseph. He was twice married, and the father of fourteen children, all of whom 
save one have lived in this town. They were Eliza A., Sally M., William W., John 
P., Munson C. G., Joseph, Benjamin E., Harriet M., Ro.setta E., Henry A., Emily 
E., Martha E., Charles M., and Jennie E. The father was a carpenter, and the con- 
ducting of the farm devolved upon his sons. Mr. Nichols died in 1864, aged seventy- 
six. His first wife was Ann Eaton, who died in 1834, and his second was Caroline 
Chapman, who died in 1871). William W. Nichols was born m Lenox, Madison 
county, in 1819, and came to the Genesee country with his father. The oldest son in 
a large family, he was obliged to work from earliest youth. The care of the family 
fell largely upon him, but on reaching his majority he began for himself, working on 
Cornelius Voorhies's farm, and here he has since lived, having married Mary E. 
Voorhies, daughter of C. Voorhies, and later became owner of one-half the Voorhies 
farm. Of the ten children born to Mr. and Mrs. Nichols, four grew to maturity, and 
three survive: Elizabeth A., wife of Henry Dyer; Oscar E., of Ogden; and Susan 
M., wife of Cornelius Wright of Milwaukee, Wis. His wife died in 1878, and in 1882 
Mr. Nichols married Martha W., daughter of Nathan Fay Clark. Mr. Nichols has 
been for thirty years an elder in the Ogden Center Presbyterian church, and for 
nearly sixty years a member. Cornelius Voorhies was a son of the pioneer, John 
Voorhies, who settled on the Buffalo road, seven miles west of Rochester, in 1813. 
Nathan Fay Clark came to Riga about 1815, and to Ogden in 1835, but was a native 
of Massachusetts. 

Snider, Denton G., was born in Ulster county March 30, 1833, and in lS.j2 came to 
IMonroe county and engaged in farming, which he still continues, on the farm of Dr. 
Isaac Garrison. In 1865 he married Mary C, daughter of John A. Latta, who began 
business at Brockport in tanning leather and in the manufacture of boots and shoes. 
He was one of the original members of the Local Board of the State Normal School, 
and a prominent supporter of the M. E. church of Brockport. Mr. Latta married 
Syrena Shirtz, daughter of Elias Shirtz, and of five children two survive: Mrs. Julia 
Smith and Mrs. Snider. He died in 1891, in his eighty-first year, a loss to the whole 
community. Denton Snider is one of the practical and successful farmers of the 
town, raising large amounts of hay, grain and stock. He has held various positions 
of honor and trust in the coninuinity. 



t'AMlLY SKETCHES. 51 

Wilbur, Smith, postmaster of Fairport under President Harrison, was born March 
17, 1828, at Amenia, Dutchess county, where his father, the late Brownell Wilbur, 
was then an extensive farmer and stock dealer. The first American members of this 
family were Quakers of Rhode Island, and of old English descent. Brownell Wilbur 
in later life became a resident of Fairport and a ju.stice of the peace. Smith Wilbur 
was engaged in active business as a dealer in produce from 1851 to 1801, also as a 
contractor on various public works, and as a merchant. He was appointed postmas- 
ter in May, 1891. A figure prominent in the First Baptist church, his benevolence 
and activity have tended towards the advancement of Fairport's best interests in the 
matters of extensions and new streets, with the consecpient improvement of real 
estate. 

Fisk, E. J., was born at Lebanon, Madison county, N. Y. , December 4, 1860, 
where his father, Luman Fisk, was a large land owner, and where his great-grand- 
father was one of the first settlers, coming from Connecticut in 1800. Mr. Fisk's 
school days were passed at Clinton Liberal Institute and at Cazenovia Seminary, and 
in 1878 he entered the office of Judge Prindle at Norwich, N. Y., as a law student. 
After admission to the bar in December, 1881, he began the practice of his profession 
at Oriskany Falls, Oneida county, removing to Hamilton in 1885, and five years later 
to Fairport, where he is already highly esteemed as a citizen and as a man, aside 
from his legal skill. Immediately upon the attainment of his majority he was made 
justice of the peace at Lebanon, and in 1892 president of the village of Fairport. At 
Oriskany Falls, in 1884, he married Eugenie Randall of that place , by whom he had 
two daughters, Mildred, born in 1888, and Hazel, born in 1890. 

Todd, Mrs. Sophia. — The late John Todd, son of Wright Todd, was born in the old 
home in Westchester county January 22, 1822. He came with his parents to this 
town in 1826, was educated in the schools of his day, was a farmer by occupation, 
and married, in 1S46, Sophia Joiner of Henrietta, and they have had six children: 
Sarah A., Emma J., Alta, Carrie A., Charles, and George W. Sarah married Enos 
Stone of this town, and they have six children: Bryant, Minnie S., Ralph T., Louise 
J., Arthur, and Harold J. Emma married J. Myron Truesdale (son of Samuel, who 
settled here in 1823), and their children are Walter and Carrie S. Alta died young. 
Carrie A. married Rev. W. H. Latourette of Oakland, Cal., and has four children: 
Ethel A., Beulah S., Ruth and Lyman T. Charles died in his eighth year. (Jeorge 
W. married Nellie O. Bryan, and has three children, John, Grace, and Albert; they 
reside in Arizona. Mr. Todd died May 10, 1892, mourned by a bereaved family. 
Mrs. Todd's father. Col. Martin Joiner, was born in \'ermont in 1771. His second 
marriage was with Mrs. Hattie Hoyt (nee Taylor) of Litchfield, Conn., and they had 
two children, Sophia and Amanda M., now Mrs. Johnson. The family came to 
Henrietta, Monroe county, in 1832, and he was a colonel in the war of 1812, being in 
the battle of Plattsburg. He died June 9, 1861, and his wife in 1873. The ancestry 
of this family is French on the paternal side, and English on the maternal. 

Newton, AVilliam, was born in Henrietta in 1835. He is a son of Thomas Newton, 
a native of Lincolnshire, England, who was born in 1783, and whose parents were 
William and Elizabeth Newton of England. Thomas Newton was obliged to work 
his ow^n way in life at an early age. In 1822 he came America, spent two years in 



o2 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Albany, and assisted in the construction of the Erie Canal. In 1824 he married 
lilizabeth Bladen, who was born in Derbyshire, Enj^land, in 1800, and who came to 
America in 1819. He then came to Henrietta and bought a farm on which he re- 
sided until his death in 187:5. His wife died in 1SH3 at the home of William Newton. 
Then- children were Thomas, Elizabeth, who died young; William and John, of 
whom William is the only .survivor. He received an academic education and began 
teaching school. This continued during eight winters, whilehe worked at farming 
in the summer. In 18(W he married Emily E. , daughter of Benjamin D. and Anna 
(vSternberg) Schuyler of this town, she also having been a teacher for several years. 
He then removed to his present farm and for some years was interested in breeding 
Berkshire swine. In 1865 the Department of Agriculture at Washington sent him 
some Probsteier oats, the variety having been received from Hamburg, Ger- 
many. From the small quantity sent him he was in a few years raising large quan- 
tities, and by advertising and exhibiting them at fairs, he sold and distributed them 
through nearly every .State and territory in the Union. They are now more exten- 
sively raised than any other variety, having become the common oat in most sections. 
To him is due the credit of having introduced this celebrated oat throughout the 
United States. Mr. Newton is now serving his third term as justice of the peace. 
He has five daughters: Mary F., a teacher of Spring Valley, N. Y. ; Carrie D., wife 
of W. F. Hinds of Rochester; Ella J., wife of F. W. Mellars of vSan Francisco, Cal. ; 
Martha, who is a teacher at Flatlands, L. I., and Alice E. 

Hiscock, George AV. , a sou of pioneer William Hiscock and his wife, Dorothy. 
George was born July 4, 18i;J, and was for many years one of Ogden's prominent and 
successful farmers, and invariably respected wherever known, having also served 
his town as a.ssessor. During the war he was an earnest Republican, and one of 
Lincoln's greatest admirers. He attended the Congregational church, which he also 
supported, as did his wife, Caroline E., daughter of John Brigham. The latter was 
a pioneer also in the town. Mr. and Mrs. George W. Hiscock had four children: 
Franklin, who died in infancy; Emily F. , who married James F. Heacock; Alice S., 
who married Myron H. Davis, of Chili, and is now deceased; and George L. , who 
resides on the old liomeslead in Ogden. Mr. Hiscock died in Ogden in October, 
1879. George L. was born November 8, 1860, and has always lived on the same 
farm, succeeding his father in its ownership. November 16, 1881, he married Henri- 
etta M., daughter of Servetus and Margaret Wilmot, of Spencerport, and their two 
children are Florence Alice, aged twelve years, and Herbert Wilmot, aged seven 
years, both living. 

Lincoln, George W., the last and j'ouugest of a family of five children, a well- 
known resident of Henrietta, was born in Stillwater in 1833, a son of William and 
Rachael (Works) Lincoln ; William was one of three sons born to William of New 
Hampshire, the father being a farmer and butcher, who came to Rochester about 
1825, where for a time he was in the meat market business. He later removed to 
Henrietta, settled on a farm, and died here when yet a young man, in 1832, his wife 
dying in 1840. Our subject has devoted his life to farming business in Henrietta, 
and since 1848 he has provided and cared for his aunt, Eliza Works, his mother's 
youngest .sister, who in turn has been his housekeeper many years. She is now a re- 
markable old lady of over 101 years, and one of the most remarkable personages in 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 53 

this town, or in fact in the county. The youthful, mental and physical vigor which 
she has retained make her a person looked to with much attention and pride by the 
citizens of this section. She was born in Westmoreland, N. H., January 8, 1794, a 
daughter of Samuel and Susan (Chandler) Works of that State. Iler father died 
when she was an infant and her mother when she was thirteen. She then went to 
live with a married sister, Mrs. Susan Marsh in Vermont, and later with her young- 
est brother, James Works, who lived to be nearly 101 years old. In 1814 she came 
with this brother to Rochester, being nine days on the road, where she lived for a 
number of years with her oldest brother, Samuel, who was a prominent man of that 
city. After he removed to Lockport she remained in Rochester and for many years 
was a tailoress, and she can now remember when there were but two or three stores 
in the place, and no sidewalks. Incidents of the .strife of 1813 are yet fresh in her 
mind. She has resided in Henrietta .since about 1848, where she has ever since kept 
house for her nephew, George Lincoln, doing all her housework, cooking, etc. She 
has made several trips to Vermont to visit her friends and relatives. She was edu- 
cated at Keene, N. H., and while a little girl before 1800, she would walk o\-er two 
miles to school with her oldest brother who would carry her when she became tired. 
One brother of George W. Lincoln, A. B. , was a lieutenant in the U. S. army, a 
graduate of West Point in 1845, and went through the Mexican war, where he was 
wounded, and died in Florida in 18.53. 

Edmunds, William J., was born in Brighton, October 24, 1834. His father, Lewis, 
was born in Lewis county, and the grandfather, Eliphalet, settled in Brighton in 
1834, being a pensioner of the Revolutionary war. He was a direct descendant of 
James Edmunds, who came from England and settled near Providence, R. I., about 
1670. Lewis followed his father to Brighton in 1826, and in 1844 came to Sweden. 
He married Maria, daughter of Bradford Lisk, and of their five children three sur- 
vive; Charles and George of Clarkson, and William J., the youngest. He was edu- 
cated in the district school and the Brockport Collegiate Institute. In 1857 he mar- 
ried Luania Wadsworth, who died March 3, 1882. Their children are Mrs. Evalyn 
Chapman, of Gaines, Orleans county, and Joseph W., of Sioux Falls, S. D. For his 
second wife he married Electa E. Wadsworth in 1883. The subject has held several 
town offices, was supervisor during the years 1877, '80 and '81, and has taken an 
interest in all matters tending to the growth of the community. 

Smith, Henry, the head of a large and prominent family of Parma, was a native of 
England, born in 1800, and came to America about 1835 with his family of seven 
children. He was three times married, and was the father of fourteen children, 
among them being George, Harriet, Chark)tte, Stephen, William. Rebecca, Eliza- 
beth, Caroline, Lydia, Frank, James, Peter. George Smith married Eliza Berridge 
when twenty-seven ^^ears of age, his wife being twenty. They both came from Eng- 
land with their parents when about fourteen years of age. They first went to keep- 
ing house about half a mile west of Braddock's Bay. One year from that time he 
bought a farm on the southeast corner in Unionville, lived there five years and traded 
for a farm in North Parma, near the west town line; lived there ten years, traded 
that for a farm one mile north of Parma Corners; lived there about fifteen years. He 
then moved on his wife's place on the east side of the road. He lived there until his 
death, which occurred December G, 1893. Like his father, he was a hard working 



64 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTV. 

man, devoted to the good of the community; a lifelong member of the Freewill Bap- 
tist church at North Parma, he did all he could for the good of the cause. His chil- 
dren were William II., Charles R., Mary J., Margaret F., (leorge A., Rosa A., Uelos 
D. and Jessie M. The youngest daughter, Jessie, died when twenty years of age. 
Charles R. Smith was born in 1850 at North Parma, and began doing for himself 
when twenty-one years of age by working out by the month. He was married when 
twenty- three years of age to Mary E. Diver, of Parma, on the 25th day of Decem- 
ber, 1873; started for himself on John Van Voorhis's farm, situated one-half mile 
west of West Greece, and worked it on shares for eight years. He then bought the 
farm known as the Silas F. Smith farm in the town of Ogden, in 1S82, contaning 100 
acres. He has made a great man}- improvements on the farm since. They have had 
three children: Willie L., Ida E., and Anna R. Willie L., their oldest child, died 
May 29, 1888, when twelve years and seven months old. The remainder of his family 
are all members of the M. E. church at Spencerport. He is one of the officers of the 
church, and is a strong advocate of the cause of temperance. 

Bacon, George S., was born in New York, March 21, 1842, where his father, John 
P., at that time operated a ship chandlery business. The latter removed afterwards 
to Middletown, Conn., turning his attention to financiering, and is at present vice- 
president of the Middletown Savings Bank. Our subject was educated at Middle- 
town High School, and graduated from Daniel H. Chase's Preparatory School, and 
at an early age became salesman for a dry goods house in Worcester, Mass.. when 
after six months, an accident obliged him to return to Middletown, when he entered 
the post-oiTice as clerk. For two years he was employed as book-keeper by a mercan- 
tile house at Middletown, and at the age f)f nineteen embarked for Liverpool in a 
merchant ship, visiting many European ports. Just prior to the outbreak of the war 
Mr. Ba^on was deputy-postmaster at Columbus, Wis., where he enlisted in Co. M, 
4th Wis. Cavlary, and served nearly two years. He was at one time shot by an am- 
bushed enemy, and confined in a hospital at Vicksburg. Mr. Bacon has traveled 
largely, and is a true cosmopolite. A resident of Pittsford since 1884, he takes a 
leading place in all local affairs both in business and society. He has served on the 
village and health boards, as trustee, and is a prominent figure in the Masonic lodge 
and the Episcopal church. During a residence of six years at Manistee, Mich., where 
he was engaged in the lumber business, he was elected sujjervisor twice. He is treas- 
urer of the local lodge of Knights of Sobriety, Fidelity and Integrity; is a very active 
member of the G. A. R., and was commander of E. J. Tyler Post No. 288 for two 
years. 

Palmer Family, The. — Among the earliest settlers of the town of Perinton, were 
Ira Palmer and his wife, Sarah Beilby, who came from Chatham, Columbia county, 
N. Y., m 1807, and settled on the farm which they cleared and on which they lived 
until the time of their death, in 180:5 and 18()5. They were of English descent, his 
family coming from New England, and hers from Nova Scotia. They reared a fam- 
ily of twelve children, all of whom, except two, settled in town, bearing no small part 
in its history and development. There children were Polly, married Locke Moore, 
seven children, died in 1876; Grin, married Sally Marks, seven children, died in 1875; 
Betsey, married Lewis Hutchinson, seven children, died in 1849; John, married 
Euphemia Bishop, two children, died in 1890; Sally, married Ira Johnson, two chil- 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 55 

dren, died in 1864; William, married Parmelia Heath, seven children; Myron, mar- 
ried Margaret Conklin, three children, died in 1884; Seymour, married Hannah Slo- 
cum, one child; Harvey, married Frances Sands, no children, died in 1877; Lydia, 
unmarried, living at the old homestead; Andrew, unmarried, died in 1849; Albert] 
married Sarah Fellows, one child (not living), lives on the old homestead.' Of the 
younger generation, there are but two grandsons living who bear the name of Palmer: 
Edwin Palmer, Fairport, manufacturer of sash, doors and blinds, and A. Worth 
Palmer, dealer in farm produce. Formerly a teacher, educated at Cornell Univer- 
sity, he was in 1893 elected school commissioner of the First Commissioner District 
of Monroe county. With these two this once large family will disappear from the 
town, they having no sons living. 

Adams, James, was born in England, Jun-e 5, 1880, a son of James Adams, a sel- 
ler in Sweden in 18:31. The father bought a small piece of land in Brockport, and 
succeeded in paying for it, but through an error in the title, lost it and was forced to 
begin anew, eventually accumulating a fair property before his death. His children 
were Elizabeth, who died aged twenty-four; James; John, who was drowned in Kal- 
amazoo River; and Mary, who married Myron Colby, and lives in Medina. James, 
jr., was brought up to farm work, though for a time he taught school in the county. 
He also learned surveying, and his services were in constant demand for many years, 
for he was regardeci as reliable and accurate. He began his business career at the 
age of twenty-three, and was very successful, the farm which he owned at the time 
of his death (June 10, 1888) having been one of the best in the town. This was the 
old Niles place, purchased by Mr. Adams in 1876, though he remodeled the buildings 
and otherwise improved the property. He held the offices of assessor, commissioner 
of highways, inspector of elections, and was also notary In 1854 James Adams mar- 
ried Ilona Cooley, of Sweden, and their children are Clara, who died aged eighteen ; 
Minnie, wife of Augustus Fairbanks; Lewis W., of Ogden, a justice of the peace; 
Milo and Elmer, both of. Ogden. 

Webster, William and John, came from Massachusetts and settled in Parma, their 
father, John, following soon after. He had five children, and of these Hannah Will- 
iam, John and Thomas came to this county, and Jesse settled in Ohio. Thomas 
married first, Julia Webster, and had three children who reached maturity: Cynthia 
S., Philetus, and Sarah Diantha; his second wife was Charlotte Webster, and she 
bore him one child, Josephine; his third wife was Mary Lawrence, who had no chil- 
dren. Cynthia S. married Elon Baldwin, and had five children, Thomas, Henry, 
Cordelia, Frank and Annette; she lived and died on part of the old homestead in 
1892, aged seventy-four. Sarah Diantha married B. L. Nutt, and they arc both 
livmg in Plymouth, Wis. Josephine married Frank French, and removed to Mich- 
igan, where both died in 188^; since that time their daughter Minnie died, leaving 
two children ; their son, Charles, is still living. Thomas Webster settled on the town 
line of Parma and Ogden, where died in 1868, aged seventy-six. William Webster 
married Sarah Snow, and had these children: James S., Ro.xana, Marvin, Lorenzo, 
Eli, Henry, Horatio, and Sarah; the latter is the only one living. William died in 
1863. John Webster married Polly Webster, and had six childten: Freeman, Sal- 
mina, Riley, Otis, James, and Milo, the latter only surviving. John Webster died in 
1853. Philetus Webster was born in Parma, January 11, 1843, and married Arvilla 



56 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY 

Webster, by whom he had one child, Julia, wife of George H. Davis, of Parma. His 
second wife, whom he married in 1854, was Annette E. Webster, and of their two 
children, one survives, George T. of Parma. Both Philetus and his wife are mem- 
bers of long standing in the M. E. church, where he has served as trustee, steward, 
treasurer, etc. Leon P. is a son of George H. and Julia (Webster) Davis. George 
T., son of Philetus Webster, married Alice Wood, and lives on a part of the old 
farm. 

Olncy, Harrison, was born in Victor in 1822. His parents were Joseph and Mercy 
(Noble) Olney, the former having come from Chenango county in 181!>. He was a 
native of Rhode Island; his mother, also, came from Chenango county. In 182;Jthe 
family moved to Mendon, where they reared seven children, of whom the oldest son, 
Jonathan F., died in Pittsford, in 1891, and the youngest daughter, Mrs. Sarah Gib- 
son, wife of Zorton H. Gibson, died in 1892. Franklin resides in Fairport; Cyrus in 
Spokane Falls; John in Victor; Mrs. Wm. H. Armstrong in Pittsford. Harrison 
Olney has lived on the homestead since 1823. He was educated in the Mendon 
Academy and in Rochester Collegiate Institute. His father died in 1868. 

Beedle, Zenas Paine, was born in the town of Sweden, January 26, 1822, a son of 
John Beedle, who was born in Bath, Grafton county, N. H., April :>(), 1798, and re- 
moved with his parents to Oneida county, N. Y., soon after. In 1807 he, with an 
older brother, came to the Genesee country, near what is now the village of Perry, 
and in September, 1809, he with his brother Robert, came to this town and settled 
on a farm at Sweden Center, later known as the Mark Genne farm. In December, 
1817, he married Abigail Bentley, daughter of Samuel Bentley, also of New England 
birth, with whom he lived for more than fifty-three years. There were born to them 
eleven children, of whom nine attained adult age, and seven of the latter still survive, 
and are settled in different sections of the country; he was a prominent and success- 
ful farmer and a local preacher of the M. E. church; he died in Sweden in 1872, in 
the seventy-third year of his age, enabled to look back upon a life well spent in labors 
of love and benevolence in the interest of his fellow men. Zenas Paine Beedle 
was educated in the common schools of his native town, and in February, 1854, mar- 
ried Emily O., daughter of Horatio Davis, of Riga, N. Y. Four children were born 
to them, namely: Walter D., of Pavilion, N. Y. : Carrie L. Day, of Buffalo; John 
Edward, of Sweden; and Emily A., who died in December, 1874. Choosing farming 
as an occupation, by industry and frugality has acquired a farm of o\er 200 hundred 
acres of fertile land, the management of which he has given over to his son, John Ed- 
ward, and upon which they now reside, which furnishes a competence and comfort in 
declining years. In 1860 he was elected to the office of justice of the peace, which 
office he held for twenty-eight years consecutively. He has always taken a lively 
interest in all enterprises pertaining to good order and improvement in the community, 
and liberally contributed to all benevolent objects in society, and enjoys the respect 
and esteem of the community in which he lives. 

Goss, Hon. George A., one of the foremost figures in the political and social life of 
I'ittsford, and at present its representative in the county legislature, was born here 
in 1836. Ephraim Goss, his father, was also a man of much note, and by profession 
a lawyer. He was a justice for thirty years, county clerk in 1836, justice of sessions, 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 57 

and senator in 1860-61. George was educated at Rochester with the intent of enter- 
ing his father's profession, but decided upon a mercantile life, and in 1870 he en- 
gaged in the coal and himber trade m Fairport, the firm being Vanderhoof, Goss & 
Co. ; later he sold out his interest to his partners, but continued in business at Fair- 
port for several years on his own account, dealing largely in farm produce. In 
1873-3-4 Mr. Goss represented his district in the Assembly, where he was recognized 
not only as an able legislator, but as a gentleman of sterling character and worth. 
In 1876-77 he was sergeant-at-arms of the Assembly, and held the same position in 
the State Senate m 1884-85. Mr. Goss has acceptably and repeatedly filled nearly 
all the offices within the gift of his townsmen and has been supervisor for twelve 
years, and chairman of the board in 1876-7-8-9. It is needless to say he is a staunch 
Republican. In 1880 he married Kate, daughter of Henry Billinghurst of Pittsford. 

Boyd, Andrew, was born in Ireland August 23, 1838, of Scottish descent, a son of 
Thomas C. , who came to Port Hope, Canada, in 1845 and later to Brockport, where 
he engaged in lumbering. Andrew was educated in the common schools, and is a 
self made man. In May, 1862, he engaged in the flour and feed business and the 
same year, August 6, enlisted in Co. H, 108th N. Y. Vols., participating in the bat- 
tles of Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Wilderness, etc., 
and was wounded on May 10, 1864. He rejoined his regiment in July, receiving the 
rank of second lieutenant, and of first lieutenant December 9, 1864. February !), 
1865, he was commissioned captain and appointed aid-de-camp on General Smythe's 
staff April 8, 1865. He was in all the battles with the regiment from July, 1864, to 
the surrender at Appomattox. He was honorably discharged May 28, 1865, and re- 
turned to Brockport, where he entered the employ of George R. Ward; in 1874, 
establishing himself in the grocery business, where he has since remained. In 1865 
he married Mariette Webster, and their children are George R., Grace P., and 
Mabel W. 

Root, Frederick P., was born in Saratoga county, N. Y., October 23, 1814. His 
father, Aaron, was a native of Hebron, Conn., and the family trace their descent to 
William Root, who came from England in 1640, settled first in Massachusetts, but 
removed at an early day to Hartford, Conn. Aaron married Salinda Phelps of 
Hebron, vs^here both were born and reared. They removed to Carlton, Saratoga 
county, early in life, but subsequently to Monroe county, where they settled on a 
farm in the town of Sweden, where their descendants now reside. He died in 1832, 
at the age of forty-five, leaving a family of eight children. Frederick P., the eldest 
son and the subject of this sketch, was educated in the common schools, and at the 
age of eighteen years assumed the management of the fai-m of 300 acres, which by 
the will of his father was shared equally by his children at maturity. He married, in 
1831), Marion E. Phelps, at New London, Conn., who died in 1892, leaving two 
daughters. He married second Harriet A., daughter of Deacon Wm. White, who 
settled in the town of Bergen in 1808. Of Frederick P. Root, it may be said that he 
has been a successful farmer; his farm contains about 700 acres. His experience in 
farming has given him the reputation of an authority in agricultural matters, as 
many articles over his name in agricultural papers go to prf)ve. He has also been 
quite prominent in public affairs of town and State, having been justice of the peace, 
supervisor five years, assemblyman two years, assessor of internal revenue five years 
b 



58 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

during tlic Civil war. He has also been an active supporter of agricultural societies, 
and has been distinguished as a supporter of organizations for the elevation of the 
farming class throughout the county and State. He was one of the originators and 
organizers of the Farmer's Alliance, and first president of the county and State 
societies. This association of farmers, originating in Monroe county, extended to 
other States, until it has a national character of considerable political influence. He 
was one of the organizers of the association of Co-operative Fire Insurance Com- 
panies of the State of New York, and first president for five years, and has been 
president of Monroe County Patrons Fire Relief Association during its existence of 
seventeen years. Mr. Root has been during his life a liberal supporter of society, 
and ever ready to respond to the call of public and private charities. 

Todd, David, was born in Peekskill, Westchester county, April 15, 1820, was edu- 
cated in the schools of his day, worked on his father's farm until he was twenty- 
three, and has followed farming ever since. December 6, 1843, he married Eliza 
Speer, formerly of Michigan. Two children were born to them: Mary F. and Sarah 
E. Mary F. resides with her father in Rochester. Sarah E. married Thomas P. 
Pryor of Rochester, and they have four children: Dean T., C. Warrant, Mary F., 
and Willard L. They reside on the old homestead on the Little Ridge Road, west of 
Greece village. Mrs. Todd died May 11, 1883. In September, 1887, Mr. Todd re- 
tired and now resides in Rochester. He has followed a life of sobriety, industry, 
thrift and good judgment. His father, Wright, was boi-n in Peekskill, February 14, 
1798, and married Elizabeth Denike of his native county, born in 1801. They had 
seven children: David; John, who died recently; Sylvester, who died in Peekskill; 
Albert, who resides in Ypsilanti, Mich. ; Jackson and Mary A. died on the homestead 
when young; and Orrm W. The family came to Lyons, Wayne county, in 1826, 
where they remained seven months, then removed to Greece on the Big Ridge Road 
farm, where Orrin W. now resides. They have been residents of the town and 
county sixty-nine years, their first abode having been a log cabin. The grandfather 
Denike was a soldier in the war of 1812. Wright Todd retired about 1804 and re- 
sided in Rochester until his deatlr, April 12, 1875; his wife died January 17, 1876. 
The ancestry of the family is English and Scotch. 

Graves, Allen S., was born of an old Massachusetts family, who came from New 
England at an early day, haviiig made an honorable record in the war for indepen- 
dence. Elias Graves, the grandfather, son of Elias, was the father of nine children. 
One of these was Francis, who married Sarah A. Palmer, and came to Mendon in 
1825. He learned the tanner's trade in Greene county, at the foot of the Catskill 
Mountains, and was employed by Colonel Edwards, and also by Jacob Graves, at 
Rochester, as foreman over thirty hands. He bought the farm in Mendon, now oc- 
cupied by Allen S. Graves and his sister, Mrs. Dennis Desmond. His family con- 
sisted of .seven children. One brother, Palmer, died at the age of thirty, and there 
are now in this locality Edwin, Allen, and Mrs. Desmond. The father died in 1869, 
and the mother in 1874. One daughter died in infancy, and two others, Abi and 
Lodeema, on reaching womanhood. Allen S. married Catherine Warren, by whom 
he had one daughter, Lodeema, who died at the age of eight years, the mother 
dying about two years later. His second wife was Margaret Brady of Parma, by 
whom there arc one son and four daughters now living: Francis, Emily, Josephine, 



{'AMILY SKETCHES. 5y 

Cora Ann, and M. Alnieda, some of whom are teachers of acknowledged alMlity. As 
regards serving the town, Allen Graves has been chosen twelve consecutive years as 
assessor. He has been offered the nomination for supervisor by both parties, but 
declined to accept. 

Wilcox, Elias (deceased), was born in the town of Rush. May 17, 1800, a son of 
Stephen, who came from Connecticut about 1803 ; the latter married Dorcas Davis, 
of the same State, and came from their eastern home with an ox team and wagon, 
such as pioneers traveled with in those days, and were six weeks on the road. After 
farming a few years he invested what he had in boating on the Erie Canal, finally 
losing all by the sinking of his boats, heavily loaded with wheat. Then his son Elias, 
at the age of twenty one, took charge of the family— a mother and six sisters. He 
removed to Gaines, Orleans county, and contracted by article for a piece of land, 
and in a few years became the owner of a beautiful farm of one hundred acres. He 
sold this for a good sum, and went into the milling business. About this time (1855) 
he married Jane, the daughter of Samuel B. Perkins, born in Henrietta, Monroe 
county. After leaving milling he moved into Lockport and engaged in the brokerage 
business for three years. He then removed to Avon Springs and .settled on a fine 
twenty acre lot just south of West Avon, remaining there two years. Having an 
opportunity to sell at a bargain, he returned to Monroe county and retired from 
active business, having accumulated a handsome property by indomitable persever- 
ance and close management, never having received three months' .schooling; having 
a head for business, he was often consulted by men of learning, at one time sueing 
the State and gaining his point. He always took a prominent part, in town and 
county affairs, and died in 1890, in his eighty-fourth year. His widow and two chil- 
dren survive him — Elias and Jennie D. , still residents of Brockport. 

Martin, Henry R. — The father of our subject, James K. Martin, was born in Rens- 
selaer county, N. Y. , and his mother, whose maiden name was Bristol, came from 
the same place. In March, 1819, they removed from Rensselaer county to Riga, in 
what is now the town of Chili, near Black Creek. The journey was made with one 
team and wagon, containing seven persons and the household goods of two families. 
The journey occupied two weeks. The ne.xt winter Mr. Martin returned to Rens- 
selaer county for his widowed mother and two younger brothers, making the weari- 
some journey on foot in six days. Unfortunately for Mr. Martin, the locality where 
he had first settled, on Black Creek, was very low and unhealthy, and he and his 
family were all sick with the ague and fever during the summer; in August every 
one was sick. Later in the fall they partially recovered their health, and Mr. Martin 
began to look about for some means to earn food for his family. He had no money 
and could not get money for his work. He found, however, that he could work for 
his uncle, Judge Sibley, chopping wood for one-half bushel of wheat per day's work. 
He worked sixteen days for which he received eight bushels of wheat, which he had 
to thresh and clean, and then by taking it to the village of Rochester he could get two 
shillings per bushel. In all he worked nineteen days for eight bushels of wheat, 
which he sold for two dollars. These were the hardest times he found. In January, 
1821, Mr. Martin removed from Black Creek to the town of Rush, renting a farm of 
James Wadsworth, which he occupied for four successive years. In three years he 
began to gather things about him, and in 1825 he purchased and moved on a tract of 



60 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

one luindred acres, of which only four or five were cleared. This he cleared and im- 
proved with his own hands and gained property very slowly by the most rigid econ- 
omy. He resided on this farm till the day of his death, doing much hard work and 
never engaging in any speculation. As his family grew around him he purchased 
more land, and in course of time all were settled on farms adjoining or near his own. 
He had a large family — eight sons and five daughters. Mr. Martin was for many 
years and until his death in 1870 a member of the Christian church at North Rush, 
and in which he was chosen one of the deacons. Previous to his death one son, 
Joseph, and one daughter, Fannie (Mrs. Martin Norris), had died. Since then 
Lorenzo, Stephen B., and Charles E. have died. The remaining children are Elvira, 
Lydia. James, Cathenne, Clarrissa, Killian, Henry R. , and Ward. The youngest, 
Ward, is living on the homestead, and Killian and Henry R. are on adjoining farms. 
Henry R. married Louisa Collins. They have had seven children, five of whom are 
living. Their names are Elvira P., James R., Mary L., Carrie A., and Lucelia A. 

Ketcham, Joseph H., was born in Rensselaer county, September 9, 1820, and is the 
.son of Joseph, who was born in the same place August 12, 1777, and died May 6, 
1856; he came to Macedon and later to Perinton, where he died. Joseph H. came to 
Webster in 1839, and has resided at West Webster most of the time since. His 
grandfather was Daniel Ketcham, who came in at an early day from England. 
Joseph IL married in 1844 Lucy M., daughter of Nelson and Sally Ann Smith. 

Glasser, John M., is the son of Anthony Crlasser, born in New York. In 1848 they 
moved to Sullivan county, N. Y. , where his father bought a tract of woodland, which 
they cleared and made of it a fine country home. In the meantmie Mr. Glasser be- 
came interested in woodwork, and came to Rochester in 187U and learned the wood- 
carving trade, at which he worked until 1884. He then came to West Webster and 
bought the hotel property there, which they remodeled and added to until it was a 
first class hostelry, the proprietors being Glasser & Sailer. Mr. Glasser married 
Louisa Gabel, the daughter of Jacob Gabel of Rochester, and they have three sons 
and one daughter, Walter. Emil, John and Emma. 

Stayman, George, is a son of Isaac, and he a son of John, who came from Pennsyl- 
vania in 1805 and settled in North Mendon ; he reared a large family, most of the 
children going West. Isaac married Emma, daughter of Daniel Faulkner, of an 
English family. They had one son, George A., born in 1853, his mother dying three 
years after in 1856. He was placed in the care of an uncle, Henry Ilobden, to be 
brought up, and here he remained fourteen years. He then worked by the month 
until his marriage in 1874 to Emogene, daughter of David Smith, one of the principal 
farmers of the town. Mr. Stayman bought the Peter Shaw farm the same year, 
which he has made into a hand.some home. He has three children: Allie E., Frank 
D., and Daisie C. In 1H93 he was elected commissioner for three years on the Re- 
publican ticket and re-elected in 1895 on the same ticket. The family have always 
supported the Presbyterian church, John Stayman having been one of the founders 
of the East Mendon church. 

Baird, Byron, the youngest of a family of eight children of the late Bedeiit and 
Catherine (Quackenbush) Baird, was born near the site of his present home, Decem- 
ber 1, 1830. His father was born at Monmouth, N. J., and settled here about 1819. 



FAMILY SKETCHES. Ot 

Bedent Baird was a man of unusual mental attainments, and l)eeame in mature years 
an important social and political factor in Perinton. The writer inspected various 
school exercises in mathematics executed by hini when but twelve years of age, some 
of which bore date January 24, 1802, which are models of chirographic art, and attest 
a scholarship far beyond the average of that day. Some of their children attained 
mature years. Of the two still living— Byron and Samuel— Byron has spent his life 
near his birthplace, erecting thereon a new and modern residence. Samuel spent 
several years of his early manhood in Rochester, where he studied for the bar. He 
is now a resident of Lowell, Wash. The family is of Scotch ancestry. Byron mar- 
ried in 1857 Imogene Mattison, daughter of Truman Mattison, born in Bennington, 
Vt, the son of Isaiah Mattison, a Baptist clergyman. 

Wilcox, Glezen F., was born April 8, 1836, on the farm where he now lives in Per- 
inton, Monroe county. His ancestors came from old to New England, and later to 
Western New York. His grandparents on both sides settled in Ontario county in 
the later years of the last century, taking up and improving into farms tracts of land 
from the unbroken wilderness. In 183-i William Wilcox, the father of the subject of 
this sketch, purchased the farm on which his youngest son, Glezen, was born, and 
which has ever since been his home. Mr. Wilcox received a liberal education at the 
.schools of Lima and Rochester and at Heidelberg, Germany. At the age of twenty- 
one he traveled widely in the British Islands, France, Germany and Italy, on foot, 
with knapsack and staff, walking more than three thousand miles. From these 
journeymgs sprang a series of descriptive letters under the title of "Europe Afoot 
and Alone," contributed to Moore's Rural New Yorker, which attracted wide and 
favorable attention. Returning to his home after a couple of years, Mr. Wilcox set. 
tied down to the business of farming. In 1861 he married Adeline C. , daughter of 
W. K. Goodrich of Fairport. Their only child, Glezen G., was born October 13, 
1868. Mr. Wilcox continued his literary works as a contributor to several journals on 
rural topics, and also published many .sketches of "Boat and Tent Life" in the 
northern wilderness and on the great lakes. For several years from 1865 he was as- 
sociated with D. D. T. Moore as editor of the Rural New Yorker, then published in 
Rochester. When that paper was removed to New York Mr. W. declined to follow, 
and severed his connection with it. In 1871, with A. A. Hopkins he established the 
Rural Home, a rural and literary journal, in Rochester, but at the end of a year dis- 
posed of his interest in the paper, and retired from active newspaper work. Mr. W. 
has been active in public affairs, serving as administrator of estates, as assessor and 
supervisor, and has been a candidate of a minority ])arty for the Legislature. He is 
an Independent in politics, and a supporter and trustee of the Baptist church. 

Schummers, F. F., Fairport, N. Y., dealer in hardware, stoves, paints, agricultu- 
ral tools and plumbing, was born in Paris, France, in 1847. His father, Francis 
Schummers, was a cabinent-maker and came to America in 1849, locating first in 
New York city, and later engaged in farming in Lowville, Lewis county, N. Y., 
until 1872, when he removed to Perinton where he lived with his son until his death, 
which occurred March 30, 1895, at the age of eighty-four years, his wife, iLirgaret, 
having died October 12, 1890. F. F. Schummers was educated at Lowville Acad- 
emy and State Normal School of Pennsylvania, and for a time taught school. In 
1872 he bought a farm in this town, where he remained eighteen years. In 1890 he 



6i tANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

established himself in the hardware business in Fairport, where he stands at the 
head in that hne. In 1870 he married Frances, daughter of the well-known banker 
and philanthropist, Jeremiah Chadwick, and his children are Sabin C, Margreta, 
Irmagarde and Gladys. 

MacLachlan, Hugh, was born in Glasgow, Scotland, July 0, 1850. His father was 
Hugh MacLachlan, a native of Invernesshire, Scotland, and was one of the old 
Gaelic stock. Hugh, jr., came to America in 1870 and settled in Brockport, engag. 
ing in the carpenter's trade in 1874, and later in the dairy business. In 1877 he 
entered the employ of the Johnston Harvester Co., with whom he remained until 
they were burned out. In 1887 he established his present business as dealer in coal, 
wood and fertilizers, handling about [;5,000 tons of coal annually. In 1873 he mar- 
ried Rliza, daughter of John Wilson, and their children are Sybella T., E. Helen, 
and Flora C. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church. 

Scnbner, Albert G., was born at Andover, Merrmiac county, N. H., on February 
1, 1804. His ancestors on both the paternal and maternal sides were FnglLsh, and 
both came to Massachusetts in the early part of the seventeenth century. Mr. 
Scribner was the sixth son of a family of thirteen children ; leaving home at an early 
age he learned the trade of shoemaking, and followed that trade for several years in 
New Hampshire and Massachusetts. In 1823 he came to Monroe county, N. Y., in 
company with his brother-in-law, John W. Sweet, locating in the town of Ogden, 
working at his trade for a number of years. In 1883 he married Matilda Colby, a 
daughter of Isaac Colby, who settled in the town of Ogden in 1802. In 1834 Mr. 
Scribner turned his attention to farming, working and owning several farms; he 
linally purchased the farm located on the hill, one-half mile east of the Town Pump, 
where he resided until his death in 1893, (in his ninetieth year), Mrs. Scribner having 
died in 1885, at the age of seventy-six. Mr. Scribner held several town offices, and 
was one of the company that built and for a time operated a store at the Town 
Pump. Mr. and Mrs. Scribner were both members of the Baptist Church. The 
children were Oilman A., of Iowa; Harvey I., of South Dakota; David, who died 
aged three years; Moses, who died in infancy; and Henry D., who owns and occu- 
pies the home place. Mr. Scribner prospered in his business life, and gave two of 
his sons a collegiate education, and assisted his children in starting in life. Henry 
D. was born iJecember 7, 1849, received his education at Rochester and Dansville, 
studied telegraphy and spent several years in Kansas and California; in 1874 he was 
called home to care for his father and mother in their old age. In 188G he married 
Barbara A. Scott, a daughter of Adam Scott, of West New Brighton, Staten Island, 
N. Y. ; they have one child, Albertine. Mr. and Mrs. Scribner are both members of 
the Ogden Center Presbyterian church. 

Starkweather, Chauncey G., was born in Otsego county in 1840, a son of Chaun- 
cey Ci., sr., who was a native of Connecticut, and a blacksmith and farmer, coming 
to Brighton in 1801, where he was successfully engaged in a seed growing business. 
His wife was Mary W. Bardon of Connecticut, and their children Chauncey G. and 
Jerry. He died in Florida in 1894, where he had gone for his health. His wife died 
in Brighton in 1880. Our subject is a popular leader and representative man, a 
supervisor, and one of the managers of the Rochester State Hospital. He began 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 63 

forhimselt, learning the patternmaker's trade in Chester county, I'a., at which he 
worked four years. In 18(58 he enlisted in Co. G, 124th Pa. Vols., and served nine 
months, participating in the battles of Antietam and other engagements, receiving 
a slight wound. He was then in the government employ two years at Chattanooga, 
Tenu. In IHiiii he came to this town and engaged in the seed growing business with 
his father and brother, and four years later bought out their interest in the farm, 
where he has since been extensively engaged in seed growing. For many years he 
has taken a leading part in local politics, and in 1864 he was chosen as one of the 
building committee of the new Rochester court-house, which is in the course of erec- 
tion at the present time; and in 1895 he was appointed by Governor Morton f)ne of 
the managers of the Rochester State Hospital. He is a Master Mason of Valley 
Lodge, Rochester. In 1867 he married Emily L., daughter of Zachariah and Klva 
S. (Hill) Lewis, and they have one child, Lewis C. , and Albert J. Fish, a nephew, 
whom they brought up from a child. His parents, Judson and Alvira Fish, died 
when he was but five years old. Zachariah Lewis was a pioneer of Brighton before 
1813, in which war he participated. 

Glea.son, Benjamm F., was born ui Jerusalem, Yates county, January 13, 1840, a 
son of Joseph, born in Lockport, who removed in 1830 to Yates county, and later to 
Michigan. The latter was a carpenter and builder, and married Maria Smith. Ben- 
jamin F. Gleason was educated in the common schools. August 36, 1863, he enlisted 
m Co. F, 148th N. Y. Vols., and participated in all the battles of the James. He 
was honornbly discharged at the close of the war, and returning home took up the 
manufacture of carriages at Potter, Yates county, soon after. In 1875 he came to 
Brockport and engaged in the undertaking business, which he continued up to 1884. 
In 1881 he patented the Gleason Embalming Board, and is now giving his entire 
attention to its manufacture. In 1860 he married Emma L. Reed, who died in 1869. 
In 1877 he married Alice Bordwell. Our subject is one of the representative men of 
his town, having served as president of the village, trustee, supervisor, etc. 

Hovey, Cassius M., was born ni Clarkson, February 1, 1845, a son of Ebenezer 
Hovey, who was born in Bloomfield, this county, October 4, 1807, and came to 
Clarkson in 1835, where he engaged in farming. In 1833 he married Nancy A., 
daughter of Capt. Charles Treat, who was a soldier of the War of 1812. By refer- 
ence to a genealogy of the Treat family, which dates back 150 years, it is learned 
that Nancy A. is a descendant of James Treat, who was a brother of Richard and 
Robert Treat, immigrants to Milford or Weathersfield, Conn., from England, about 
the year 1638. They afterwards became prominent in important affairs of the col- 
ony at a time when it was seeing its darkest days through threats and plots of usur- 
pation, etc., by the Indians and Dutch settlers. The colonists admiring the ability 
of Robert Treat as a statesman and jurist, elected him from time to time to minor 
offices up to the year 1676, when he was made deputy governor, holding the office 
until 1683, when, owing to his popularity, he was elected governor, which office he 
filled until 1698, when, on account of the arduous duties and his advancing age, he 
resigned ; but so thoroughly was he appreciated by the people that they again elected 
him deputy governor, which office he reluctantly accepted, and held it until his 
death, making a total of more than thirty years that he served as governor and dep- 



64 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

uty ijovernoi to the full satisfaction of the colonists. James and Richard were his 
counselors in all matters of importance touching upon the affairs of the colony. Re- 
turning to Ebenezer Hovey, of him it may be said, that prompted by his iron will 
and strong muscle, he decided to carve out a home in the forest, and accordingly 
purchased a farm of eighty acres in Clarkson in 1832, on which there were no im- 
provements save a log hut. In this humble dwelling, surrounded by massive oaks, he 
and his bride took up their residence, feeling that if it was gloomy and deficient in 
accommodations, it was not second to those of other pioneers. By industry and 
perseverance he succeeded in clearmg his land, which advanced in value to such an 
extent that he sold it to a good profit, and bought another tract, and so continued, 
until he had accumulated quite a fortune, which he left to his widow and seven chil- 
dren at his death, which occurred in Clarkson, in March, 1888, in his seventy-sixth 
year. Cassius M. Hovey, the subject and author of this sketch, was one of his seven 
children. He was educated at Holley Academy and Brockport Collegiate Institute, 
graduating from the latter June 23, 1866, after which he taught school several terms 
in Monroe county and Berrien county, Mich. , being licensed by State superintend- 
ents of public instruction. In 1869 he married in Brockport, Orra, daughter of An- 
drew Johnson, and settled in the following spring on his father's farm in Sweden, 
just outside of the corporation line of Brockport, a farm he now owns and conducts. 
They have had the following children: Fred Clay, who was educated at Brockport 
State Normal School and Rochester Business University, graduating from both with 
honor in 1891 and 1892 respectively, after which he was bookkeeper one j'ear for Sib- 
ley, Lindsey & Curr and Court Street Bridge Company, and was afterwards chosen 
manager of Spencer's Business Colleges at Yonkers and Kingston, N. Y. , remaining 
until 1894, when he became principal of Schencctadj- Business College, which posi- 
tion he now holds; and Ida May, who is now attending school in Clarkson. 

Aldrich, J. G., was born in Egypt, near the site of his present home, April 11, 1819. 
He was born in a log house erected by his father, the late George Aldrich, very early 
in the century. George was of Massachusetts birth, and married Mary Potter, whose 
father, Noel Potter, was an ensign in the navy in the Revolution. The first job 
printing done in this locality was by Josiah Aldrich, who about 1869 became the pos- 
.sessor of press and type. The first executed by him was the "Know-Nothing" 
tickets His office was destroyed by.fire in 1886. Mr. Aldrich has always been a 
farmer, but served sixteen successive years as justice of the peace, as supervisor in 
1866-67, and at the present writing he is again a justice. He has one son, Adelbert 
E., by his first wife, Margaret Wood, now deceased. His second wife, al.so deceased, 
was Samantha Springer. In 1892 he married Miss Julia Potter. Among the early 
chronicles we find mention of a baby show held in 1819, perhaps the first on record, 
at which Mr. Aldrich took first prize for beauty. In the fall of 1803 Solomon Aldrich 
and his oldest son, Adolphus, then about sixteen years old, left on foot their home 
in Ashfield, Mass., to visit a cousin, who had left Ashfield and located in Macedon, 
Wayne county, some two years before. In the spring they walked back, sold their 
place there, and with an emigrant wagon drawn by a yoke of oxen, removed to 
Macedon. He soon after bought a farm in the wilderness, made some improvements, 
sold it, and in 1806 bought and eventually cleared up a farm in Perinton, that borders 
on the west line of Wayne county, known as the "Aldrich Hill" farm. Solomon 



FAMILY SKETCHE§. 65 

lived to a ripe old age and died on this place, as did also liis son Adolphus. His 
second son, George, in 1816, bought and moved on the farm now occupied by J. (">■ 
Aldrich, which joins the old homestead. George was married in 1817. Mr. J. (1. 
Aldrich has one brother, Noel P. A., who entered the Post-office Dei)artment at 
Washington, D. C, in 1882, and had one sister, now deceased. His grandfather was 
a Revolutionary soldier, and was present at the execution of Major Andre. 

Matthews, Irving E.— In 1817 Edward Matthews, a native of North Wales, Europe, 
settled on the farm in the southwestern part of the town, still owned by his descend- 
ants. He removed here from the town of Seneca, Ontario county, N. Y., having 
emigrated from Europe at an unknown date. He died in 1824 at the age of sixty- 
three, leaving a widow and three children: John and Margaret by his first wife, and 
Elias by his second. His widow, Mary, lived to the advanced age of eighty-four, 
dying in 1850. Elias Matthews was eleven years old when his parents settled here 
in 1817, and his life was spent upon the farm, becoming in mature years a prominent 
figure m the social life of the town, being a major in the local militia, and active Whig 
in politics, and was a member of the county legislature at the time of his death in 
1851.. In 1829 he married Mehitable Ann, daughter of Charles Kinter, one of the 
earliest settlers in the town, and she survived her husband six years. Three children 
were the result of this union : Mary E. , Edward C. and Wirt. Wirt Matthews was 
born February 25, 1838, and has always resided upon the farm, being an active mem- 
ber of the Republican party and a highly esteemed citizen. He married in 1861, 
Ellen M., daughter of George W. Brown, of Henrietta, Mr. and Mrs. Matthews are 
members of the Presbyterian church of this town. Their only son, Irving E., born 
in 1865, is a civil engineer. He received his education at the common schools of the 
town, the Rochester Business University, and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 
from which he graduated in 1887 with the degree of C. E. He has practiced his pro- 
fession here and in the West, and was connected with the Rochester water-works 
during the construction of the new conduit from Hemlock Lake, in 1893-94. In 1887 
he married Hattie A. Hodges, of Henrietta, and has one son, Stanley W. 

Slocum, George E,. was born in Pompey, Onondaga county, June 20, 1824, a son 
of MathewB., a native of Newport, R. I. Anthony Slocum is recorded as one of 
the forty-six first ancient purchasers, in 1637, of the territory of Cohannet, which 
was incorporated March 3, 1639, with the name of Taunton, in New Plymouth, now 
Massachusetts. He came from England with three -sons and a daughter, and his- 
oldest son, Giles, is the common ancestor of the Slocum family in America. Mathew 
B., father of the subject, removed to Albany, N. Y., where he married in 1814, Mary, 
daughter of John Ostrander of Albany, and three years later he settled in Delphi. 
Onondaga county, where he became a merchant. He died in August, 1853, while 
visiting in Scottsville. His wife died in Syracuse in 1865. Of their eleven chil- 
dren, George E. was the fifth. Major-general Henry W. Slocum, of war fame, was 
the next younger brother. Mr. Slocum dwelt in Cortland from 1839 to 1843, and 
from 1843 to 1849 in the city of Rochester, where he worked at his trade of tinsmith. 
In 1849 he removed to Scottsville, Monroe county, where he was actively and suc- 
cessfully engaged in the hardware, stove and tinware business. In 1892 he retired 
and left the business in the hands of his son, Le Roy. He has served as justice and 



.66 I>.\XDMAJiKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

assessor. In !S4S he married Lydia A., daughter of Garrett and Alice M. (Mors) 
Fort, and their children are Karl H., George F"., Le Roy M. and Mors O. 

Clark, Brackett H., was born in Salem, Mass., January IT, 1821, was educated in 
the common schools and graduated from the high school. In 1847 he married Lu- 
cretia Bowker of his native place, whose mother was a direct descendant from John 
Rogers, the martyr. They have had three children: Frank H., who died in infancy; 
Daniel R., bf)rn April 10, 18.");5, who is a member of the Clark Paint & Oil Company. 
He married Helon Ross, of Rossburg, and has two daughters, Helene, and Lucretia 
R. The youngest son, George H., is a book-keeper by occupation, and has traveled 
extensively in Europe for the benefit of his health. He was born in this city Octo- 
ber 14, I.SOO, and resides at home. Mr. Clark left his home in Salem, going to Law- 
rence, Mass., in 1846, where he became identified with the business interests of that 
city, building the first three-story brick business block in the town. He came to this 
city in 1858, where he has resided continuously on Lake Avenue for thirty-six years, 
and has been identified with the city's best interests. He is secretary of the East- 
man Kodak Company, having been identified with the company from its organization, 
as well as in other corporations. Mr. Clark has seen the city grow from 45, ()()() to 
160,000 and has contributed his share to its prosperity. The family are of English 
extraction. 

Goodridge, Jo.seph H., was born in Ogden, December 6, 1835, a son of Albert, a 
native of Westminster, Vt., who came to Monroe county in 1829. The later married 
Amanda Wright, daughter of Elihu Wright. Albert was a pioneer of Vermont, and 
a man of high character and integrity, who died in 1882 in his seventy-eighth year. 
Joseph H. was educated in the public schools, and was a teacher for several terms, 
and in 1868 married Betsey, daughter of William P. Strong. They have one 
daughter, Carolyn B. Goodridge. Joseph H. is a practical and successful farmer, 
actively interested in the affairs of his town and county. 

Brown, Capt. Samuel, who was one of the pioneers of Ogden, earned his title as 
owner and commander of an American privateer during the war of 1812. He was 
run down and captured by a British cruiser and carried to England, where he was 
held prisoner till the end of the war. His property was swept away by the war, and 
in 1815 he left his home in Maine and came to the Genesee country, settling in Ogden. 
Here be married 'Miss Mercy Kelsey, the belle of a New Hampshire village, who 
could spin more flax than any other young miss in the locality. They had five chil- 
dren: John, James and William, and two who died young. William went to Michi- 
gan early, James at a later date, and John resided on the old farm until he bought 
where bis son Ely now lives. He married Fanny Hnnn, of an old Henrietta family, 
and has had three children S. Ely, Lydia, and Julia E., the latter the wife of H. J. 
Dignin. John Brown died in February, 1890, and his widow survives. Samuel Ely 
Brown, known as one of Ogden's enterprising farmers, and straight-forward men, 
was born July 28, 1846, and has always followed agriculture. In 1877 he married 
Alice Alderman of Tyrone, N. Y. Mrs. Brown is an artist of more than ordinary 
talent. 

Nichols, Barnabas A., was a native of Ogden, born in 1806, the son of Lewis Nich- 
ols, one of the pioneers of the town. Barnabas is remembered as one of the early 



t'AMrLY SKETCHES. G7 

carpenters of this locality and also as a man of prominence in local affairs, though he 
never sought political advancement. With Alvin Webster, he built the M.' E. Church 
■ at Adams Basin, and was one of its devoted members. Mr. Nichols married Sarah 
Allerton, and had eight children: Frances, who married Prof. F. B. Palmer; John 
B., who enlisted in Co. G, 1:5th N. Y. Vols., and was wounded at the first battle of 
Bull Run, captured, and died in a rebel prison; Mary I., who married Caleb Hurl- 
butt; William P., of Rochester; Lydia A., wi^e of 0.smar Nevins; Edwin D., and 
Ambrose E. Barnabas Nichols died in 18C2. Edwin D. was born December 8, 1852, 
educated at the old Parma Academy, and engaged on his father's farm for a time 
after the latter's death. For a time he was engaged with J. S. Bowen, erecting 
evaporators, and carried on quite an extensive business. Mr. Bowen was one of the 
pioneers in the apple evaporating industry in the State. He died in Spencerport 
December 27, 1886. In 1881 Mr. Nichols married Ada, daughter of John S. and Eu- 
nice J. Bowen, and they have one child, Bennie Earl. 

Yorks, William R., was born in Smithtown, in what is now Livingston countv, in 
1829. His father, John B., was also born there in 1S(I2, his ancestors being New 
Jersey people. His paternal grandfather, Eldrick Yorks, had a farm, a mill, and a 
distillery at Smithtown, and was in the war of 1812. The wife of John B. was a Miss 
Martin of that town, the family having come from Connecticut. John B. and his 
father moved to Honeoye Falls in 18B5. He established a foundry and machine 
shop, with his two sons, Elias and William as partners. He was an active politician 
in his day, and held various town and county offices, his death occurring in 1881. 
His wife died in 1865. William R. Yorks has resided in Honeoye Falls since a small 
boy, and grew up to his father's business. He married Phoebe Hurlbutt, her father 
a Vermont man, and a printer of Rochester, and her mother coming from the Mo- 
hawk country. Their five children are William K., who married a Miss Warner and 
lives in Lima; Henry, who married Cora Scottof Mendon ; Fannie, Emma, and May, 
all living in Honeoye Falls. The business after the father's death came to Elias and 
William, and in 1891 to the latter alone. It has long had a good reputation for its 
plows, cultivators, etc. 

Harris, Erastus T., son of John, was born in Victor and was the son of William. 
The family came from New Jersey. John lived in Perinton for some time, came to 
Mendon at about thirty-five years of age, and remained on the Townsend farm until 
his death in 1878. His wife was Rachel A., daughter of Joseph B. Townsend, he a 
son of Zebulon, who came to Mendon in 1811, settling in the northwest part of the 
town on the place now occupied by our subject. John and Rachel Harris had one 
son, Erastus, Mrs. Harris was born on the farm of her father, and died there in 
March, 1894. Erastus married Georgia, daughter of Timothy Howland, of Macedon. 
Wayne county, and they have two daughters, Carrie E. and Mabel H. 

Hodskin, Egbert L., supervisor of Perinton, and senior partner of the firm of Hod- 
skin &• Peacock, druggists, was born in Perinton RLiy 15, 18:W, the second son of the 
late Perrin and Maria (Vinton) Hodskin. An elder brother. Charles H., was a cap- 
tain of infantry in the late war, and is now a resident of Manistee, Mich., and is pres- 
ident of the Boom & Lumber Company of that place. Mr. Hodskin's business life 
began as freight agent at the Fairport depot, which po.sition he filled eight years, 



63 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COtJNTY. 

and in 18G8 boui^hl an interest in the druji business, four years later forming a co- 
l)artnership with Charles L. Peacock, which still exists. He has served as trustee 
and president of tlie village, and in 1890 was elected supervisor. Of genial person- , 
ality and strict integrity, his record as a man and a citizen is to be envied. In 1869 
he married IClizabeth A., daughter of William M. Butler of Newark. Their only son, 
Bert (i., died in 188S, when but eighteen years of age. 

Vannest, James C, son of John Vannest, born in Washington, Warren county, N. 
J., November 10, 1802; came to Rochester in 183(!, where he lived about a year, then 
moved to Ogden. where he cleared up a farm, having married Lucy Grunendike of 
Chdi, September 2(5, 18i7, who died January '■), 1858. Their children were John, 
Sarah and Henry. For his second wife, he married AlmiraMcMaster, of Burgh Hdl, 
Ohio, April 9, 1862, and moved to Ogden Center, where she died December 18, 1869, 
and he June 27, 1890. He and all his family have been active members of theOgden 
Presbyterian church. John, born Aug. 1, 1828, married Cornelia Pratt of Batavia, De- 
cember 17, 18r)2, settled on a farm adjoining his father's and died January 12, 1890, 
survived by his wife and two daughters, Ella C. and S. Lucretia (,Mrs. Alex. Colby), 
Ada C. and James P. having died in childhood. Sarah, born January 30, 1881, was 
active during the Civil war in work of the Soldiers' Aid Society, after which she 
spent two years in (Georgia, teaching in colored schools, and since then has lived at 
Ogden Center, having cared for her father in his declining years. Henry, born 
Mai'ch 15, 1834, has always lived on the home farm. He married Julia E. Keney of 
West Hartford. Conn., November 25, 1858, who died July 5, 1861 , married Anna L. 
1 )rake of Greece, October 31, 1866. Their children are Charles H., of Rochester, 
l^'rank D. and Fred (i. (twins), at home. 

May, Mrs. Jane A. — In 1777, at Hadley, Mass., was born John Acer, son of Will- 
iam Acer, who was one of the first people to make a home in this locality, and whose 
descendants occupy a leading position in the early annals of Pittsford. John Acer 
was especially prominent in village affairs, being a man of public spirit and broad 
views. lie at one time owned 100 acres, the northeastern corner of which laud is 
now the intersection of Monroe and Main streets. In 1826 he built the Phoenix Ho- 
tel, a building noteworthy for an architectural excellence far in advance of the time, 
and still the Icadnig hotel of the village. His wife was Hannah Whipple, daughter 
of a sea captain, by whom he had seven children, of whom Mrs. Jane May was the 
youngest, and is now the sole survivor. In 1848 she married Col. L. S. May, who 
was born in 1817 in Washington county, and has been one of the leading merchants 
and a large manufacturer and refiner. Colonel and Mrs. May are now living retired 
in the old Acer mansion in Pittsford. They have one daughter, Mary May, and a 
grandson, Henry May, now a student at Hobart College, and a young man of much 
promise. 

Johnson, Fi^mk P., was born in Brockport January 24, 1856, a son of William E. , 
born in 1816 and who came to the Genesee country with his parents, who settled in 
what is now Hamlin. The family were of English extraction. William E. married 
Nancy IL, daughter of William Burrows, and was always identified with the car- 
riage manufacturing business, also with farming. Frank P. was educated at the 
Brockport Normal School, and in 1880 entered the employ of the firm of L. Gordon 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 6d 

& Son, and at the present time has charge of their lumber business in the village of 
Brockport. In 1893 our subject married Laura, daughter of Nathaniel Fulford, and 
they have one child, Helen Dorothy. Mr. Johnson has served as vestryman of St. 
Luke s Episcopal church, director of the First National Bank, and various ofhces of 
high trust. 

Hodges, George H., whose farm southeast of Spencerport is regarded as one of the 
best in the town, was born November 28, 1804, and has always followed agriculture. 
In 1875 he bought the Chase farm of seventy acres, and here his life has been spent. 
In 1884 Mr. Hodges married Judith, daughter of Hon Josiah Rich, and they have 
had two children. George H. was the son of George P. Hodges, the latter born 
January 3, 1807, and his mother was Mary A. Day, born July 25, 1811. They were 
married in 1832, and came to the Genesee country from Rutland, Vt., setthng in 
Ogden about 1837. Mr. Hodges followed hotel keeping in Vermont, and in Ogden 
engaged in farming. He died August 1, 1873, and his wife August 21, 1877. 

Burns, John D., was born in New York city, March 9, 1854. His father, John, was 
a native of Bath, England, who came to this country in 1853, with his wife, Maria, 
daughter of John Marshall, and in 1855 located in Brockport. He enlisted in Co. H, 
108th Regt. N. Y. Vols, and served four years. John B. was educated at the Brock- 
port State Normal School, and afterwards taught .school four years. In 1874 he be- 
gan the study of law in the ofltice of Major John Norris, of BufiPalo, and was admitted 
to the bar in 1877, beginning practice in Brockport, which he still continues. In 1883 
he married Clara E., daughter of George H. vSmith, and they have one son, George. 
Our subject is a leading member of the Monroe county bar, and takes an active in- 
terest in town affairs, having been a member of the Local Board of the Brockport 
State Normal School for the past six years. 

Flagg, Henry S. , son of the pioneer, Samuel Flagg, was born in Ogden Septem- 
ber 9, 1810, and was a successful farmer, having accumulated a good property. He 
married Catharine E. Gridley (died March 3, 1891), and their children were Helen, 
who died young; Henry S., of Ogden; Sarah K., wife of Charles C. Smith; and 
Stephen G. Mr. Flagg died March 4, 1887. Stephen G. Flagg was born August 
13, 1841, and like his father has followed agriculture. Novembef 25, 1863, he mar- 
ried Frances A. Whittier, and they have had six children, five of whom are living. 
Mr. Flagg was elected asses.sor, but declined to qualify, he did however, consent to 
serve as license commissioner. He lives upon the farm upon which his father moved 
in 1832. 

Martin, James, an old and well-known resident of Wheatland, was born in Rush, 
Monroe county, in 1830. His father was James K., of Rensselaer county, one of 
eight sons and three daughters of Killian and Millicent (Sibley) Martin. James K. 
was a farmer by occupation, came to Rush in 1821, and died there in 1871. He was 
a prosperous farmer, and provided all his children with farms. His wife was Fannie 
Hempstead Bristol, and they had eight sons and five daughters. James began life 
at the age of twenty-four in the town of Henrietta. Twelve years later he bought 
and removed to his father-in-law's homestead of 225 acres in Wheatland, where he 
has since resided. In 1856 he married Martha J., daughter of Calvin and Katurah 



10 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Miller of Vermont and Saratoga county respectively. She was born on the farm 
where she now lives in 1885. Mr. and Mrs. Martin have had five children: Martha 
(deceased), Mrs. Sarah Giles of Livingston county, Mrs. Mary E. Tunison of Chili, 
Emma J. and James C. The Jatter conducts the farm, and has two children. 

Eldred, Franklin, is a son of Joseph Eldred, who settled in Webster atan early day, 
and Cyrena Ani\-, whose father was also one of the early settlers; he married Zer- 
uiah, daughter uf Nathan Ballard, who was one of the early settlers, having come 
here in the year 1812. Franklin Eldred has two sons, Arthur L. and Franklin N. , 
and three daughters, Mrs. E. J. Wells. , Miss Carrie M. Eldred, and Mrs. B. M. Fos- 
ter. Joseph Eldred came to Webster in the year 1815. October 7, 1823, he married 
Miss Cyrena Amy, then eighteen years old, and went to keeping house on the town 
line between Webster and Ontario. There he erected two mills, and an extract from 
his diary reads: " On the night of the 18th of October, 1824, the mills which I erected 
with so much care, pains and labor, and just brought to a state that would afford me 
some profit, were consumed by fire, together with the old saw mill and barn, and 
about sixteen tons of hay, on which was my principal dependence for the winter." 
He was also inventor of the spirit level, now so much in use. 

Davis, G. W., is a son of Isaac Davis, of Welsh ancestry, and Eleanor Laird Davis, 
of Scotch ancestry, who were born and lived in Monmouth county N. J., until Martji, 
1824, when they bought and moved on to a farm in the town of Walworth, Wayne 
county, N. Y., remaining there clearing up and improving the land until 18G8, when 
he sold the farm and moved into the village of West Walworth, where remained until 
his death at the age of ninety-two years. (Gilbert W. is the only son of ten children. 
He was born in Walworth, January 13, 1825. At the age of twenty-five he married 
Miss Zillah M. Gage (jf Penfield, Monroe county, and began farming which he fol- 
lowed in various places until 1853, when he bought and moved on to the farm where 
he now lives. Mrs. Davis died May 17, 1S91, leaving an only child, Mary L. Davis. 

Cross, Elam A., was born in Parma August 31, 1842. a son of Luman and Mary 
Ann (Raymond) Cross, whose grandfather was Elihu Cross, a pioneer of this town. 
The children of Luman Cross were James A., Elam A., Julia F., Ira L., and one who 
died young. Mr. Cross died in Parma in 1883, and his wife in 187(). At the age of 
twenty Elam began for himself, and spent some little time in Michigan. Returning 
to Parma he lived for ten years upon a farm. In 187G the firm of Cross & Eraser, 
general store, was formed, and continued at Unionville about three j'ears, when Mr. 
Cross retired, and with David King began the manufacture of fertilizers, etc., and 
soon became sole proprietor. This still continues, and is regarded as one of the fixed 
interests of the town. Mr. Cross has also during all these years dealt extensively in 
beans, which he buys and ships, and during the past eight years this has been his 
principal business, although having other enterprises under his charge. Mr. Cross 
served as supervisor (1880-83, 1889-91), was postmaster at North Parma about six 
years, and was the first president of the village. He had a successful business career, 
notwithstanding one misfortune, having lost heavily by the burning of his farm 
buildings. He married Mary A. Plass, and they have had five children, three now 
living. 

Kempe, Dr. Julius, was born in Boston, Mass., in 1843. He received an academic 



FAMILY SKETCriES. 71 

education, and studied medicine in the Albau)- Medical College, from which he grad- 
uated in 1868. He afterwards practiced in Milwaukee, Wis., and came to Roch- 
ester in 1873, where he is now practicing his profession with eminent success. He is 
a member of the Monroe County Medical Society, of the Pathological Society of Roch- 
ester, and one of the surgical staflf of the Rochester City Hospital. In 1872 he mar- 
ried Belle Hargrave of Ripon, Wis., and they have two children, Walter G. and 
Belle, both students. 

Van Ingen, Bart, was born in the Hague in Holland in 1833, came to America in 
1853, and married in 1864 a daughter of Abraham Martin, by whom he had fivesons: 
Benson, who has conducted the home farm since his father's death in 1868; (Jy.sbert, 
Henry, Arthur, and Willis. Mrs. Van Ingcn's mother was a daughter of John Man- 
deville, who came to Webster in 1812 from Middleburg, and was a .son of John first, 
who came from Holland. 

Thayer, Preston, was born in Ontario in 1820, and is the son of Aldrich Thayer, 
who came from Macedon in early life, and now resides in Ontario at the advanced age 
of ninety-four. In 1841 Mr. Thayer married Clarissa, daughter of Eliphalet Law- 
rence, who died in 1877. and they had five children, as follows: William H., who now 
carries on the farm; Alonzo W. , a farmer and cider maker; Alvah I., who lives in 
California and is a mechanic; Ida V., a teacher of music; and Jerusha A., who died 
October 2, 1855, Mr. Thayer was for sixteen years a justice of the peace, and settled 
on his present farm in 1844. There is a saw mill on the farm, built by William 
Wiley about seventy years ago, which is still in use. In 1880 a feed mill was added. 

Allen, Lewis B., was born in Scaghticoke, Rensselaer county, December 14, 1822, 
and removed to Ogden, Monroe county, when eight years old. He lived there until 
the time of his marriage with Catherine Brower, daughter of John Brower, May 7, 
1851 ; he then removed to Sweden, where these children were born to him; Lewis vS. , 
Mrs. Frank A. Sammis, Mrs. Harriet E. Whipple, and Pollen, who died March 5, 1860. 
Lewis B. Allen died April 30, 1865. His son and wife live on the farm he left. He 
■ wa!5 town superintendent of schools two years, and was a teacher nineteen term.s. 
Of upright, conservative character, it may be said of him that an honest man is the 
noblest work of God. 

Way, George H., was born on the homestead, September 30, 1827, a son of Samuel 
v., a native of Colchester, Conn. The family were of English descent, and among 
the early settlei*S of that State. Samuel V. married Elizabeth Ressegieu, daughter 
of John Ressegieu, and came to this town in 1816, and settled where his descendants 
now reside. He followed farming all his life, but during the first few years he got 
out stone for fireplaces and buildings, having quantities on his own farm. His death 
occurred in 1883 in his ninety-second year, George H. was educated in the common 
schools. In 1854 he married Miss Clara E. Chappell, daughter of Guy Chappell. 
They have had five children: Frank C, who died in 1869; Allie C. Williams, who 
died in 1874; Nellie W. Stratton, Clara W. Nelson, and Georgia E. Way. 

Knight, Andrew M., was born in Webster, a son of Nathaniel Knight, who came 
to Webster in 1817 and died here in 1890. aged ninety-five years. Andrew M. mar- 
ried Phoebe, daughter of Franklin Robb, and granddaughter of John Robb. Her 



72 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY 

mother was a daughter of Alpheus Crocker, who was one of the first settlers itf Web- 
ster. They have two sons, George L. and Dayton R. Knight, and one daughter, 
Mary Knight. 

Hettler, William, was born in Germany in 1845, and is the son of John I >., who 
came to America in 1852 and settled in Webster, where he died in 1886. Mr. Hettler 
is known as one of the leading farmers and fruit growers of this town, having been 
for the past twelve years on the farm where he now resides. He has one son, Ed- 
ward W., and two daughters, Hattie M. and Florence I. 

Wolf, John F. , was born in Germany in 1855 and came to America in ]8<i5 with his 
parents. He is a son of Charles Wolf of Penfield. In 1878 he married Freadereke 
Bauer, and their children are Louisa Mary, Bertha Emma, and Charles. Mr. Wolf 
is one of the thrifty farmers of the town, having made many improvements in his 
home since coming here. 

Brown, George S., was born in Mendon, December 15, 1826, a son of Capt. Hugh 
Brown, a native of Whitehall, who came to Monroe county in 1820. He married 
Deborah Sanford, and was prominently identified with the town life of Mendon, 
serving as captain in the State militia, and taking a leading jjart in town affairs. He 
died in 1865 in his seventy-second year. George S. was educated in the common 
schools, and in 1853 married Elizabeth, daughter of Harvey Field, by whom he has 
had these children : William J., and Eliza. In 1870 Mr. Brown came to Brockport, 
and became identified with all the active interests of the town. He is a man of ster- 
ling character, whose word is as good as his bond. 

Grant, Archil)ald S., was born in Caledonia, March 18, 1853, a. son of Donald Grant, 
a native of Scotland, who came to this town with his wife, Margaret Stewart in 1850. 
They remained three years, then returned to their native country. Of their ten 
children, our subject was born during his parents' stay in America. He attended 
school until the age of twelve, when he entered a store as clerk, and at the 
age of eighteen sailed for America, coming direct to Mumford, where he made his 
h(mie with his uncle. He taught school for a time, and in 1876 married Ellison, 
youngest daughter of Deacon Irvin, of Mumford. She died in Kansas in 1885, where 
they had purchased a farm. In 1890 he was married to Eliza M., daughter of Charles 
Ball, and they have two children. Mr. Grant is a member of the Knights of Macca- 
bees, and Mrs. Grant of the Ladies of Maccabees. 

Butts, Truman (deceased), was born in 1829 in Perinton, where his whole life was 
spent, and where his memory will long be cherished for his charity and unostentatious 
benevolence. He was for many years prominent in local affairs, and an active mem- 
ber of the Congregational society, serving as clerk thereof for thirty years. He was 
for nine years commissioner of highways, and a member of the Board of Education 
for as long a term. He won a high place in the esteem of the community, and his 
death, which occurred June 16, 1888, was mourned as a personal loss by the people. 
He married Mary, daughter of the late Thomas D. Walker, who was born in Che- 
nango county in 1812 and came to Perinton in 1822. His occupation was that of a 
farmer, and he was a man of superior ability and education, and was at one time 
supervisor, besides holding other official positions. His children were Nancy J, 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 73 

Hamilton, John W., Walker, Sarah A. Sawyer, and Mary A., who married Truman 
Butts. Mr. and Mrs. Butts had an only daughter, Alida. who was born in 1808; her 
early life was one of great promise, but was cut short by her untimely death in 1885. 
Her inborn love for the beautiful had already found expression in the art of painting, 
and the products of her brush show remarkable artistic feeling and development. 

Lennon, W. H., was born in Rensselaerville, Albany county, N. Y., August 15, 
1838. The family trace their descent to one of two brothers who came to this country 
from the North of Ireland about 1750. He removed with his parents to Chenango 
county, where he worked on his father's farm during the summer and attended sch-^ol 
winters. After teaching district school for several terms, he went to Binghamton 
and graduated from the High School in 1863. The following year he was employed 
as assistant in the same school. In 1864 he entered Genesee College from which he 
graduated in 1867, and was immediately employed as principal of the Clyde High 
School. The next year was spent in organizing a graded school in Cobleskill, N. Y. 
In 1869 he was called to Brockport and made professor of science in the Brockport 
Normal and Training School. In 1882 he was elected vice-principal of the same in- 
stitution, which position he still holds. In 1867 he married Sarah Shepherd, and 
their children are Alice Grace and Miriam. Mr. Lennon is one of the best known 
teachers in Western New York. 

Pellett, James, was born in Kent, England, in 1833, and came to America and 
to Webster in 1853, and three months later moved to Madison county, residing 
there six years, and then returned to Webster, in 1859, and settled on the farm where 
he now lives and is engaged in fruit growing. He married Sarah Stace of England, 
and their children are George A., James F., Spencer A., John E., Sihon W., Charles 
H., and Raymond R. They have also three daughters, Mary, Carrie and Sarah. 
Mr. Pellett was one of the jurors that tried the last case in the old Monroe county 
court-house, that was torn down in 1894. 

Howard, .Seymour W., was born in Sweden, March 4, 1819, a son of Sampson How- 
ard, who came to this county in 1810, and was among the pioneers of the town (Swe- 
den), he, with his brother, clearing up several farms. He married Amanda, daugh- 
ter of Joseph Saulsbury, was an honest, upright man, and received the respect of his 
townspeople. He died in 1885, in his seventieth year. Seymour Howard was edu- 
cated in the common schools, to which he has added through life by reading and close 
observation. In 1841 he married Lois B., daughter of Hail Mason, and their chil- 
dren are O. L. and Charles M. 

Cobb, F. D. H., of Fairport, was born at Fort Edward. N. Y., July 8, 1S66. His 
father, the late Amos H. Cobb, was at that time in the paper business in New York 
city. He established in 1881 a canned goods factory, which has grown into one of the 
most important industries of Fairport. Mr. Cobb was, at the time of his father's 
death, engaged in the practice of law in Rochester, having been admitted to the bar 
in January, 1889. His preparatory studies were prosecuted at the Brooklyn Collegiate 
Polytechnic Institute, the Fairport Classical Union School and at Colgate University, 
from which he was graduated in 1886. He is a member of the New York State Bar 
Association, 
i 



74 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY 

Stokes, William H., was born in-Wayne county in 1859. His father was Jimalhan, 
son of Richard Stokes, whose father came from Scotland in an early day. Our sub- 
ject followed farming and teaching for several years prior to 1884, when he came t(j 
Union Hill, and entered the store of F. M. Jones, and after clerking for two years, 
bought out Mr. Jones's interest and has since conducted it alone. He is also post- 
master. He married Mattie, daughter of John and granddaughter of Byron Wood- 
hull, who was at one time judge of Monroe county. 

Warner, Fred, of Fairport, manufacturer of combmation wire and slat fences, and 
dealer in agricultural implements, Hour, feed, etc., was born in New York city, where 
his father, Samuel Warner, was a cabinet-maker. Samuel later located in Arcadia, 
Wayne county, having also farmed for a time in Yates county. He died in Arcadia 
July 4, 1860. Frederick began as a farmer, and was located in Arcadia from 1857 to 
1809, when he removed to Perinton, where he is still interested in agriculture. He 
handles several specialties of mechanical merit and general application. In May, 
1893, he established his business in the Newman block. He has served as com'mis- 
sionof of highways, and as assessor. In 1865 he married Eva Niesz of Fairport, and 
their children are M. S., Levi L. Barnard M., Amy L. , Marguerite A., wife of Rich- 
ard Williams, and Fred L. Another son, Walter, was killed at the age of eighteen 
by a kick from ahorse. The elder sons are associated with their father in business, 
and Levi L. is an employee of Snow & Parce. 

Rovve, Asa, was born in the town of Greece, February 25, 1806. His father, Abel 
Rowe, settled on the Ridge in 1805, and married Miss Amy Hincher, daughter of 
one of the early settlers of Monroe county. In 1828 Asa Rowe married Ruby M., 
daughter of John Reed of Sweden. They had six children : Ruby E. , Asa W. , George, 
Edwin, Oscar and Arthur. In 1824 Mr. Rowe commenced keeping hotel on the north 
side of the Ridge Road near the present Greece post-office. He also carried on a farm 
and established a greenhouse and nursery in Greece. The family moved to Sweden 
in 1842, where Mr. Rowe was a prosperous farmer. He served as supervisor of (Jreece 
in 1834, 1835, 1842, andof Sweden in 1850. He died November 23, 1894. Three sons 
survive him. Two sons, Edwin and Oscar, now conduct the homestead farm in ]iart- 
ner.ship. 

Palmer, William, who was born in the town of Sweden, December 25, 1827, a son 
of Humphrey Palmer, who was born in Madison county and came to Monroe in 1806 
with his father, Simeon. The latter bought a quarter section of land, which is still 
m the possession oi the family. Humphrey married Sarah Parkes, and was identified 
in advancing all interests for the growth of the town in which he lived. He held 
various offices of trust and responsibility. His death occurred in 1884, in his eighty- 
third year. William Palmer was educated at Brockjiort College and later taught 
school for nine years. He is one of the foremost men of the town, interested in all 
town affairs, and a practical farmer. In 1867 he married Mary W., daughter of John 
Udell. 

White, Charles J., was born in Sweden, May 16, 1849. His father, Edmund J., 
also a native of this town, and the grandfather, James White, came here from Mad- 
ison county about 1S20. The family traces its descent from John Wliite, who came 
from England during the French war, his descendants settling in Massachusetts, and 



t^AMILY SKETCHES. 75 

went from there to Madison county, this State, in 1796. John, James, and Chester, 
the sons of John, of Madison county, came and settled in Sweden, and were leading 
farmers of the place. Edmund J. White married Sarah, daughter of Samuel H. 
Davis, and died in 1871, in his fifty-first year. Charles J. White was educated in 
Brockport and in 1871 married Sarah, daughter of Henry Root, who died in 1H74. 
He married second Adelaide Locke, by whom he had two children, Lillian and 
Harrison. 

Killip, Patrick, who for many 3'ears lived in Rochester and was identified with the 
early hi.story of the place, was a native of the Isle of Man, born December 2."), 1801. 
At the age of twenty-two he became captain of a small coasting schooner, and fol- 
lowed the sea several years. In his native place he married Jane Morrison and they 
had one child, who died in England. In 1828 Mr. Killip came to Rochester, and 
located on Andrews street, where the convent now stands. He was a tanner, and 
also a farmer as well as a successful business man, and the owner of a number of 
houses. He was in business several years prior to 1840, and during that time was a 
prominent member of the old volunteer fire department. He had three certificates, 
each showing seven years' service in the department, and was justly proud of his 
association with the early events of the locality. His funeral was attended by a 
delegation of the Exempt Firemen's Association, in which body he was much es- 
teemed, and was its oldest member. In 1858 he removed to Ogden, where he pur- 
chased the Hodges farm, and here he died in 1889. His children were Margaret, 
who married James Balfe and lives in Toledo, O. ; Eliza, wife of William Killi]); 
Sarah and Susan, twins, both of whom died in Ogden: John C, and Maria, both of 
Ogden ; Thomas, who died in childhood ; and Mary, of Ogden. 

Pannell, Silas J. — About 1830 John Pannell, by trade a printer, emigrated from 
Lincolnshire, England, and settled first in Chili, this county, where he learned the 
cooper's trade, but in 1857 bought 100 acres near Egypt, which is now the home of 
our subject, Silas, his second son. Here also the elder Pannell remained until his 
death in 1888, at the age of seventy-five. Near this homestead arc several large 
trees, remarkable specimens, which, though not indigenous to the locality, have at- 
tained enormous growth, and most noteworthy among these is a sassafras, four 
feet in diameter, and probably about 100 years old. It is claimed for this tree that 
no larger one of its kind exists anywhere. The wife of John Pannell was Mercy 
Purdy, and she survives him at the old house. Silas married in 1891 Miss Josephine 
Crosman, of Victor. 

Rogers, Charles Spencer.— In 1790, at Cornwall, Conn., of old English ancestry, 
was born Rutherford Rogers, who in later life became a resident of Vernon, Oneida 
county, where in 1815 was born his only son, James F. Rogers. In 1818 the family 
removed to the vicinity of Pittsford, and there James Rogers made his home for life, 
rearing three children, Frances Augusta, Charles, and Sarah J. (deceased). The elder 
daughter is now Mrs. Claire Barker of this town. In 1847 James married Martha 
B. Jeffords, of an old Henrietta family, and both are now decea.sed. Mr. Rogers 
reached the age of seventy-three years. His death occurred in 1888. his widow sur- 
viving until 1894. Charles is now the sole representative of this well known and 
honored family and lives on the homestead. 



7(> LANt)^rAnKs of monroe counts. 

Hutchinson, S. , one of the most genial and popular young business men of Pittsford, 
was born in Liverpool, England, July 22, 1856, and came with his parents to America 
and to Rochester in the same year. Samuel, sr., was a cooper by trade, and in 1857 
began making casks and barrels at Mendon, beside conducting a farm. The remain- 
der of his life was passed at Mendon, where his widow still lives and where our sub- 
ject's boyhood was passed. At the age of thirty-one years the latter removed to 
Pittsford, and in 1888 purchased the cooperage plant of Owen Burns. This shop was 
destroyed by fire in 188t>, and -Mr. Hutchinson rebuilt near the Central station on 
Main street. His establi.shment is now a very complete one, including the manufac- 
ture of all sizes of fruit and flour barrels. He now supplies a large territory and has 
increased the output from 30,000 to 50,000 yearly, and employs a force of eight men. 
The house at Mendon first bought by the elder Mr. Hutchinson was erected by Brig- 
ham Young, partly of logs, and near by are the ruins of a chair factory once operated 
by him. In INS;} our subject married Mary A., daughter of Thomas Finucan of Men- 
don, and their children are James H., Marguerite A., and Una M. Mr. Hutchinson 
is a supporter of the Presbyterian church, and is a trustee of the village of Pittsford. 

Eaton, Wilber, son of Uaniel, was born in Onondaga county, where he learned 
telegraphy, and later was agent and operator for six years at Clay station. He was 
afterwards transferred to Webster, where he now lives, and is also ticket agent and 
express agent at the station. He married Eliza, daughter of Jacob Pink, and they 
have one son, Lawrence Eaton. 

Burritt, Sylvester. — Giles Burritt was a native of New York State and came to 
Parma from Sand Lake, Rensselaer county, about 1835. He brought a family and 
settled at the place since known as Burritt's Corners. Burritt street also derived its 
name from him and his descendants. In the east Mr. Burritt was engaged in lum- 
bering and farming, but in Parma he devoted his time entirely to farming. He died 
in 18.14. His children were Bailey, William, Seley, Polly, wife of Martin Amidon ; 
Malinda, wife of William Moreland; Sylvester, Elizabeth, wife of John Taber; 
Stephen D. Thomas, Mahala, and Giles. Sylvester Burritt was born December 7, 
1820, and was about fifteen years old when his father came to the town. He was 
brought up on the farm. At the age of twenty he started out for himself and about 
three years later bought a tract of land in company with his brother, Stephen. They 
improved and added to it and finally divided it, Sylvester living on his portion until 
1877, when he came to his present splendid home at the Corners. In 1846 Mr. Bur- 
ritt married Eunice A. Barber, by whom he had three children : Rosalia, wife of Frank 
W. Rowley; Newton S., a farmer of Parma; and Loretta, wife of Dr. Williams, of 
North Parma. 

Howard, John E., late of Fairport, N. Y., was born at Bridgewater, Mas.s. , of an 
old Puritan family, March 4, 1814. He came to Fairjjort in 1845, whence his four 
brothers, Ansel. Lorenzo, Daniel and Marshall, had preceded him. These brothers 
became the leading successful business men of the place, he and his brother Lorenzo 
managing a large wagon factory and other commercial interests. He retired from 
business in 1864, yet retained a benevolent interest in current affairs and kept the 
best interests of the village at heart. Of the Congregational church he was a literal 
pillar, and of his unostentatious private charities there is no record. By Sophia 



Family sketches. 77 

Woohvorth, a former wife, Mr. Howard had four children, of whom one son is now 
living, W. W. Howard, of Los Angeles, Cal. In 1857 John E. Howard married Mrs. 
Louisa Brown Edson of Orlean, who survives him. 

Wygant, T. B.— About 1833 Harvey Wygant with his young wife, Jane Buchanan, 
came from Ulster county and settled on a farm of 100 acres, beautifully situated on 
a hill overlooking what later became the flourishing village of Egypt. Here passed 
the even tenor of their way until 1880, when Mrs. Wygant died. Of a family of four 
daughters and a son, one daughter and the son, T. B. Wygant, remain. The father 
is now eighty seven years of age, but with mental faculties unimpaired, and his mind 
a storehouse of reminiscences of earlier days. In 1868 T. B. Wvgant married Emma, 
daughter or the late Hon. Jeremiah S. Baker, a man widely knov\n and honored. 
There are no children. Mr. Wygant is a man of liberal education and culture, but 
of i-etiring disposition and tastes. 

Huber, Frank, was born in Baden, Germany, March 2fi, 1833, and came to Parma 
in 1860. By trade he was a mason and farmer, and worked at both previous to his 
enlistment, August 12, 1862, when he went out with Co. B, 8th N. Y. Mounted Vols., 
from which time till the final muster-out, June 7, 1865, Comrade Huber was in sixty- 
two engagements, and was twice wounded. At Yellow Tavern, Va., March 11, 1864, 
he w^as struck in the side with a fragment of shell, and although painfully wounded, 
he remained on duty, and at Malvern Hill a bullet .struck the same place as had the 
shell, and he was kept in hospital six weeks. He however ran away from the sick 
tent and rejoined his command long before his wound was healed, and his comrades 
say that Corporal Huber was as willing a fighter as ever handled a gun or sword. 
Returning to Parma he resumed his trade and former work, and later spent three 
j'ears in Pennsylvania in the lumber business. Returning to Parma he bought a 
farm and settled. He is a G. A. R. man and an Odd Fellow, having passed every 
chair in the latter society. He is also a member of the Veteran Company of Parma. 
December 26, 1866, Frank Huber married Samantha Seeley. They have no children 
giving. 

Boughton, Orrin, came from Fairfield county. Conn., and settled first in Oswego 
county, where he was a shoemaker. In 1821 he came to Brockport, where he con- 
tinued his trade until his death about 1828. He left a wife and seven children. The 
mother managed to keep the family together for sometime, and until her son John 
was able to work, and his earnings almost provided for the children. John was born 
September 13, 1818. On reaching his majority he came to Ogden, and built a potash 
factory, which business he continued about twenty-five years, then established a lime 
kiln in the west part of the town. This he operated about twenty years. His pres- 
ent farm he bought in 1841, and has since added to its size. He is now the owner of 
a good farm in the town, and his life of industry and perseverance has been justly 
rewarded. Mr. Boughton married first Eliza Allen and they had one child, Harriet. 
His second wife was Anna Maria Stone, who bore him seven children, of whom Eliza, 
Charles and James survive. Mr. Boughton has been a life long Democrat and has 
served as collector and road commissioner, the latter for twenty-one years. 

Keene, William H., was born in Rochester July 12, 1856, was educated in the dis- 
trict schools, and by occupation is a market gardener. In 1878 he married Sarah A. 



78 Landmarks of monroe cotNTV. 

Smith of Rochester, and tliey have three children, Etta (i., Lula G., and Henry W. 
Mr. Keene is a member of the Royal Arcanum Lodge, No. 1105. Mr. Kcene's father. 
Henry, was born in Wiltshire, England, November 25, 1825, and in 1851 married 
Sarah A. Tarrant, of his native place, and they came to this country in 1856, first 
locating in Rochester, where their son was born, then came to their present home on 
the Ridge Road in 1.S58 and began the above business, which has been successful. 
They have si.x green-houses heated throughout by hot water through the entire dis- 
tance of 100 feet each, where vegetables are grown in winter as well as summer. 
William Smith, father of Mrs. Keene, was born October 8, 1831, in Walsoken, Cam- 
bridgeshire, England. In 1852 he married Martha Flint, of Lincolnshire, England, 
and they at once came to the L^nited States, settling in Rochester. They had six 
children, Evangeline, William A., who died aged twenty five, Sarah A., as above, 
Florence M., Abraham L., and Martha L. He died November 16, 1873, his wife 
surviving. He was a contractor and builder. 

Thatcher, James H., was born in Wayne county in 1S40, a son of Cyrus and grand- 
son of Peter Thatcher, who was one of the earliest settlers of Ontario, Wayne county, 
N. Y. James enlisted at Ontario in August, 1862, in Co. B, 9th N. Y. Heavy Artil- 
lery and served in that regiment, which was in the 2d Brigade, 3d Division and 6th 
Army Corps until July 24, 1865, when he came to Webster, and after conducting a 
farm and being in the produce business for some years, in 1889 he started the store 
he now owns and conducts as Bancroft & Thatcher, carrying on a general hardware 
and furniture business. He was for seventeen years one of the local assessors of the 
town, and is nowoneof the justices of the peace. He married Frances A., daughter 
of James L. Fox, of Webster, N. Y. 

Barnhart, Mrs. Mary E., was born at .Schagticoke, N. Y., a daughter of the late 
Erastus Herrington. He was born at Hoosick, N. Y., a descendant of the Hyde fam- 
ily, whose vast English estates are now the subject of protracted litigation. Mr. 
Herrington came to Perinton in 1850, engaging in farming, and was for thirty-nine 
years a resident of Fairport, where he took an active part in town and village gov- 
ernment, as trustee, assessor, etc. He died July 8, 1889, aged eighty-one years, the 
last of five brothers. His children arc Mary, Era.stusB. and Frank. The only daugh- 
ter, Mary, married in 1865 Lewis B. Barnhart, late of Perinton, and o"ne of its lead- 
ing citizens, who died April 26, 1889. Their children are Louise M., Dewitt C, 
Frank and Luella. The daughters are at home, and the son, Dewitt, married Mary 
Bulman, and is now in charge of the homestead farm in Perinton. 

Jordan, Edwin, a veteran soldier of Co. H, 13th N. Y. Vols., was born in Penfield, 
March 25, 1841. His father was John, of Portland, Me., who settled in Penfield 
about 1840, and whose death occurred in 1877. In 1861 Edwin enlisted in the "Old 
Thirteenth," and during two years active service participated in many hard-fought 
battles, among them being Bull Run, Hanover Court House, Siege of Richmond, 
Manassas. Antietam, and Fredericksburg. At Second Bull Run he was captured, 
but soon escaped. Mr. Jordan is a mason by trade, and also a farmer. In 1866 he 
married Rebecca Lovett of Penfield, by whom he had these children: Emeline, 
Lewis, Lovett, Sarah, Alzora. Minnie, Stella, Fenton and Harry. One daughter, 
Belle C, is deceased. 



FAMILY SKETCHES. ' 79 

Young, Hiram, was one of the early settlers of Ogden, coming from Middle Ha<l- 
dam, Conn., in 1824 on foot. He returned east, married, and in 1825 became a per- 
manent settler of Ogden, his farm being that now owned by George H. Comstock. 
His children were Samuel H., now of Michigan, Abbie L., who married Mr. Com- 
stock, and Hiram A., of Michigan. Mr. Young died in 1839, and his widow survives 
him, at the age of ninety-two. George H. Comstock was born in Swanton, Vt., Feb- 
ruary 7, 1829, a son of Walter H., and Eliza (Adams) Comstock. He was brought 
up a farmer and at the age of twenty-one began for himself. In 1851 he came to 
Ogden, and in 1853 bought a small farm, and in 1864 purchased the Young farm. 
April 17, 1855, he married Abbie L. Young, and they have had two children. Walter 
H., now a teacher at Chicago, and Abbie E., a teacher of Scottsville. George H. 
Comstock is among Ogden's successful and enterprising men. He is assessor of the 
town, and an elder in the Presbyterian church. 

Cottar, James, jr , was born in County Cork, Ireland, February 2. 1829, and came 
to the United States in 1834. In May of the same year he settled in Rochester, and 
has ever since resided in Monroe county. His father, James, began life as a truck- 
man, and in 1856 exchanged real estate in Rochester for a farm in the town of Union, 
now Hamlin, and later came to Brockport, where he spent the remainder of his life. 
He died in 1879, in his eighty-fourth year. James, jr., was educated at Rochester 
and the district schools of his county, and began life as a driver on the canal, later 
became a boat owner, and in 1871 retired from the business and came to Brockport. 
In 1861 he married Mary McCumber of Penfield. He has taken a prominent part 
in town affairs, having served as president and trustee of the village, etc., and is a 
man of solid worth. In politics he was always a staunch Democrat. 

Cornes, George T., was born in Spencerport, June 25, 1832 His father, John, 
was born in London, and came to this locality in 1831, settling in Spencerport and in 
1834 went to Brockport, where he became prominent in the history of his town. He 
was a man of upright and conservative character ever ready to advance any 
charitable or business enterprise for the the benefit of his town. He married Del- 
phia, daughter of Chauncey Smith, of Palmer, Mass. He died in 1876 in his fifty- 
sixth year. George T. was educated at BrockjDort, and has followed his father's 
business, that of dealer in fresh and salted meats. In 1852 he married Susan 
Chubb, and she died in 1854. In 1857 he married second Lydia C. Bailey, and they 
have one daughter, Delphia L. Mattcson. Our subject has served as president of 
the Board of Trustees, and is actively identified in all good works. 

Gallup, George, was born in Sweden, January 26, 1834, a son of Eli Gallup, of 
Stonington, Conn., who came to this county in 1830, .settling on the farm where his 
son now resides. Eli married Hannah, daughter of Joseph Wetsel. He followed 
blacksmithing and farming, and died in 1882 in his ninety-second year. George 
Gallup is a self-made man, and was educated in the common scho<:)ls of his locality. 
In 1860 he married Dilla E., daughter of Isaac Houston, who died in 1873. and their 
children are Irad C, Charles H., John and Ilellen C. He married second Sarah 
Darling in 1877. Mr. Gallup is a prominent citizen of the town, and has filled various 
positions of trvist and honor. 

Smith, Oliver, was born in Riga, this county, a son of Amos Smith of Dalton 



80 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Mass., who was one of three sons and a daughter born to Amos .Smith. Amos, ac- 
companied by his brother-in-law, Fay Clark, and their wives, came to the town of 
Riga in 1816, with a four o.\ team and wagon, and settled on the farm now owned by 
our subject, and here the father spent his remaining days in clearing the place of 
timber. He was three times married, his first wife, Grace Noble, bore him four 
children. His second wife was Charlotte, a sister of his first, and his third wife, 
Mary Van Camp, was the mother of our .subject. Their deaths occurred within thirty- 
six hours of each other. Mr. Smith has devoted his life (luietly but successfully to farm- 
ing on his father's homestead. In politics he is a Democrat, though never an aspi- 
rant to public office. 

Thomas, Ann E., was born in Vermont, and is the daughter of Reuben and Eliza 
(Weller) Thomas, who came to Webster in 1850 and settled on the farm where Miss 
Thomas now resides, where he died in 18(58 and she in 1879, leaving three children: 
Edd, who resides in Illinois; Jay, who died in 1886; and Ann, who has since carried 
on the homestead farm. 

Button, George R., was born in Parma in 1802. His father, William F., came 
from the Isle of Wight to that town, and married Betsey M. Tracy of Henrietta, later 
removed to Rush, and in 18o6 to Honeoye Falls, where he followed shoemaking till 
the outbreak of the war, when he raised a company for the 108th Regiment, and 
was commissioned lieutenant. He served with the regiment until July, 1864, when , 
he was killed in action south of Richmond, his death leaving a wife, and four chil- 
dren, and during the following winter Mrs. Dutton died. The home was thus broken 
up, and the children, the oldest, George, being but thirteen, went to live with different 
families. Two of the boys, Carlos and William, went to Michigan, and the former 
IS a contractor and builder at Elgin, 111., while William is a druggist in Rochester. 
The sister, Mrs. John W. Perkins, is living in Kan.sas City. At the time of his pa- 
rents' death George was clerking in a grocery store. He afterwards engaged in the 
drug business. In 1875 he went to Michigan, returning to Rochester after a time, 
and in 1880 engaged in the drug trade in lloneoyc I'alls, which he has followed .suc- 
cessfully since. He married Alice, daughter of Byron Reeves of Rochester, and their 
children are Florence, Alice and Byron Reeves. 

Bass, John E., was a grandson of Samuel Bass, and a .son of Jonulhun Ikiss. He 
came to Webster in 1864, and after farming for some years opened a marble business, 
in which he has achieved success, and which he still conducts. His mother was 
Margaret, daughter of Samuel Hagcdorn of Webster. Mr. Bass has one son, J. 
Floyd. 

Smith, Ossil, was born in Enlield, Mass., and when a young man went to Sodus 
and engaged in tinsmithing. His wife was Caroline Prosser, who died in 1S5!), and 
in 1861 he married Laura, daughter of Orrin Parsons, who was a pioneer of Wayne 
county, and one of the progressive men of the town, energetic, and always ready to 
forward any enterprise for the good of his townspeople. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have 
two daughters, Mrs. Kittie Marsh, and Miss Emma Smith. Our subject has lived a 
useful and unostentatious life, and his hand has ever been extended to the needy and 
worthy. 

Allen, Oliver, proprietor of the well known ( )-At-Ka woolen mill, was born in Sep- 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 81 

tember, 1823, at Mumford, Monroe county, N. Y., where he still resides. His father 
was Oliver Allen 1st, born m Pittsfield, Mass., in 1798, and married to Jerusha 
Hopkins Remington, in 1822. Their two children are the present Oliver, sr., 
and Elizabeth M., wife of John R. Olmsted of Le Roy, N. Y. The father of 
Oliver Allen 1st was Rufus Allen of Pittsfield, and his mother was Emilicent Sey- 
mour of Canandaigua, N. Y. Miss Remington was the daughter of Dr. Silas Rem- 
ington of Rupert, Vt., and Betsey Rose Gere Remington of Chesterfield, Conn. The 
first Oliver early learned the trade of wool-carding and cloth-dressing, and came to 
Mumford in 1821, establishing and cimtinuing that business for eight years. In 1829 
they purchased and located themselves upon the present site of the O-At-Ka Mill, 
under the firm name of Remington and Allen. This partnership existed until 1841, 
when Allen bought the Remington interest and enlarged the previous capacity of the 
mill, putting in power looms and additional machinery for manufacturing various 
qualities of woolen goods. About the same time there was added to this property 
the neighboring custom and flouring mill, previously owned by Donald McKenzie. 
In 1844, having taken his son into partnership, the firm became Oliver Allen & Son, 
which remained unchanged until the death of the senior partner in 1848. In 1872 
Oliver od came into the business, making the firm name for the second time Oliver 
Allen and vSon. Mr. Allen has been identified with church, school and other in- 
terests, and was made presiding officer of the centennial celebration of the town of 
Wheatland, which occurred September 3, 1889. He was the chief promoter of the 
Rochester and State Line Railway and after years of incessant labor the road 
became an actual fact, Mr. Allen driving the last spike at its completion to Sala- 
manca. He was made vice-president when the company was first organized, 
and afterward president, which office he held until years after the road was fin- 
ished. He was one of the incorporators of the Merchant's Savings Bank of Roches- 
ter, and is at present the oldest trustee of that institution ; and also for many 
years a director in the Flour City National Bank of the same city. Mr. Allen 
■was married in 1848 to Miss Catharine H. Seaman, daughter of Leonard Lewis and 
Mahala Doughty Seaman of Palmyra, N. Y. Their children are Frances S. ; Oliver 
jr., of the home firm; Leonard L., of Allen Bro's flannel and hosiery mill, Roches- 
ter; Katharine E. ; Lillian, deceased; Ethan, of the New York branch office of Allen 
Bros. ; Harry, in charge of Chicago office ; Charles Ernest, deceased. 

Smith, George C. (deceased), was born in Vermont April 6, 1812. The family re- 
moved to Cayuga county, and thence to Clarkson. In 1841 Mr. Smith married Ma- 
tilda, daughter of William and Sophia Cook; Matilda was born in Milton. Vt., and 
came to Monroe county when ten years of age, with her father, mother and one 
sister. Her parents came to Pittsford in 1832 (the year of the cholera), lived there 
one year, then moved to Sweden on the farm now occupied by Ira .Crawford. They 
lived there till 1846, then moved to Brockport and remained there till 1852, when 
they went to Rochester. They were residents of Monroe county fifty-four years. 
When they came from Vermont they came by the Erie Canal, and were a week get- 
ting to Pittsford. Mr. Cook's father was a Revolutionary soldier. William Cook 
died at the age of ninety and one-half years, and Mrs. Cook at eighty-nine and a half 
years. Mr. and Mrs. Smith had five children: Henry A., of Chicago; Edward, who 
died Januarys, 1849; Charles II., who died June 2'), 18G5; William C, who died 
k 



82 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

March 27, 1885; and Mrs. Kittie S. Beach, who died May 9, 1889. The subject took 
an active interest in town affairs, and up to the time of his death (June 18, 1894), was 
a prominent citizen of the town of Clarkson. He is survived by his wife and one son 
(Henry A.) 

Foley, Thomas, one of I'erinton's most progressive and liberal farmers, was born 
in County Wexford, Ireland, March 28, 1837, emigrating in 1850. Without other 
capital than industry and integrity, Mr. Foley has carved out his own road to success, 
and while yet in the prime of life is surrounded with all the comforts and many of 
the luxuries of life, all the fruits of his own labor. In 1865 he married Permelia 
Bumpus, and they have two daughters. Ruby and Emma, the latter the wife of Adel- 
bert Birch. 

Campbell, E. H., was born in Bethlehem, Albany county, N. Y., November 18, 
1818. His father, Richard, was a native of Pittsfield, Mass., who married Arabella 
G., daughter of Rev. Aaron J. Booge, chaplain under General Jackson, who trace 
their descent from John Booge who came to New York from Glasgow in 1(J80. E. H. 
Campbell was educated in the common schools, and came to Clarkson in 184(1. In 
1841 he married Susan A., daughter of Ambrose Sandford, and they have one son, 
E. R., and one daughter, Mrs. Lucy V. Chappell, widow of Hon. James Chappell. 
Our subject is a prominent man of Clarkson, where he has always taken a leading 
and intelligent interest in all things relating to the good of the community. 

(iarretsee, John R., whose death occurred January 30, 188(), is remembered as an 
intluential and prominent citizen of Ogden for many years. He was born in Schen- 
ectady county January 8, 1816, and came to this town with his widowed mother and 
brother Henry at the age of ten years. Henry is now a prominent citizen of War- 
saw, and his mother at the time of this writing .still lives at the age of ninety-eight 
years. John R. was put to work in the family of Colonel Brown, where he resided 
until his marriage, in 1840. His wife was Maria S., daughter of Stephen Gridley of 
Ogden, and their three children were John W., who died in Ogden in infancy; Julia 
E., wife of Hugh A. Smith; and Janette M., who married Leslie S. Webster. The 
wife of our subject died in April, 1891. Mr. Garretsee was an early school teacher, 
later served two terms as county school commissioner, during which he established 
the School Vi.sitor, and thus unintentionally extended the field of journalism. He 
then became connected with the Rochester Daily Democrat. In 1867 he bought the 
Genesee Farmer and united it with the Visitor under the name of the American 
Farmer and School Visitor. This paper he continued till 1871. He was also one of 
the orgnizers of the Monroe County Farmers' Club, also its secretary, a member of 
the State Agricultural Society, and secured the State Fair Exhibition for the county. 
He was also secretary of the Rochester Driving Park Association. Mr. Garretsee 
was also connected with the American Rural Home, the Empire State Agriculturist, 
and the Rochester Post Express. He was a strong writer and a man of great mental 
force. Julia E. Garretsee married Hugh A. Smith in 1878, and their children are 
John G. and Hugh A. Jeanie M. married Leslie S. Webster in 1879; their children 
are four daughters, Julia E., Sarah M., Bertha May, and Catherine Trevor. 

Tinker, John E., was born in the town of Mendon, his parents having come from 
North Adums, Mass., in 1834. They were Giles M. and Freelove (Wilbur) Tinker. 



FAMILY SKETCHES. ' 83 

The grandfather, Giles Tinker, once owned nearly the whole of Norlli Adams and 
built the first cotton factory there, a large stone building still standing and running 
now as a factory. The family traces its lineage to the early colonial times, and mem- 
bers of it served in the Revolution. Giles, sr., died at St. Augu.stine. Fla. The 
father was a machinist, who worked at his trade until his wife's father, James Wil- 
bur, came here and gave them a farm west of Honeoye, where they lived for thirty 
years. There was a valuable stone quarry on this place which Mr. Tinker developed 
and disposed of great quantities of fine building stone in Rochester. Giles M. died 
in the village in 1890, and his wife in 1875. Their three children were Mrs. A. J. 
Kellogg, Mr.s. Hiram Scofield, both of Mendon, and John E., who was born in 1886. 
He lived at home until reaching manhood, when he married Martha A., daughter of 
Edmund Townsend, who moved here from the Hudson River country near Tarry- 
town, in 1807. Their children are Andrew J., who married Elizabeth Hurt of Men- 
don; James Moreau, who married Mary A. Case of Bloomfield and lives in St. Paul ; 
Louise, (Mrs. Harry N. Borden); Francis T., Giles E. and Morris W., all living in 
Mendon. Mr. Tinker bought the farm where he now lives in 1860. It comprises 1(10 
acres with a valuable quarry which he works. He has taken an active part in poli- 
tics, serving as commissioner, assessor, etc. 

Ely, Darwin S., was born on his present farm in Henrietta, September 22, 1839, a 
son of David Ely, a native of Springfield, Mass., born in 1793, whose father was 
Simeon Ely. The family dates back in America to 1626, when three l^rothers, Na- 
thaniel, Joshua, and Richard, came from England, Nathaniel being of this branch of 
the family. David was in two campaigns in the war of 1812. He came to Henrietta 
in 1814, bought a small tract of land, returned to Herkimer, and the following spring 
was moved in by his brother, with an ox team. He was a prominent and influential 
man, serving as assessor, overseer of the poor, etc. He was also deacon in the 
Christian church at North Ru.sh, of which society he was oneof the charter members, 
being organized in 1816, and a great temperance advocate. His wife was Lucinda 
Caswell (jf Herkimer county, and their children were Clari.ssa, Matilda, Margaret 
Jane, Marcus, Smith, Martha, Homer, Alice, and Darwin S. He died in November, 
1889, aged ninety-six, and his wife died in 1878. Darwin S. has devoted his atten- 
tion to agriculture on the homestead, and was at one time interested in the breeding 
of Durham cattle. In 1862 he married Erin Bushman, born in this town in 1845, a 
daughter of John and Cynthia M. (Diver) Bushman, and their children are Willie S., 
Lucy, who died aged fourteen, and Charles A. Mr. and Mrs. Ely and theirtwosons 
are members of the Christian church in North Rush. Darwin S. is a member of 
Henrietta Lodge F. ard A. M. 

Worden, Amos, son of Isaac and Althea(Horton) Worden, was born in Dutchess 
county in 1830. His father was a cooper, moved to Henrietta in 1836, and reared a 
family of six daughters and one son, Amos. The family came to Mendon in 1850 and 
bought a farm, the father continuing his trade, which his son had also learned. Ar- 
riving at manhood Amos married in the town of Rush, Sophia Prosser; her parents 
were New England people. He still occupies the farm his father bought, comprising 
sixty acres one and a half miles north of Honeoye Falls. He has one son, Frank, 
who married Ida B., daughter of James G. West of Honeoye Falls, and is engaged 
with his father on the farm. The mother of Amos died in Mendon February 22, 



84 LANDMARKS OP MONROE COUNTY. 

1867, aged sixty seven, and the father March 2'2, 1872, aged seventy-nine. In April, 
1866, Isaac Worden bought a place of twenty-eight acres near the homestead, and 
lived there until his death; it then passed to his daughter, Loretta Worden, and at 
her death to his grandson, Franklin W. Worden. 

Ockenden, Frank E., was born in Pittsford in 1863 and came to Penfield in 1865 
with his father, Thomas, who was a harnessmaker by trade, and died in 1875. Mr. 
Ockenden, after clerking for Mr. Hipp and others for a number of years, bought the 
stock of goods from J. Sterner, jr., in 1889, the store which he has since conducted, 
the firm name Ijeing Ockenden & English, who carry on the leading general store in 
Penfield. 

Williams, William Wilbur, was born at Waterport. Orleans county, October 6, 
\y~w, and was the third of four children born to Benjamin and Marietta (Barber) 
Williams. His father died when William W. was three years old, and the latter was 
afterwards brought up on his mother's farm and sent to the village school. Later 
he completed an academic course at the old historic Yates Academy. He then be- 
gan the study of medicine and surgery under the direction of Dr. H. C. Tompkins, 
of Knowlesville, a surgeon of the late war, devoting five years to this work and teach- 
ing public school in Orleans county. This study was supplemented with three yeans' 
attendance at the Medical Department, University of Buffalo, from which he graduated 
in March, 1881. The following autumn. Dr. Williams began practice at North Par- 
ma, where he has an extensive and successful practice. He is a hard worker and a 
close student, and has becoms a skillful surgeon as well as a thorough practitioner. 
Dr. Williams takes no active part in politics, but is interested in public matters of 
his town, and supports the religious societies liberally. He is a member of the P'ree 
Baptist Society, and Clio Lodge F. and A. M. He is an active member of the Chap- 
ter I. C. I. of the University of Buffalo, member of the Monroe County Medical So- 
ciety, member of the Central New York Medical Association. On January 12, 1887, 
Dr. Williams married Loretta, daughter of Sylvester Burritt of North Parma, by 
by whom he has a son, Chester, and a little daughter. 

Silliman, Wyllis A., A. M., M. D., Ph. D , was born in Clarkson, December 15, 
1857, the only child of Charles, also of this town. The family traces its descent from 
the Italian nobility of the fifteenth century. Tlie first one known to be settled in 
America was Daniel Silliman, of Fairfield, Conn., who lived there in 1650. General 
Gold Selleck Silliman, of Revolutionary fame is also an ancestor of the family. Peter, 
the father of Charles, came to this county from Connecticut in 1835. Charles, his son, 
followed farming and was also a leading man in the industrial and social life of his 
town and of Brockport. He married Laura, daughter of Frederick Bellinger, one of 
the pioneers of Clarkson. Dr. Silliman was a graduate of the Brockport Normal 
School, studied at Yale College ('74-75), at Harvard College ('75-77), and graduated 
at Union College in 1879. In 1880 he went to Europe, in order to pursue his scientific 
studies, and entered the University of Leipzig. In 1882 he studied at the Sorbonne 
in Paris. In 1883 he returned to Germany, attended the University of Wiirzburg, 
and graduated with the degree of Ph.D. In 1884 he entered the Medical Depart- 
ment of Harvard University, removed to the University Medical College of New York 
City in 1885, and graduated in 1886. He then returned to Clarkson and engaged in 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 85 

the practice of his profession. In 1887 he married Minnie E., danj^hter of J. IJ. 
Decker, and they have one child, Laura D. Silliman. 

Rundel, Jerome, was born in 1843, son of Calvin and Emmeline (Cook) Kundel. 
and grandson of Ezra, who was born in 1760 and in 1782 married Elizabeth Knapp. 
Ezra came to Penfield in 1808 where he died in 1839, leaving four sons and six daugh- 
ters. Calvin had six sons: Myron, Byron,' Giles, Jerome, George and Frank, and 
four daughters, Permelia, Jane, Emily and Sarah. Jerome was born and has always 
lived in Penfield. He married Lydia J., daughter of Ebenezer Field, of Pennsylva- 
nia. They have three children: William F., Ada V. and Beda K. Mr. Rundel is one 
of the Prohibition members of the Excise Board. 

Olmsted, Harry A., was born in Greece, November 1, 1817, and was educated in 
the public schools. He has followed various occupations, and has served as consta- 
ble, supervisor, deputy sheriff. United States deputy marshal, justice of the peace, 
and has been an attorney twenty-five years. He is also a real estate owner and 
dealer. February 13, 1842, he married Martha Lewis of Rochester, and they had 
five children: Chemesero F., Alice J., Emma M., Nellie I., and Harry L. The old- 
est son was a minister of the Methodist church, and died at Newfield, Tompkins 
county. Alice married Joseph Ashton of Parma, and has three children, Gertrude 
M. , Harry S. , and Raymond J. Emma married James Simpson of Rochester, and 
has four children, Frederick R., Arthur J., Ellen E., and Alice E. Nellie L died in 
infancy. Mr. Olmsted's father, Harry, was born in Connecticut in 1787, and came 
to this State with his parents at the age of ten. He married Clarissa Hurd of Roch- 
ester, and fourteen children were born to them. He died Nevember 14, 1863. and 
his widow October 29, 1886. The grandfather, Jeremiah, was one of the pioneers of 
Rochester, and married a Mrs. Darling, who had five children by her first marriage. 
Their children were three. Harry Olmsted was a soldier in the war of 1812. Mrs. 
Olmsted's father, Caleb Lewis was born in Saratoga county, and came to Rochester 
in 1828. He married Cynthia Fay, and had .seven children. Mr. Lewis died aliout 
1875, and his wife in 1843. 

Hobbie, Isaac S., long a resident of Monroe county, was born at North East, 
Dutchess county, July 19, 1820, and traces his parental ancestry as far back as 1634 
in this country. His father, Caleb K., was born in the city of New York of English 
parentage, and married Clarina Clark of Westchester county, by whom he had eleven 
children. He came to Irondequoit in 1831, was prominent in local politics and in the 
Presbyterian Church in Rochester, aud a veteran of the war of 1812. Isaac S. was 
educated in the Rochester High School aud Macedon Academy. He taught sch'X)! 
for a number of years, and in 1841 was elected superintendent of the public schools 
in Irondequoit. In 1856-7 he was superintendent of the public schools in Rochester 
and in 1859-60 served as a member of the Board of Education. In 1861-2-3 he was 
secretary of the Monroe County Agricultural Society. For a number of years he was 
an active member of the 54th Regiment National Guards and was captain of Co. L, 
Rochester City Dragoons. In 1863 he enlisted in the United States service. After 
the war, he engaged in the manufacture of lumber, etc.. at Elmira and Tonawanda, 
and contracted and built several systems of water and gas works. A man of broad 
views and forceful character, he has employed his talents and energies for the good 



86 LANDMARK'S OF MONROE COUNTY. 

of the community. In 188f) he retired from active business and removed to Fairport. 
In 1848 he married Emily Ayrault of Perinton, and has three children, John A., 
Alice E., wife of Charles C. Roosa, and Dr. George S., all of whom are residents of 
Buffalo. These, with eight grandchildren, constitute their immediate family; no 
deaths having occurred to break the happy circle. Mr. Hobbie is believed to have 
been the first to suggest the utilization of Niagara's power by means of a tunnel, 
having written for the Tonawanda Index in 1879 a letter advocating the building of 
a tunnel from Buffalo to the lower Niagara for sewer and power purposes. 

(iarbutt, Hon. Philip, ex-assemblyman, was born in Wheatland in 1H44, a son of 
William, who.se father was Zachariah, of the North of England. The latter came to 
America (1798) and settled in Sparta. He followed his trade of shoemaking, with his 
son John, and in 1800 removed to Seneca, where he bought a farm. This he sold in 
1803 and removed to Wheatland, settling near the present place called Garbutt, which 
was named in honor of the family. After getting his family settled he moved on to 
Buffalo, thence down the Ohio River, was taken sick, and put oft" at St. Genevieve, 
a point on the Mississippi, and died in September. 1807, at the age of fifty five, and 
was there buried. His wife died in Seneca in 1803. His sons, John, William and 
Philip became prosperous and influential men, doing much for the welfare of the 
town of Wheatland. They all served in the war of 1812 in Capt. Levi Lacy's com-; 
pany. Nicholas Garbutt, youngest son of Zachariah, moved with his family to Or- 
leans county where his descendants still reside. William, father of our subject, mar- 
ried Elizabeth Dow, and had eight children : Elizabeth, Margaret, William D., Jame.s. 
a union soldier, who died in hospital m Georgetown, D. C, during the late war, 
Phoebe. Zachariah, Robert, and Philip. Philip now resides on the homestead where 
he was born, and is a representative man, having served in many of the town offices. 
He was seven years supervisor, and in 1884-85 represented his district as assembly- 
man in Albany. 

Garbutt, Robert R., was born in 1840, a son of William Garbutt, whose father was 
Zachariah, of the North of England, who came to this country in 1798. and settled 
in Sparta, where he worked at shoemaking. In 1800 he removed to Seneca. In 1803 
he bought the farm in Wheatland, part of the family removingtoit in the fall of 1804, 
the others in the spring of 1806; after seeing the family settled he started for Ken- 
tucky where he intended to locate. En route, he was taken ill and died at a point on 
the Mississippi River in 1807. William, father of Robert R., was active in public 
affairs, being among the first town officers. He married Elizabeth, daughter of James 
Dow, natives of Glasgow, Scotland, who came to Livingston county in 1828. Their 
children were: Elizabeth, Margaret, William D., James, Phoebe, Zachariah, Robert 
and Philip. Ouv subject has followed farming from boyhood, with much success. 
In 18(;() he bought and located on his present farm of 100 acres. In 1805 he married 
Jennie, daughter of Joseph Cox, jr., and their children are: John Z. and Roy C 
John Z. married Nellie Moon and has one daughter, Elizabeth. 

Probst, Frederick, was born in the village of Koppigen, canton Bern, Switzerlai>d, 
in 1828. He was educated in the free schools of his native town and the secondary 
school at Kirchberg. At the age of sixteen he was sent to the canton de Vaud to 
learn French. Two years later he was apprenticed to the butcher's trade, at which he 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 87 

worked until coming to America in 1850. He went to Ferinton, where lie worked 
one year on a farm and one year for a butcher. He then secured an engagement a.s 
a teacher of German and French in the academy at Albion. N. Y., where lie taught 
four terms. From Albion he went to Bloomington, 111., where he engaged in the 
mercantile business. In 1855 he married Elizabeth E.. daughter of John Sargent of 
Mendon, who came from Newburyport, Mass., in an early day. Mrs. Sargent was a 
Mrs. Webster of Mendon, whose maiden name was Tirzah Stiles, coming from West- 
field, Mass., previous to 1817 In 1856 the Probsts returned to the Sargent farm, 
where they since lived. They have had but one child, a daughter, who died in in- 
fancy. Mr. Probst has been for many years senior elder in the Presbyterian church 
at Mendon, having been elected when a young man, and when the others with one 
exception were all aged men. 

Gott, John, was the pioneer head of one of (Jgden's most respected families, and 
though born in Connecticut, he came to this town from Pompey Hill, Onondaga 
county. He purchased the old Deacon Phelps farm on which he afterwards died. 
He was a school teacher before coming here, and was Wadsworth's land agent in 
the town. His children were Edward, who died in the army; Emeline, whomarried 
Jasper Barber ; Maria, who married Nathaniel Webster ; Harriet, who married Halsey 
Danforth; Oscar F., Helen, who died young; Frank, of Spencerport ; and John, who 
married Alma Ball of Pompey, Onondaga county. John Gott was supervisor of this 
town in 1840-41, was jus'ice several years, and held nearly all the important offices 
of the town. He was a man much respected, and a prosperous citizen. Oscar F. 
Gott was born February 5, 1828, and like his father engaged in agriculture. In 1851 
he married Martha Warner, and they have two children, William, a farmer of Greece, 
and Helen S., wife of S. H. Curtis, of Spencerport. Eleazer Warner settled in Ogden 
about 1815, living south of the Center, and here he died in 1828. His widow cleared 
the farm of debt, and educated her children. She died at the age of si.xty-threc. 
The children were Sylvester, who married Maria Day, and Martha, who became the 
wife of Oscar F.- Gott. 

Reed, J. B. (deceased), was born in Sweden, January 29, 1818. His father, John, 
came to Sweden in 1806, and settled on the farm which has been in the family for 
eighty-five years. John B. married Mary W. , daughter of Joseph Emerson, who 
married Lucy Hill, and settled in the town of Riga, Monroe county, in 1809. Mr. 
and Mrs. Reed have had four daughters: Mrs. Seymour H. Root, Mrs. George H. 
Rowe. Mrs. Fred J. Root, who died January 21, 1879, and Cora M. Reed. Our sub- 
ject was a practical and successful citizen and farmer, and has taken an active interest 
in all town affairs, being specially interested in educational matters. He died in 1879 
in his sixty-second year. He was mourned by all who knew him for liis many noble 
traits of character. 

Williams, George E. (deceased), was a native of ??ew Orleans. He spent his boy- 
hood at Hudson, O., and at the age of eighteen enlisted in Co. K, 19th O. Inf. Vols. 
He was wounded at the battle of Shiloh by a musket ball, but continued to serve as 
aid on General Crittenden's staff. In 1871 he married Louise, youngest daughter of 
Nathan Fish, and they have had two children, Grace L. and Burr F. From 1868 to 
1874 Mr. Williams traveled in the West, and in the latter year came to Brockport and 



f<H LANDMARKS OF MONROH: COUNTY. 

entered the employ of I). S. Morgan, with whom he remained till his death, in 1884, 
in his forty-first year. He was a man of unassuming manners, who had the respect 
of his townspeople. In 1885 Mrs. Williams was appointed a critic of the Normal 
vSchool, and in 1891 was appointed principal of the Primary Department, being a 
graduate of that institution, class of 1868. 

Fisk, Nathan, was born in the town of Pentield, January (i, 1804. His father, 
Nathan Fisk, came from Connecticut and settled in Pittsford about 177."). lie 
married Rebecca, daughter of Abram Canfield, and they had ten children, four of 
whom survive. He later moved to Penfield, and died in 1835. Nathan, the oldest 
son, was educated in the common schools and is a self-made man. In 1831 he mar- 
ried Melinda, daughter of Obed Manley, and they have had eight children. Our 
subject is a prosperous and successful farmer, identified in advancing the best inter- 
ests of his town, and a man whose judgment is sought by many. 

Hendee, Peter, was born in Webster in 1826, a son of Jacob, whose father, Zebu- 
Ion, came to Webster in an early day and died there. Mr. Hendee married first, 
Harriet, daughter of John T. Whiting, who died, leaving two children. John J. and 
Mrs. Walker Levins. He married second, Melvina Richardson. Mr. Hendee has 
been on his present farm for more than forty years, engaged in successful farming. 

Mann, William B., M.D., was born in Kendall, Orleans county, June 15, 1888. His 
father, Josepli, was born in Saratoga county, and the family trace their descent to 
Richard Mann, the planter, who settled at Scituate, Mass., about 1634. Jo.seph came 
to Orleans on horseback about 1824, and taught school for several years, later en- 
gaged in farming. He married Delia Eveline, daughter of William Barrow, a sol- 
dier of the war of 1812. Joseph Mann was a prominent man in his town, having 
served several years as supervisor, jt:stice of the peace, etc. He died in 1882. Will- 
iam B. was educated at Ballston Collegiate Institute and in 1856 entered Hobart Col- 
lege, then studied at Albany, and in 1860 entered the Medical Department of the 
University of Buffalo, graduating in 1861. The same year he was commissioned 
assistant surgeon in the United States navy, remaining in the service till May 12, 
1865, at the close of the war. He then resigned and came to Brockport and engaged 
in general practice. In 1865 he married Sophronia E., daughter of Horace Clark, 
M.l)., and they have five children; Horace, James, Charles T., Sophronia E. and 
Marjorie. Our subject is one of the leading members of his profession, and has for a 
number of years served as vestryman of St. Luke's chureli. 

Downer, Mrs. Maria, is the widow the late George W. Downer, who was born at 
Lebanon, N H., February 19, 1798. While a small boy, his parents removed to 
Sharon, Vt., and his youth was handicapped by his father's financial embarrassment; 
but he early developed the sterling qualities which in later life distinguished him as 
a man among men. When eighteen years old he was at work by the month on a 
Perinton farm. In 1823 he married Matilda Whitehorn, of Fairport, and began life 
on his own account, in a log house. Rochester wa.-; the chief available market, and 
all produce was hauled by oxen. Mr. Downer himself possessed an iron constitu- 
tion, and an indomitable will, and his efforts were aided by a loving and prudent 
wife, by whom he had ten children, all of whom are now deceased. Mr. Downer's 
second wife, who survives him, was Maria Benedict of Fairport, Her only son, John 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 89 

B. Downer, died in 1881. George W. Downer was an active niemljcr of the Freewill 
Baptist church, and his death was widely mourned. 

Chamberlain, Nelson, was born in Riga, July 9. 182G. His father, Moses, was a 
native of Berkshire county, Mass., and married Hannah, daughter of William 
Newell. They came to the town of Riga in 1815 and in 1827 removed to Sweden. 
He died in 1845 in his sixty-fourth year. Nelson Chamberlain laid the foundation of 
his education in the common schools and is a self-made man. At his father's death 
he bought the homestead, which has been in the possession of the family for seventv 
years. In 1845 he married Mary, daughter of Martin Sage, and they have two chil- 
dren, Mrs. Gertrude L. King, and Hattie A. Demary. 

Burritt, A. C. — Stephen D. Burritt, son of Giles Burritt, was born November 8, 
1834, and lived in Parma from 1885 to the time of his death, September25, 1889. He 
was always a farmer and successful business man. He was twice supervisor and 
two terms assessor of the town. His first wife, whom he married October 8, 1845, 
was Lavina Cox, by whom he had five children: Delno C, William S., Mary L. , 
Frank M., and Martha J., all living in Parma. His wife died April 18, 1879, and on 
November 3, 1881, Mr. Burritt married Anna, daughter of James Chase, by whom 
he had one son, Maurice Burritt. September 25, 1889, Mr. Burritt was killed by a 
kick of a horse. William S. Burritt was born June 11, 1851, and married, November 
14, 1872, Sarah E. Garlock, by whom he has two children: Feme L. and Mabel. 
Nicholas Garlock came from Canajoharie, Montgomery county, to Parma in 1838, 
and settled on a farm. Elisha and Sarah were his children by his first marriage. 
James Chase was the son of Isaac Chase, who came to Parma in 1834. He married 
Betsey Tripp, by whom he had four children: Helen, who married Daniel Anthony: 
Darwin, of Parma; Atma, who married Stephen D. Burritt; and Josephine, who 
married George Edgerton. 

Kennedy, James K., w^as born in Pompey, and was the son of Thomas B. , who 
came from Onondaga county and settled in Penfield in 1877, where they bought the 
old Hipp homestead. The mother was Mary McLinden Burns before her marriage. 
Thomas has six sons: William, a lawyer, served in the assembly two terms, from 
1892 to 1894; Frank, Henry, George, John and James are engaged in agricultural 
pursuits. Jam.es Kennedy was elected justice of the peace in 1894, which office 
he now holds. There are two daughters, Rose A., a school teacher, and Mary E. 
Kennedy. 

Parmenter, George W., was born in 1820, a son of Edmund and Sarah (Davi.s) Par- 
menter. Edmund came to Penfield about 1816 from Massachusetts, and his father 
was Rufus Parmenter, of that State. They were both agriculturists, and Edmund 
died in 1826. George W. married in 1865 Charlotte, daughter of Henry, and grand- 
daughter of Gen. John Fellows. George lived on the homestead until 1861, then on 
the farm now owned by C. N. Leonard, which he sold in 1875, and built the home 
where he lives now. 

Harris, James, was born in Penfield in 1821. His father, William Harris, emi- 
grated from Scotland in 1802 and settled in Fulton county, this State, where he mar- 
ried Sally Shoecraft, a daughter of John Shoecraft, a Revolutionary soldier. In 
I 



90 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

|uiie, 180t}, William Harris, in company with his wife's parents, removed to Western 
New York and settled in the town of Pen Held, now Webster, with the early history 
of which his name is intimately associated as the first teacher in the schools of the 
pioneer settlement. A few years later he removed to the farm in the town of Pen- 
field now owned by the family of his son, William Harris, jr., where he resided until 
his death in 1842. Eleven children were born to him, of whom nine settled in Pen- 
field, and all of whom have reared large families. Of these, four .sons still survive, 
viz.: James, George F., Robert and Peter. James Harris, the oldest living son, and 
the subject of this sketch, was reared a farmer, early inured to labor and disciplined 
in those rigid moral precepts and virtues so essential to a successful life. Like the 
youth of that day his education was limited to the common schools, except two terms 
at a select school in the village of Penfield. In his twentieth year he commenced 
teaching .school, which he followed for several years. At the age of twenty-two he 
was elected justice of the peace, which office he held for a term of four ^-ears. In 
1844 he was commissioned by Governor Bouck captain of a uniformed company of 
artillery attached to the 53d Regt. N. G. S. N. Y. He subsequently held the oflfice 
of town clerk. Mr. Harris was always active in promoting the educational interests 
of the county. He was one of the charter members of the Board of Trustees of the 
Penfield Seminary, and for many years its president. He also served several years 
as superintendent of schools. In 1853 he was elected supervisor of the town of Pen- 
field, and for fifteen years out of the following twenty-two served his town in that 
capacity. While yet supervisor, he was in 1875 elected county treasurer for a term 
of three years. Since then he has not held any public office. Politically Mr. Harris 
is a Republican, and during the war of the Rebellion he, together with his brothers, 
labored zealously and contributed largely to the support and successful prosecution 
of the war. Mr. Harris was engaged in trade in Penfield village from 1849 to 1856, 
after which he purchased and removed to the farm where he now resides. He was 
twice married. He was first married in 1847 to Martha Pope, a granddaughter of 
CJen. Jonathan Fassett, whose name is connected with the early history of this 
county. His second wife was Mrs. Mary L. Lewis, a daughter of the late Charles 
Lacy of Poughkeepsie. Mr. Harris has had six children. His second son Robert 
died in 1887 at the age of thirty-one. The other five survive. James D. lives at 
Fairport, N. Y. ; George H., of the law firm of Werner & Harris of Rochester, N. Y. ; 
Mary K., Charles L. and Angie K., who reside with their parents. Though he has 
passed the allotted age, Mr. Harris retains in a marked degree his faculties both 
mental and physical. He has been prominently connected with the interests and 
business of the county, and by judicious management has passed through the various 
financial revolutions without embarrassment. Conscientious in the discharge of all 
duties both public and private, he sustains a reputation of the highest integrity. 

Hovey, Treat J., was born in Sweden, Monroe county, N. Y., a son of Ebenezer 
Hovey, who married Nancy A. Treat. Ebenezer Hovey acquired a competence in 
buying and selling real estate, and was a prominent man in local affairs. Treat J. 
was educated in the common schools, and February 17, 1864, married Nellie A., 
daughter of Roderick Chapin. She died February 28, 1872 ; she bore him Hubert 
and Herbert, twins, born July 25, 1865. Herbert Hovey died December 17, 1884. 
Mr. Hovey married second, Elizabeth M., daughter of Aaron Gage, by whom he had 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 01 

these children : Aaron E. and Newton B. Mr. T. J. Hovey is highly interested in 
church, schools and farming, and is a man of prominence in the community. 

Burrows, Walter E., was born in Herkimer county in 1859, and in 1864 came to 
Penfield with his father, Silas, who was a stone mason. In 1874 he began working 
for Henry E. Stanley. Mr. Stanley was born in Connecticut in 1808, and died in 
1877, leaving three daughters, Mary, Cora, and Addie. now Mrs. Burrows. Henry 
E. Stanley, .son of Lucy and Erastus Stanley, came to Brighton in 1811, and settled 
the farm now known as the Joseph Thorp farm, Allen's Creek, Brighton, and then 
came to Penfield in 1870 and bought the Clement Austin farm, upon which they all 
reside. 

Guernsey, Duane L., son of the late Ezekiel B. Guernsey of Chautauqua county, 
N. Y., a prominent citizen of that county for along term of years. Duane L. located 
in Pittsford, Monroe county, in the spring of 1872, purchasing at that time most of 
the real estate adjoining Pittsford village, on which is located the home residence, 
now occupied by himself and family. Mrs. Guernsey was Addie A. Wilmarth, whose 
ancestors were early settlers here. She died in 1884, leaving two children, Fred W. 
and Everett B., the latter a resident of Rochester and one of the firm known as the 
Beech, Birch and Maple Flooring Co. of that city, and the former a resident of Pitts- 
ford and associated with his father, Duane L. , in bu.siness. Mr. Guernsey married 
in 1886 Mrs. Helen Person of Tuscumbia, Ala. 

Loud, William P., of Egypt, than whom in local history no man of the locality is 
more fully posted, was born here three-quarters of a century ago, May 17, 1819, of 
Scotch ancestry. His father, Oliver Loud, was born at Weymouth, Mass., and came 
to Palmyra, Wayne county, in the year 1804, where he met, and in 1806, married 
Charlotte Bateman of that town, a native of Vermont. Thence he removed in the 
same year to Egj'pt, in Perinton. Few, indeed, cherish definite memories of the 
period between 1812 and 1824, during which Oliver Loud kept hotel at Eg^-pt, which 
at that time was the business center and place for holding courts for the town. He 
was also known as an almanac maker of great repute throughout Western New 
York, his copy being sought for by most printers in that part of the country. His 
family, consisting of six living to maturity, were Charles B., born in 1807 and died 
in 1854; Cullen, born in 1809 and died in 1889; and John, born in 1814, now living 
in Kansas; all of whom were mechanics and farmers, and although brought up in 
a hotel, they all lived temperate lives. Cullen also became a merchant and held the 
office of postmaster for the term of twenty to thirty years. Of the other se.\, Susan, 
born in 1816, now living at this place; Charlotte, born in 1821, married Zadoc 
Stewart, of Niagara county, and died in 1873. William P. Loud was educated at 
at Macedon Center Academy, and by well-directed and indefatigable personal re- 
search. He was engaged in teaching from 1838 to 1845 in Wayne and Monroe 
counties. At the latter date he became mterested in horticulture, and has for many 
years made a specialty of grape culture. A steadfast Republican since the organiza- 
tion of the party in 1854, he served as justice for the decade succeeding 1860, having 
declined further honors in that office, and has for many years been notary. Of wide 
and varied attainments, and of sterling personal character, Mr. Loud is a citizen of 
whom to know is to admire and respect. In 1847 he married Caroline Bortle of 
Egypt, and their only child, a son, died in infancy. 



&!2 Landmarks of monroe countv. 

Minot, Morton, was born in Clarkson December 5, IHoii. His father, Jonas Minot, 
was a native of Bristol, N. H., who came to Sweden in 1831, and through life was 
identified as a merchant at Brockport. He married Electa Frary Morton, a daughter 
of Oliver Morton, a well-known pastor of the Congregational churches of New 
Hampshire and Vermont and father of Gov. L. P. Morton. Mr. and Mrs. Minot 
were among the leading people of their town, actively identified with the leading 
events and best interests of the place. Mr. Minot died October 27. 1891, mourned by 
all who knew him. Both Mr. and Mrs. Minot trace their descent to the Pilgrim 
fathers of Massachusetts. Morton Minot was educated in the common schools, and 
in 1874 entered the Rochester University, from which he graduated in 1878. Later 
he entered the Kingsbury Bank, as cashier, remaining four years. In 1883 he en- 
gaged in his present business of dealer in general hardware. In 1888 he married 
Harriet Patter.son, daughter of Mathew A. Patterson, a direct descendant of Elder 
Brewster of Plymouth colony, who came to this country in the Mayflower. 

Brown, Prof. Frank H., principal of the Scottsville publ'c school, was born in 
Ogden, this county, in 18o6, a son of Nathaniel L., of the same place, born in 1827. 
He was one of seven children of Ezekiel F. Brown of Vermont, who came to Ogden 
in 1809 and settled. The latter while coming through the Oneida woods met with a 
serious accident by being struck with a falling tree. He was, however, kindly cared 
for by the Oneida Indians, with whom he remained three years, and ever after that 
his home was open to the tribe, who often visited him. Nathaniel L., the father, 
was born, lived and died on this farm. His wife was Mary A., daughter of Martin 
Kavanaugh, of Ireland, and their children were James N., Frank H., Adelbeit L., 
and Mary A. He died in 1870. Our subject was educated in the schools at Adams 
Basin and the State Normal School at Brockport, and in 1877 began teaching. He 
has taught at Howard's Corners, Cattaraugus county, Adams Basin, and from 1880 
to 1886 was principal of the public school at Spencerport. In 1886 he removed to 
Scottsville, where he has been engaged as principal ever since. He is a Democrat 
and was delegate to the May convention at Syracuse in 1891. He has been presi- 
dent of the Monroe County Teachers' Society for two years, is a member of the 
New York State Teachers* Association, and also a member of the Presbyterian 
church, of which he is elder and trustee, also .Sunday school superintendent. He is 
a Mason, and a member of the Gamma Sigma fraternity. In 1879 he married Char- 
lotte M., daughter of William and Lydia Lynn, of Spencerport, and their children 
are N. Adelbert and Winne F. Mrs. Brown is an active member of the Presbyterian 
church. 

Burnett, Giles, was born in Webster in 1829, and is a farmer on land where his 
father, Isaac Burnett, settled in 1815. The grandfather was Thomas Burnett, who 
came from Orange county to Phelps in 1800. The mother of Giles was a Miss Wood- 
hull, whose father came to this town in 1811. Mr. Burnett married Mary J., daugh- 
ter of Rufus Foster, who was also one of the earliest settlers, and they have one son, 
Foster J. , and one daughter, Pela May. Mrs. Burnett is a granddaughter of Abraham 
Foster, who settled m Webster about 1810. 

Conover, L. A., of Egypt, is a son of the late Van Rensselaer Conover, who was 
born in Victor, Ontario County, and an early settler in Egypt. In 1845 he married 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 93 

Cynthia, daughter of Gersham Dunham, a well-remembered pioneer of Penfieki. 
Mr. Dunham was for a period of eighteen years a justice, and for forty years a dea- 
con in the Congregational church. His daughter Cynthia, now residing with her 
son Leander at Egypt, is nearly eighty years of age, but of unimpaired mental 
vigor, and her reminiscences of early times in Penfield are full of interest. ()[ her 
seven children all are deceased except Leander and one daughter, Mrs. Lillian Howe. 
Leander Conover was born at Egypt October 11, 1849, and now lives at the old home. 
He received an academic education at Lima and Macedon, and is a gentleman of 
broad views and sterling character. His iirst wife was Ella E. Warner of Lima, 
who at her death in 1888 left three children: George, Leander, jr., and Bessie. In 
1892 he married Mrs. Harriet Shader, of Milo. 

Farrell, James, was born in Henrietta in 1844, and began for him.self when a lad 
of fourteen. In 1868 he purchased his present farm of 117 acres; which he has 
cleared and developed into a fine place, havmg also erected a comfortable residence 
and commodious barns, etc., and devoting much of his attention and time to the 
raising of fine stock. His father was Christopher Farrell of Ireland, born in 1812, 
who came to this country when a young man and engaged in farming, which he 
always followed. His wife was Rose Marr, of Ireland, born in 1814, who came to 
this country in 1834, in company with friends. Christopher and wife had four chil- 
dren : Ann, widow of John Kane, of Rochester; James, John, and Edward. The 
father died in 1850, leaving a little property, and the mother maintained the family 
and sent the children to be educated until they were able to care for themselves. 
She now spends much of her time at the home of our subject. In 1874 Mr. Farrell 
married Ellen Cassady, also a native of Ireland, and daughter of Peter and Ann 
Cassady. Their children are: Edward J., Walter B., Mary, Thomas, and Joseph. 

White, John F., was born in Mittlene settlement in 1850; was a son of George W. 
White and grandson of Dr. Russel J. White of Albany, who was a practicing j^hysi- 
cian for over forty years of that place. In 1861 his mother died. In 1862 he enlisted 
as drummer, was taken prisoner at Harper's Ferry and died shortly after, leaving 
him an orphan. In 1863 he commenced work for Mr. Buckingham, working sum- 
mers and going to school wnnters, paying his own tuition. In 1868 he commenced 
work for G. W. Clark of Penfield, where he now resides. He has won the name of 
being one of the best farmers of Monroe county. In 1879 he married Minnie Hanies, 
daughter of Benjamin Hames. He has one daughter, Clara. 

Hixson, Fred R., was born April 23, 1852, at Rochester, N. Y., his father, Richard 
Hixson, an expert maltster, having emigrated to America from E.ssex, England, in 
1849. The subject of this sketch continued to reside at Rochester until he was 
eighteen years old, during this time receiving a limited education at the public 
schools, and laid the foundation for his future. Was apprenticed to James Cunning- 
ham, the celebrated carriage manufacturer, and learned the trade of carriage painter. 
When eighteen years of age he left home and engaged at his trade in New York 
city, and on October 31, of the same year, removed to Clarkson, and in a few years 
started in business for himself in the manufacture of carriages, which was very suc- 
cessful, building for himself an excellent record for honest work. But factory work 
had an influence against hand made work and he retired from the carriage business 



94 LANDMARKS OP MONROE COUNTY. 

in 1895, and is now engaged in the grocery business, carrying on a general country 
store. In 1873 he married Isabel, daughter of Dr. Benjamin Brooks, and the follow- 
ing children bless this union of hearts: Jessie P., now Mrs. H. E. Hamil, of Hamlin, 
N. Y. , Emma I., E. Loui.se, Frances M., and Sidnej- A. Mr. Hixson has served his 
town eight years as town clerk, and one year as ccjllector of taxes. Has been notary 
public ten years and United States loan commissioner for eight years, receiving his 
appointment from Governers David B. Hill and Roswell P. Flower. He has also 
served as trustee of the First Congregational Society for the past seventeen years, 
also trustee of Clarkson High School for fifteen years. Thus proving him to be a 
public spirited man and so regarded in the town where he is so well known. 

Eldridge, W. G., was born in 1842, a son of Elijah who was born in 1805 and died 
in 1894, and a grandson of William C, who came from Connecticut to Washington 
county in 1788, and later to Webster, where he died. Elijah Eldridge came to 
Western New York in 1850, and settled in Penfield in 1879. Our subject, after gradu- 
ating at the Marion Academy, enlisted in Co. A, 111th N. Y. Vols., where he .served 
two years, and after a residence in New York of one year, went West, where he re- 
mained till 1885, being engaged at various points in the secret service for the gov- 
ernment. He returned to Penfield in 1885, where he has since been appointed 
deputy sheriff, and is now constable. In 1893 he and his wife started the Penfield 
Press, which is published under the firm name of W. G. and A. M. Eldridge. His 
wife was Auusta M. Van Wormer, a daughter of Rev, Aaron Van W( )rmer and grand- 
daughter of Rev. Hugh Wallis of Genesee county, and their children are Jay G., and 
one daughter, Clara A. 

Bartlett, Thomas J., son of Jedediah Bartlett, who was born vSeptember 5, 1797, in 
Massachusetts, and when quite young came from the East with his mother and first 
settled in the Genesee county, but removed from there to Kendall, Orleans county, 
where he purchased some land and also carried on the shoe business, being a shoe- 
maker by trade. He married Lucinda Thomas in Kendall December 2, 1827. His 
children were Thomas J., William W., Phebe J., and Theodore. He died May 5, 
1841, in Kendall. After his death his widow married Jeniah Hawkins, by whom .she 
had one son, Willard H., one of the old and well known firm of Bartlett & Hawkins, 
of Parma. Thomas J. was born February 14, 18:51, and spent his early days on the 
farm; at the age of eighteen he learned the blacksmith's trade at Adams Basin and 
then worked as journeyman for several years in that place and came to North Parma 
where he continued working at his trade for four or five years, and then went to 
Michigan where he became proprietor of a shop. In Oakland, Mich., April 30, 1857, 
he married Fanny H. Hazen. He returned to Parma in April, 1861, and perma- 
nently established himself in business at what is called Bartlett's Corners, deriving 
the name from his business being successful and prosperous, they deal in all kinds 
of agricultural implements, wagons, carriages, etc., and the firm of Bartlett &■ Haw- 
kins is very well known to manufacturing establishments in the Western and also 
Eastern States, handling a large quantity of their goods in connection with their own 
manufactory. Mr. Bartlett has three children, Ida M., Helen M., and De Ette L. 
His wife died January 12, 1889. He is a prominent member of the Methodist Episco- 
pal church, and doubtless his success in business is due largely to his faithfulness 
and steady habits, being a total abstainer, drinking nothing but cold water all his 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 95 

life, never indulging in either tea or coffee, and by his correct life has gained the 
confidence and respect of all who know him; and on September 5, 1894, he married, 
again, Emily A., daughter of Ira H. Parker, and widow of L. B. Arnold, from Brock- 
port, Monroe county. 

Prosser, Cicero J., (deceased), was born in Clarkson December 18, 1821. His 
father, Jonathan, was a native of Albany county, and came to this town in 1H18, 
where he engaged in farming. C. J. Prosser was educated in Clarkson Academy, 
and in 1855 married Ellen M., daughter of Samuel and Susan Nixon, who came to this 
town m 1811 when the country was an unbroken wilderness, and they were obliged 
to travel on horseback. Mr. and Mrs. Prosser have these children: Jonathan, 
Arthur D., Norris B., Mrs. Louisa Selden, and Jessie M. Prosser. Our subject was 
one of the practical and successful farmers of his town, serving as supervisor several 
terms, and otherwise taking a leading position in town affairs. He died in 1888, re- 
spected by all. 

Moore, Wilson H., was born in Clarkson, April 19, 1859, where his father, James 
M., was also born. The grandfather, James, came to Clark.son in 1810, where he 
was a pioneer, buying land and engaging extensively in agriculture. James M. 
married Abigail A., daughter of John Lawrence, and of their children, Wilson H. 
was the youngest son. He was educated in the Brockport Normal school, and in 
1878 established a newspaper and magazine subscription agency, with headquarters 
at Brockport, which he still continues. In 1888 he entered into the shoe manufactur- 
ing business, which was incorporated in February under the name of the Moore- 
Shafer Manufacturing Company, of which he is secretary and treasurer. They em- 
ploy 175 men and women, and their business is one of the leading industries of the 
county. In 1887 Mr. Moore married May L., daughter of C. H. Scranton, and they 
have one daughter, Helen H., and an infant son. 

Rowerdink, William H., the only surviving child of a large family of the late 
Henry Rowerdink of Brighton, was born at Brighton in 1859. Henry Rowerdink 
was of Holland birth, and came to America in 1850, purchasing and operating a farm 
near Allen's creek. He died in 1882. William H. Rowerdink. after leaving Hope 
College, taught school for about five years, also managing a dairy farm and milk 
route. His first experience in the carriage business was gained as a traveling sales- 
men for Sullivan Brothers, of Brighton, whom he represented for two years. In 
1889 he established himself in the business, and now has a large and constantly in • 
creasing trade, especially m carriages of fine grades. Mr. Rowerdink is vice-presi- 
dent of the Empire State Wagon Company of Buffalo, well-known producers of 
superior goods. He married, in 1883. Mary De Potter, of Brighton, and has two chil- 
dren, Henry J. and Mamie. He has been particularly prominent in local politics, 
resigning in 1891 the office of justice to accept that of supervi.sor for two years, and 
is again justice. 

Otis, Dr. Charles P., was born in Rochester in 1860, a son of Dr. Clark Oti.s of 
Livingston county, whose father was Matson Otis, a Warsaw merchant. The 
mother of Charles F. was Mary Ann Shedd, daughter of Philander Shedd, and sister 
of K. P. Shedd. The ancestors of the Otis family were prominent in New England 
in the early history of the country and were among the early colonists. In 1859 Mr. 



96 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY 

Matson aud Clark ( )tis went to Rochester and engaged in photography. Eight 
years later found Clark Otis in Cuba, where he was burned out. He had studied 
medicine, and next began practice in Byron, After this he went west, and in 1S76 
returned to Honeoye Falls. In 1881 he removed to Penn Yan, and was succeeded 
in his practice by Charles F. , then a young man of twenty-one who had just taken 
his diploma from the Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago, and the latter has 
had a very successful practice. He married Mary A. Hutchinson, a niece of William 
Downey, and has two sons, William Kirk and Charles Francis, jr. Mrs. Otis has 
carried on a flourishing business in a millinery store. 

Wing, Benjamin. — One of the oldest and most highly esteemed residents of 
Brighton. Of Ouaker extraction, Mr. Wing is a personal and living exemplification 
of the attributes which made that sect beloved of men. He was born at Uuanes- 
burg, N Y., December 8, 1811, where his father, Joseph Wing, was a farmer and 
dealer in live stock. He had two wives, and Benjamin was the elder of two sons. 
Benjamin made his home when a young man with an uncle at Duanesburg, David 
Wing, by name, who was a very scholarly man and eminent in public affairs, and 
who had no children of his own. Benjamin's mother died when he was but three 
years old. When he was twenty-nine he came to Irondequoit and purchased a farm 
of two hundred acres. In 1887 he married Eliza, daughter of Isaac Babcock, of 
Rush. She died in 1888, leaving three children : David, Stephen and Liela. The 
sons are now engaged in the fruit and nursery business at Rogers, Ark., under the 
firm style of " D. Wing & Brother." Liela became the wife of Clarence De Puy, of 
Rochester, manager of the Collection Department of the Lawyers' Co-operative Pub- 
lishing Co. During Mr. Wing's thirty years' residence in Irondequoit he took an 
active and influential part in town affairs, as supervisor, a.ssessor, school trustee and 
in other official and responsible capacities. In 1870 he sold his farm and .settled in 
Brighton, where he is greatly esteemed for his many sterling and amiable qualities. 

Brigham, John, came to Ogden from Oneida county in 1812, and took up 100 acres 
of land in the southern part of the town, returned for his family, and was drafted 
into service, and was ordered with his troops to Sackett's Harbor. His wife was 
Susan Moore, who came to t|ie town in 1816. In 183;} Mr. Brigham bought the farm 
now owned by his son Milton, and here he spent the remainder of his life. He died 
in 1863 and his wife in 1848. He was captain of a company of militia as long as the 
organization was maintained, and was also deacon in the Presbyterian church for 
many years. His children were Caroline E., who married George W. Hiscock; Or- 
ville P , late of Ogden; John D., who died in 1894; Alonzo, who died in 1859 at La 
Fayette, Ind. ; Milton and Charles, both of this town; Sarah, who married Harvey 
Pratt; and Harriet who married W. W. Hart, of Spencerport. Milton Brigham was 
born June 18, 1825, and for more than forty years has been an active worker in all 
good causes in Ogden. After the death of his mother he and iiis brother Charles 
worked the home farm on shares for about ten years, and on the death of his father 
jMilton l)ought the property, and has lived on the farm since 1858. In 1850 he mar- 
ried Mary A., daughter of William and Clara Finch of Clarkson, and they have had 
four children: Carrie L., Henry M., John H., and Mary A. In the political life of 
Ogden our subject has been an active factor for the past forty years, though he is in 
no sense a politician. 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 97 

The Stull Family.— Jacob Stull resides at Mann's Corners, in Rush, on the farm 
where he was born in the fall of 1812, and in the house built by his father, Jacob 
Stull in 1814. Jacob 1st was a native of Frederick, Md. His father died when Jacob 
was a boy, and Jacob was indentured to a tailor, and .served his time. At the age of 
twenty-two he and his mother and two si.sters came with a number of families and 
five teams to Lyons, this State, intending to go to Sodus Point. Parties who had 
promised to cut a road for them through Wayne county had failed to do so, and they 
came to Avon instead. One of the sisters of Jacob married Adam Price, son of 
Philip, members of the party coming with the Stulls from Maryland. They reared 
seven sons and one daughter, Susannah, who became the wife of Jacob Stull 1st, and 
the mother of our subject. Both families moved into Rush, the Stulls in 1802, and 
the Prices in 1803. Philip Price's sons were young men when they came here; they 
married and settled here, and reared large families, who on reaching manhood all 
went to Michigan excepting George and Peter. The old people died on this farm, 
which adjoins the Stull farm, he in 1829 and his wife in 1826. Jacob Stull was the 
first to settle in the town on the north side of Honeoye Creek. He died in the fall 
of 1845, aged sixty-seven, his wife having died in 1847. They had thirteen children. 
Augusta died in infancy, and the others were John P., Israel, George, who died in 
Illinois; Abigail, Isabel, Rebelsa, James S., Jacob, Peter P., Susan, Matthew, and 
Adaline, who died in Honeoye Falls. Jacob Stull, sr., was a leading politician of 
Rush, serving as assessor and clerk for many years. His son, John P., was super- 
visor, and well known in the county. When the subject of this sketch was five years 
old he suffered a severe attack of inflammation of the brain, which resulted in 
paralysis of his left side, and he never had any use of his left arm or hand, and was 
able to walk only by an effort. He was educated at the Seminary at Lima, and when 
his brothers left home he took the management of the farm, living with his sisters 
until they died, and since with people who have worked on the place. His farming 
has been successful and he has been able to give generously to the needy and to 
other enterprises. Peter Price Stull was born in 1814. He married Julia, daughter 
of Capt. Nathan H. Jeffords, who came from Richfield to Rush in 1805. Captain 
Jeffords was one of the noted characters in the early days, and died in 1867 at the 
age of eighty-three. He had twelve children, all but two of whom settled and died 
in Rush. The children of Peter P. Stull and Julia Jeffords were Horace G. and Sarah, 
who married William H. Mead, of Rush. Horace G. married Marietta A., daughter 
of William G. Norton, of Honeoye Falls, and they had one one son, Alfred Peter. 

Stone, Franklin E., was born in Pitisford March 29, 1847, a son of Eber, bom in 
Pittsford in 1807, whose father, Samuel Stone, was a native of Connecticut, and a 
Revolutionary soldier, who came to this county in 1790, and became a prosperous 
fanner of this region. He was also for many years deacon in the church. Eber 
married Eliza, daughter of Seth and Sally Cook of Vermont, early settlers of Wayne 
county. Their children were; Amy E., who died aged seven; Anna I., wife of 
William Lord of Mendon; Tirzah M., who died young; Samuel H., George F.. and 
Miranda, who both died in infancy; Franklin E., and Helen E., who died aged 
twelve. His wife died in February, 1864, and he followed her in September of the 
same year. For a number of years Franklin and his brother conducted the home 
farm, and in 1872 he sold his interest to his brother, and removed to ;Henrietta 



98 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

where he purchased his present place of seventy-five acres. In 1871 he married 
Clara S., daughter of Jeremiah and Sarah Clark, and they have had four children: 
Helen E., born in 1872, a teacher in the Union School at Pittsford; F. Clark, born 
in 1881 ; Clarabel, born in 1886, and Amy May, born in 1889. Mr. Stone is a Repub- 
lican in politics and holds the office of justice of the peace in Henrietta. 

Chapman, George. — Among the well-known and much esteemed personal land- 
marks of Brighton is George Chapman, who has for thirty years been a resident of 
that village. He was born in Hawkhurst, Kent, near London, England, May 12, 
1820, at which place his father, Joseph Chapman, was engaged in farming. During 
his youth he was for several years employed as a drj' goods salesman in London. 
When twenty-three years old he sailed for America, coming direct to Rochester; and 
being possessed of considerable mechanical skill, became a boat builder, that being 
in those days a large and important industry. In this occupation fourteen years 
passed, and since that time Mr. Chapman has been engaged in the nursery business. 
He has been a residert of Brighton since 1864. His first wife, Mary Gascoigne, 
to whom he was married before he was eighteen, died at Brighton in 1878, leaving 
three children: George, Mary and Charles. George is a resident of Brighton, while 
Charles and Mary, now Mrs. W. J. Winfield, live at Kansas City, Mo. Mr. Chapman 
married his present wife. Mrs. Elizabeth Franklin of Rochester, June 3, 1880. Her, 
only son, Henry H. Franklin, is a distributing postal clerk in that city. 

Mason, George G. — A business which has been in continvious existence for a period 
of probably sixty years necessarily merits special recognition. This remark applies 
to the business now conducted by Mr. George G. Mason. It was founded as near as 
we can trace by Timothy Corning, and after several changes the business passed 
into the hands of a Mr. Wolcott about 1861, he was succeeded by Dr. Pratt and in 
1873 it was purchased by Mr. S. F. Mason, father of the present proprietor, who 
built the present fine store and building. It was carried on by him until 1885 when 
he was succeeded by his two sons George G. and S. F. Mason, jr., which partnership 
existed four years when Mr. Henry R. Mason purchased his brother, S. F. Mason's 
interests, and finally in 1890 Mr. George G. Mason assumed sole control of the busi- 
ness, and it is conducted to-day upon the same principle of liberalitj' and honor for 
which all of Mr. Mason's transactions are noted and through which the business suc- 
cess has been builded and maintained for so many years. His store, which is 30x60 
feet in dimensions, is finely appointed, heated by steam, and provided with every 
convenience. In the drug department, he carries a first class stock, one not usually 
found in a country drug store, comprising pure drugs, chemicals, all the standard 
proprietary remedies and medicines, toilet and fancy articles. Special attention is 
given to compounding physicians' prescriptions, in the preparation of which only the 
purest and most reliable drugs are used, which are compounded by Mr. Mason, who 
is a licensed pharmacist of many years' experience. In the grocery department he 
carries a very complete stock not surpassed in this village. Mr. Mason is one of our 
most progressive business men and highly esteemed citizens; who has always taken 
the keenest interest in the welfare and advancement of the village. For four con- 
secutive terms he served his fellow citizens as town clerk from 1890 to 1894, being 
elected without opposition. He is now treasurer of the School Board. Socially, he 
is treasurer of Webster Lodge No. 538, F. & A. M., and a member of Webster Tent 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 99 

No. 493, K. O. T. M. In 1884 he married Mariette C, dauirhter of William R. Eaton, 
and has two sons, Russell B., born in 1887, and George H., born in 1889. 

Meitzler, Charles, a self-made man, and held in high regard by all who know him. 
Mr. Meitzler was born at Kriegsfeld, Rhinepfalz, Germany, the son of a well to do 
farmer. In February, 1849, being then twenty-eight years of age, he sailed for 
America (on account of the Revolution in 1848, in which he took a prominent part), 
and began life here in the capacity of a farm laborer at eleven dollars per month. 
But a portion of that meagre salary was hoarded, and, with the help of money, 
brought from home, in a few years he was the owner of a small farm in the town of 
Henrietta. In 1854 he disposed of the farm at a good profit, invested the money in 
city property, and entered the employ of Ellwanger & Barry, which connection 
proved so mutually satisfactory that he remained with them until 1864. At that date 
he acquired, by purchasing, the hotel property at West Brighton, where he is still 
located, and which he has extensively rebuilt and improved. In 1851 he married 
Elizabeth Uamm, whose birthplace was near his own in Germany, and who has 
borne him six children. Those living are George, Elizabeth and Carl. Two daugh- 
ters, Eva May and Emma, died in early childhood, and a son, Edward, at twenty- 
three years of age. Mr. Meitzler, like the majority of his countrymen, is a Republi- 
can, and his great personal popularity is evinced by the fact that he held the office of 
town clerk for nineteen years, and has been postmaster of West Brighton since 18(57 
without interruption, a remarkable instance of tenure of that office. 

Brown, Thomas A., M. D. — Eminent not alone among the medical profession, but 
as a citizen of the pioneer class; of those who have by per.sonal effort and exami)le 
contributed largely toward social advancement, stands the venerable Dr. Thomas A. 
Brown of Brighton, who has for full half century practiced the healing art. Born at 
Rahway, New Jersey, in 1815, he was a shoemaker's son, of Scotch ancestry, whose 
earliest American progenitors came in the Mayflower or her consorts. Apprenticed 
when a youth to a saddler at Newark, N. J., his spirit was not so tame as to 
embrace permanently a mechanical trade, and upon the attainment of his majority, 
he traveled westward to Buffalo by the Erie waterway, and soon after went to Pal- 
myra, and entered the office of Dr. Mclntyre, as a medical student. He afterward 
entered the Geneva Medical College and was graduated from there 1845. He prac- 
ticed first at Palmyra, then at Manchester and Penfield, and in 18'7 located at 
Brighton, where he has since practiced with much success. Dr. Brown has five chil- 
dren living, the youngest of whom is Dr. William M. Brown, who was born at Pen- 
field in 1866, and who upon graduating in 1882 from the University of New York, 
spent eighteen months in Rochester City Hospital. He is now associated with his 
father at Brighton. 

Reitz, Dr. Charles, was born in Ontario, Wayne county, where he spent his boy- 
hood until 1888, when he attended for two years the University of Ann Arbor, Mich. 
He then went to Bellevue Hospital Medical College of New York city where he 
graduated in the spring of 1890, after which he began practice in Webster, in part- 
nership with Dr. John D. Dunning. 

Dean, Theodore S., was born in Syracuse July 26, 1845. The father was R. S. 
Dean, a native of Oswego county, and the family trace their descent to one of that 



100 Landmarks of Monroe county. 

name that came from Scotland about IToO. Theodore S. was educated in the Wal- 
worth Institute, and on August 10, 1862, enlisted in Co. G, 138th N.Y. Vols., after- 
wards transferred to 9th N.Y. H. Art. He participated in the several battles of the 
regiment at Cold Harbor, Petersburg, and the Shenandoah Valley, remaining till 
the close of the war. Returning home he began the stud)' of law in the office of 
James L. Bagg at Syracuse, and was admitted to'the bar in 186T. He was also with 
the firm of Ruger & Jenny. In 1868 he went to Chicago, and in 1871 came to 
Brockport, and engaged in practice, where he has since continued. He is attorney 
for several corporations, and has a large practice. He has served as justice of the 
peace sixteen years. In 1878 he married Alice Wood, who died in January, 1880. 
In 1883 he married Hattie B. McArthur. Their children are Marie A. and Edith 
M. Our subject is identified in advancing the best interests of his town and is 
prominent in Republican politics in Western New York. 

Down, Charles B. — Prominent among the men who have at heart the well-being of 
their fellow-men and whose efforts are freely contributed toward reform and pros- 
perity, is Charles B. Down, of Brighton, widely known as a successful teacher. Mr. 
Down is of English ancestry and was born at Webster, Monroe county, December 
4, 1853. His grandfather, James Down, was a native of Somersetshire, England, 
where was born his father, John Down, in 1814, who still lives. Charles received an 
academic education at Marian Institute, after which he spent a year at Yale College 
preparatory to becoming a teacher. After teaching a short time in district schools, 
he was made principal of Brighton School, which position he filled acceptably for a 
period of seven consecutive years, retiring by his own act in 1889, having business 
interests demanding his attention. Having purchased the eligible location at corner 
South and East avenue, Brighton, Mr. Down erected a handsome business block in 
1890, opening a market and grocery. Associated with him in the latter business was 
Clarence Butterfield, a former pupil, who in 1894 acquired by purchase Mr. Down's 
share. In 1883 Mr. Down married Phebe J., daughter of William and Ann Morrill, 
of Brighton, and has two children: Blanche, born September 6, 1885, and Clinton, 
born October 17, 1890. Both himself and wife are members of the Presbyterian 
church. 

Jones, William H. — The ancestors of William H. Jones on his father's side were 
from Wales; his great-grandfather settled in Saratoga county, N. Y. , and his grand- 
father, Joshua Jones, came from Madison county in 1815, and was among the 
pioneer settlers of the town of Webster, and engaged in farming and the tanning 
business. His grandfather on the maternal side, Capt. Samuel Millard, who served 
in the Revolutionary war, came from Providence, R. I., and settled in that vicinity 
about the same time. Chester Jones, the eldest of Joshua Jones's three sons, was a 
well known substantial citizen of Webster, whose family consisted of four daughters 
and eight sons: Harvey, Cordelia, Zardus, Edwin, Corlista, Nancy, Jerome, William 
H., Stephen, Allen, Laura, and Hon. Frank M., a merchant of Webster, whose 
political prominence in the State Legislature is well known. Our subject was born 
in 1841, and his early life was spent on his father's farm, where he attended the 
district school, and finished his education at the Webster and Macedon Academies. 
At the age of eighteen he went to Canada as a traveling salesman for a Rochester 
Nursery Company, at nineteen was engaged in the same business in Pennsylvania, 



Family sketches. loi 

at twenty was teaching school near San Francisco, Cal., at twenty-one to twenty- 
five he was in Nevada, where he was engaged as justice of the peace, teaching 
school, and secretary of some gold and silver mining companies, near Virginia City. 
In 1866 he returned to his native place and was married to Anna C, the estimable 
daughter of Jacob C. Rowe, then a farmer and nurseryman in the town of Webster. 
Since then he has resided at Williamsport. Pa., Osceola, Iowa, and Rochester, N.Y., 
but in 1878 he settled in the village of Brighton, Monroe county, where he still re- 
sides. 

Curtis, Elias, was born in Saratoga, N. Y., May 17, 1804, where he Hved until 1838, 
when he came to Parma. In 1835 with only $700 he bought 100 acres of the farm 
where he now resides. At that time it was an almost unbroken forest, and later he 
added 100 additional acres. September 13, 1835, he married Nancy Curtis, daughter 
of Philander Curtis, beginning their wedded life in a primitive log house which 
occupied the only cleared space on the farm. Throughout a long and prosperous 
life Mr. Curtis's most prominent characteristics have been a sterling integrity and 
force of character which have made deep and lasting impressions on the entire 
community. He has been almost a life-long member of the Methodist Episcopal 
church at North Parma. In this relation as in all others he has been staunch and 
faithful, giving liberally as the Lord prospered him. In all things his wife was a 
worthy help-mate; she is a woman of fervent piety. Her highest ambition through 
a busy life has been to win at last from the Master the truthful encomium, ' She hath 
done what she could." In church work she was most active. She has been a good 
mother, a kind neighbor, a thrifty housewife. Seven children have blessed this 
union, all of whom are living. They are; Laura, now Mrs. Willard Judd, of North 
Parma; Sara, now Mrs. Sanford Meech, of Charlotte, N.Y. ; Frances, now Mrs. Bela 
J. Buell, of Rochester, N. Y. ; Luella, of North Parma; Rose, now Mns. Stephen 
Rice, of Minneapolis; also two sons, Eli B. and Charles E. Curtis, both of North 
Parma. Mr. and Mrs. Curtis have been enabled to give all of their children good 
educational advantages, and have been well repaid and gratified to see each one 
take honored positions in the communities where they reside. Laura, Mrs. Willard 
Judd, has for many years been a recognized leader in all missionary matters and 
temperance reform. Eli B. has inherited many of his father's sterling traits. He 
was given a business education, but chose farming as a profession, in which he has 
been unusually successful. He is a progressive man in every sense of the word, and 
is classed by his fellow-citizens among the most intelligent, solid men of the com- 
munity. He was born June 12, 1843, and in January, 1869, he was married to 
Celia F. Leonard. Two daughters were born to them, Lottie May and Josie. His 
wife died April 25, 1888. The youngest son, Charles E., is also a thrifty farmer, a 
kind husband and father. He was born May 19, 1862. December 25, 1889, he mar- 
ried Miss Maggie Love. They have one daughter. Rose. Mr. and Mrs. Curtis are 
living on their now beautiful farm, tenderly cared for by their children. A com- 
modious, beautiful home has taken the place of the old log house, surrounded by 
every evidence of prosperity and thrift. 

Shelmire, James D. — Occupying a prominent place among the progressive business 
men of Brighton, Mr. Shelmire purchased in 1878, of James Lusk, the coal yards 
adjacent to the Central railroad depot, and which business he has greatly extended, 



102 ' LANDMARKS OP MONROE COUNTY. 

dealing also in plaster and fertilizers. Mr. Shelmire's mother was a member of one 
of the oldest families of Monroe county. She was Louisa Perrin, after whose 
father's familj' the town of Perrinton (or, according to a later spelling, Perinton) was 
named. His father was the late John Shelmire, who was a blacksmith bj' trade, and 
born at German town, Pa. The children of John and Louisa were' Kittie L., now 
deceased, who had married and removed to Fon-du-Lac, Wisconsin ; William P. 
of Brighton ; James D. , and Louis J., a bookkeeper of Rochester. James graduated 
from Rochester Business University and entered the employ of Gould Bros., as 
a bookkeeper, remaining with them ten years, until engaging in his present busi- 
ness. In 1888 he married Hattie L. Parsons, whose father, the late Marshfield Par- 
sons, was prominent among the pioneers of the Allen Creek District. Of unbounded 
personal popularity, Mr. Shelmire takes a leading part in town affairs, and is much 
esteemed for his sterling qualities. At the reorganization of the village he was 
elected a trustee and filled that position several years, later he was made treasurer, 
to which office he was again elected in March, IHOo, without opposition. Of the 
Masonic fraternity, the Presbyterian church, and of society in general, he is a valued 
member. 

Boardman, Miss Emily, is the elder daughter of Silas Boardman, a highly re- 
spected resident of Brighton, and who, at this writing, has attained the remarkable 
age of ninety-five years. Mr. Boardman was born March 19, 1800, in Albany county, 
N.Y. His father, Silas Boardman, the first of the name, was a colonel in the war of 
1812. He was a tanner and also engaged in farming and nursery business. Silas 
Boardman, second, came to Rochester about 1828, interesting himself in the nursery 
business and as broker until 1840, when an inherent love for country life and horti- 
cultural pursuits led him to purchase a place near the village of Brighton and con- 
tinue the nursery business until 1877, which has been his home for more than half a 
century. Mr. Boardman married at Rochester, in 1836, Ann Maria Smith, niece of 
E. F. Smith, whose birthplace was Stoniugton, Conn. Four sons and two daughters 
were born to them: Emily, John, Silas, Lucy, William, and Julius. John and 
William are deceased. Silas, jr., is a commission merchant at Mount Jewett, Pa., 
and Julius, a seedsman of San Francisco, while the sisters, Emily and Lucy, 
remained at home, ministering to the wants of their aged father, their mother dying 
in 1866. 

Kincaid, Rev. John, whose long service as .superintendent of the Sunday school 
at Ogden Center, has made his name well known throughout Ogden, was born in 
London, England, June 9, 1844, a son of William and Catharine Kincaid. In Eng- 
land the father was foreman in a silk factory, but in America gave his attention to 
•agriculture, and lived in Clarkson and later in Brockport, dying however in his na- 
tive country. Our subject was brought up to farm work, was well educated in the 
elementary studies, and became a student at Oberlin College, but failing health com- 
pelled him to leave the institution and also to abandon his early desire to enter pro- 
fessional life, and the ministry. He turned his attention to farm work and has so 
continued till the present, although he was ordained in 1893 a minister of the Presby- 
terian Church, and is now pastor at Chili. Always interested in Christian work, Mr. 
Kincaid became superintendent of the Presbyterian Sunday school at Ogden Center 
•n 1875, which position he filled for seventeen years. In the same year he became a 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 103 

permanent resident of Ogrlen, where he possesses a fine farm of 100 acres. In 187(1 
John Kincaid married Julia, daughter of John McChesney of Ogden, by whom he 
had four children ; three now living. His wife died in February, 1890, and in March. 
1892, he married a second wife, Clara EUsmore, of Greece. 

Jackson, Morris S., is one of the prominent landmarks of Henrietta, born in this 
town April 5, 1825. His father was Isaac Jackson, who was born in Fairfield, Her- 
kimer county, a son of William, who was a soldier in the war of 1812. Isaac came 
to Henrietta about 1815, and during his early residence here taught school. He 
bought a farm of 150 acres, partially improved, and served as town clerk as early as 

1818, and later served eleven years on the Board of Supervisors. He married Chloe 
Wood, of Schuyler county, and their children were as follows: Calvin W., Melissa, 
Thomas J., Harvey, Morris S., Emily R., and Andrew, Emily and Morris bemg the 
only survivors. The father died in 1875, and the mother in 1889. Morris began for 
himself by purchasing fifty acres of the homestead, to which he added at intervals 
ninety-three acres, and has interested himself also in the cattle trade also dealing in 
sheep. This he followed many years also in connection with farming. Since 1874 
tie has lieen in the milk business, retailing in the city of Rochester, Mr. Jackson is 
located about four miles from the city of Rochester, and has the largest and finest 
residence in Henrietta, In 1851 he married Julia E. Crittenden, a native of Brighton, 
born in 1833, whose parents were Austin and vSarah (Warrant) Crittenden. Mr. and 
Mrs. Jackson have had two children: Sarah C, who with her husband Wilber Rice, 
were killed in a railway accident at Prospect Park on Christmcs Eve in 1875 while 
returning from their wedding tour. Austin Crittenden, son of our subject, resides in 
Rochester. Mrs. Jackson is a lady of culture and has been for many years a mem- 
ber of the Baptist church of Rochester, but since 1892 has been a member of the 
West Henrietta church. 

Day, Eliphalet, came from Washington county in 1837, and settled west of Spen- 
cerport on the Lisle road. He had been a hotel keeper and wagon maker, but in 
this region followed farming. He died in Ogden, aged seventy-two years. His 
children were Mary A., who married George P. Hodges; O. H., now of Suspension 
Bridge; Sarah J., who married N. S. P. Crocker; Wealthy A., who married William 
Gridley; Samuel H. ; Eliza, deceased; Delia M., who married Sylvester Warner; 
Harriet, who married William Bedle; and Spencer E., of Riga. Samuel H. Day 
was born April 7, 1824, and though he worked in his father's hotel in Washington 
county when but eight years old, his main business has been farming. At the age 
of twenty-six he bought his first farm, and his efforts in life have been substantially 
rewarded, he being to-day the owner of one of the best farms in the county, which 
comprises 183 acres. In 1873 Mr. Davis left the farm, and has since lived in comfort- 
able retirement at Spencerport. In 1851 he married Minerva Davis, and had six 
children; Albert H., Charles E., Charlotte E., Emma L., Celia M., and Sophronia. 
In 1872 Mrs. Day died, and he married, second, H. Augusta Davis, a sister of his 
first wife. Mr. Day has served as assessor, excise commissioner, village trustee, etc. 
and is deacon, trustee, treasurer and elder of the Congregational church. Horatio 
Davis was a native of Connecticut, who came to Riga in 1818. purchased his farm in 

1819, and to this day it has remained in the family. By his wife, Sophronia Deming 



104 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

he had eight children. He died in 1871, aged seventy-three, and his widow died in 
1878, aged seventy-seven. 

Stone, Harvey, was born in Leyden, Lewis county in 1814, a son of Timothy, born 
in Madison, Conn., in 1776, who served in the waf of 1812, and in the battle of Sack- 
etfs Harbor. In 1798 he removed to Leyden, with his family, and made a home in 
the forest, erecting a log house, which he covered with bark from the trees, and a 
blanket served as a door, and they endured all the privations and trials incident to 
a pioneer life. About 1887 he removed to Henrietta, where he died in 1851. He 
was three times married, and by his second wife, Abigail Miller, had ten children. 
His third wife was Louisa Dewey of Connecticut. Our subject began for himself, 
traveling on the road with goods, and in 1835 went to Avon, thence to Honeoye 
F"alls, where he spent a year, and then to this town, where he has remained. He 
bought his first farm there in 1834. Mr. Stone married Triphena Belknap of Lewis 
county, and their children are as follows: Mrs. Eliza Marsh, of this town; and 
Alfred, born in 1841. He married, second, Mary Ann Bundy, of Otego, a daughter 
of James and Polly (Overhiser) Bundy, by whom he has these children: Mrs. Lucre- 
tia B. Winslow, of Henrietta, Caroline T., deceased, and Mrs. Susan E. Hall, of 
Corry, Pa. Mr. and Mrs. Stone are members of the Baptist church of this town, in 
which Mr. Stone has served as deacon for over forty years. 

Woolston, W. J., must be reckoned among the enlightened and progessive farmers 
of Pittsford, and one whose character tends to ennoble and elevate that calling to its 
proper position, although but recently become a resident of the town. He was born 
in Victor, Ontario county, March 1, 1847, where his father, William Woolston, was 
also born, and where his grandfather, Joseph Woolston settled in 1808, removing 
there from Camden, N. J. Joseph was a pen.sioner of the war of 1812. His son, 
William, first became prominent in his vicinity for business and counsel on matters 
in general in Ontario county, in the Baptist church, and in the Republican party, 
and he served m various town offices. His wife was Laura Andrews of Delaware' 
county, and six of their children reached mature age: B. Franklin, John A., Laura 
A., Miranda C, William J. and Daniel D., all now living. Our subject first engaged 
in farming at Mendon, having acquired a sound business education at Albion, Mich. 
In 1869 he married Sarah A. Corby, of Mendon Center, who died in 1873, leaving 
one child, Louis. In 1875 he married Clara Dawley, who was the mother of A. Laura, 
and Clarence B. In 1890 Mr. Woolston purchased the choice farm of 175 acres where 
he now lives. He is an active member of the order of the Patrons of Husbandry. 

Farnam, George W., a highly esteemed citizen of Pittsford, was born at Scipio. 
Cayuga county, October 10, 1842, a son of George W., and grandson of Jeffrey Far- 
nam. The latter was of Connecticut birth and early came to Cayuga county. His 
wife attained the age of ninety-eight and reared a family of eleven children. George 
was a resident of Victor at the outbreak of the war, and in the summer of 1862 en- 
listed in Co. K, 1st N. Y. Mounted Rifles, an independent organization, which par- 
ticipated in the hardest conflicts. During his three years of army life Mr. Farnam's 
horse was twice wounded under him, but he escaped injury. In the early part of 
1864 was attached to 18th Corps headquarters' as orderly, and in the winter of 1864-65 
was at General Butler's headquarters, and remained in the service till June, 1865. 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 105 

Returning home he has since resided on the farm purchased by his father in ISlio, 
near Pittsford, and in December of the following year married Lucy Shepard of this 
town, and their children are: Amelia, wife of Delos Loughborough of Batavia; Frank 
L., a grocer, of Rochester, and Alfred H. of Pittsford. 

Cole, Cornelius S., was born in Schoharie county August 8, 181G, a sou of William 
and Anna (Osterhout) Cole. When CorneHus was a year old his parents removed to 
Canada, and thence to Pittsford in 1818. In 1822 moved to the town of Webster, 
Monroe county, N. Y. In this town the young life of our subject was passed. At 
the age of about seventeen he became a carpenter and joiner, at which he worked 
nearly twenty years. In connection with this work he was in Niagara county, and 
there became interested in fruit growing. Having acquired a knowledge of this 
business, he came to Spencerport in 1853, planted a nursery of about ten acres, and 
from this small beginning developed an extensive and highly successful business, 
and one which occupied his constant attention for nearly thirty years afterwards. 
About 1884 he retired from active work, and has since devoted his time to his family 
and to travel. However, he has never entirely laid aside his interest in publiq affairs. 
He is a zealous church worker, and has been a trustee of the Congregational church 
many years. In 1839 Cornelius S. Cole married Phileta E., daughter of David Rice, 
of Ogden, and they have had one child, George Milton, now a successful merchant 
of Spencerport. 

Peacock, Charles L., of Hodskin & Peacock, druggists, Fair port, was born Janu- 
ary 6, 1833, at Walworth, Wayne county, a son of Joseph Peacock, of Walworth, 
Wayne county, N. Y., the story of whose life would make a volume by itself. It 
must suffice to speak briefly of his public life in this place. He was elected in 1850 
to the Assembly from the second district of Wayne on the Republican ticket, and 
among the minor offices held by him have been captain of the State militia in 1830, 
superintendent of the Erie Canal from Lock Berlin to Irondequoit (1840-41), super- 
visor of Walworth several years, and justice of the peace thirty-six years. Born in 
Columbia county in 1805 and lived to the ripe old age of ninety years. Charles 
Peacock has for twenty-eight years been a resident and an active business man of 
Fairport. In earlier life he has been a traveling salesman, settling here about 1867, 
having in 1859 married Addie Hill, of Walworth, whose father, Francis Hill, was 
one of the first men born there, in 1803. Mr. and Mrs. Peacock, have one son, Carl- 
ton H., born September 18, 1867, now a druggist of Rochester. The firm of Hodskin 
& Peacock dates from 1873. Mr. Peacock has also been closely identified with the 
best interests of this town and the village of Fairport. He has never sought office, 
but has filled many unsalaried positions, involving good judgment and some 
philanthropy. He has been active in the movement resulting in the recent pure 
water supply for the village, and is president of the Board of Commissioners upon 
whom devolve its management. 

Millener, Joel P., was born in Cortland county in 1812, a son of Alexander and 
Abigail (Barton) Millener, the former serving as drummer in the Revolution, and 
who m 1864 was one of seven surviving Revolutionary- pensioners. He died at 
Adams Basin March 13, 1865, aged 103 years. His wife died July 23. 1862. aged eighty- 
one. The father of Alexander served with the EngHsh and Americans during the 



106 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

French war and was with General Wolfe at Quebec. When about twenty-one Joel 
P. came to Rochester, where he was a ship carpenter and boat builder. He soon 
began business for himself, and added a saw mill to his other interests, contmuing 
in active business until 1855, when he removed to Kingston, Canada, and for the 
next SIX years was senior member of the firm of Joel P. Millener & Co., manufac- 
turers of axes and tools. Returning again to Rochester, he engaged in the same 
business with D. R. Barton, and contmued two years. He then purchased the saw 
mill and property of J. O. Pettingill. at Adams Basin, to which place he removed, 
and was thereafter a resident and prominent citizen until his death, in 1886. He 
stood high in political circles, having been member of Assembly. He married, first, 
Sarah Harnden, and by her had nine children: Harriet, wife of James W. Stokes, 
of Milan, O. ; Sarah, wife of Milton E. Holton ; Helen, wife of Hiram Doty, of 
Ogden; William S., of Spencerport; Joel H., of Buffalo; George W. , of Tonawanda; 
Louis N., of Lockport; Charles A., of Deseronto, Canada; and Bella, of Rochester. 
William S. was born in Rochester January 6, 1843, and is a graduate of the medical 
department of Queen's University, Kingston, Canada, class of '64. He at once en- 
tered the service as assistant surgeon of U. S. Vols., and was assigned to the 10th 
and 11th U. S. Inf., 5th Corps, Army of the Potomac. Resignmg from the service 
in March, 1866, he began practice at Adams Basin, where he lived two years. He 
then spent about two years in the west, and returned in 1870 and purchased the drug 
store of E. H. Davis, at Spencerport, after which he dropped medical practice. In 
1868 he married Lucy A., daughter of Alvin and Cornelia Webster, of Ogden, and 
their children are : Carrie C. , wife of Sidney S. Nichols, of Spencerport ; and Will- 
iam S. , a druggist, of Holley. 

Brown, D. D. S., well-known throughout the State as a politician and publisher of 
the Rochester Democrat, was born at Richmond, Ontario county, N. Y. , June 19, 
1819, son of Parley Brown, who came from Vermont and settled at Richmond. His 
grandfather. Parley Brown, was killed at the battle of White Plains in the Revolu- 
tionary war, and his great-grandfather, John Brown, who resided at Leicester, 
Mass., was a soldier in the French and Indian wars. D. D. S. Brown received a 
common school education and attended the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary at Lima, 
N. Y., after which he taught school and studied law. While teaching school, he 
taught two years at Mumford in this town ; and was for a time superintendent of the 
schools of Wheatland. After being admitted to the bar he was appointed collector 
of tolls on the Genesee Valley Canal at Scottsville, and in 1847 settled in Scottsville 
to attend to those duties, and at the same time commenced the practice of law there. 
For a short time he was postmaster at Scottsville, but resigned his position. In 1854 
he married Mary Ann, daughter of Cieorge Ensign, an early settler in the village. 
In 1858 he was elected county clerk of the county of Monroe and held the position 
for three years. After which he resumed the practice of his profession at Scottsville, 
but shortly after was appointed paymaster in the army with rank of major, sta- 
tioned at Louisville, Kentucky, making payments to the soldiers at Nashville. After 
the war he purchased the Rochester Democrat, which he published until 1870, when 
that paper and the Chronicle were consolidated and a stock company formed, of 
which he became president, and retained the office for two years. He was largely 
instrumental in the building of the Rochester State Line Railroad, now the Buffalo, 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 107 

Rochester & Pittsburgh Railroad. He was one of the raih-oad commissioners of the 
town of Wheatland. Mr. Brown was at the time of his death one of the managers 
of the State Industrial School at Rochester. He was a delegate to the Republican 
National Convention in 1860 that nominated Abraham Lincoln, and delegate to the 
Republican National Convention in 18G8 which nominated U. S. Grant. Mr. Brown 
'materially aided in the erection of Grace Episcopal church at Scottsville, and was 
one of its vestry at the time of his death. He died January 11, 1887, leaving his 
wife and four children: Selden S., Mary Lillian, wife of Homer L. S. Hall; Le 
Grand Brown, and Roscoe C. E. Brown. His widow, Mary A. E. Brown, died at 
the family residence, July 18, 1892. Mr. Brown's first residence in Scottsville. aside 
from boarding, was in the square house on the east side of Rochester street, being 
now the most northerly house on that side of the street, and is now owned by Jacob 
Hauszler. It was in this house that his eldest son, Selden S. Brown, was born. 
Afterwards Mr. Brown bought the Dr. Freeman Edson farm, lying west of Roches- 
ter street and north of the village. After purchasing this farm Brown's avenue was 
opened through the farm, and Mr. Brown erected his residence on the west side of 
that street north of the village, wliere he resided at the time of his death. This 
house is now occupied by his second son, Le Grand Brown. The shade trees which 
line both sides of this avenue, Beckwith avenue, which Mr. Brown opened from 
Brown's avenue to Rochester street, and Maple Avenue, running west from Brown's 
avenue to the station of the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh Railroad, were planted 
by Mr. Brown, and renewals set in place of those dying from time to time. vSelden 
S. Brown, son of D. D. S. Brown, was born at Scottsville, Monroe county, October 
23, 1855. By attending the public schools of his native village and the Rochester 
Collegiate Institute he was well fitted for the higher studies of the University of 
Rochester, from which he graduated in 1879. After a course of legal .studj' in the 
law offices of Messrs. Hubbell & McGuire, of Rochester, Mr. Brown was admitted to 
the bar in 1882, and the same year opened an office in that city. He has since been 
an active worker in his profession, being prominent both as an office attorney and 
as a speaker before a jury, Mr. Brown continues to reside in Scottsville, where he 
is school trustee and senior warden of Grace church. Mr. Brown resides in a house 
recently built by him on a part of the Brown homestead farm on the northwest 
corner of Brown's avenue and Maple avenue. Mr. Brown is also one of the railroad 
Commissioners of the town of Wheatland, having been appointed to succeed his 
father at the time of his father's death. Le Grand Brown, another son of D. D. S. 
Browm, is a civil engineer and surveyor by profession, and as assistant was in charge 
of the construction of the new water works conduit to Rochester. He is also known 
as an expert builder of electric railways, for which he has invented many useful 
devices. He resides in the D. D, S. Brown homestead at Scottsville, having his 
office in Rochester! 

Briggs, Elroy W., was born in Sodus, Wayne county, August 11, 1847, a son of 
George W., also a native of Wayne county. The family are of Scotch descent, and 
landed in Massachusetts about 1650. George W. married Mary J., daughter of B. 
Right, and in 1885 took up his residence in Newark, Wayne county, where he was 
recognized as a man of sterling integrity. He died at the age of seventy-six. E. 
W. Briggs was educated at Marion Collegiate Institute, after which he taught a few 



108 LANDMARKS OP MONROE COUNTY. 

years. In 187!? he established a drug store at Clifton Springs, and in 1891 bought 
the store and stock of O. L. Howard at Brockport, and is now one of the leading 
druggists of the town, also making a specialty of wall papers. In 1875 he married 
Mary E. Newland, of Clifton Springs, and they have one daughter, Mary Edith. 

Cogswell, Pierce J. Prominent among the energetic and representative business 
men of Brighton, is P. J. Cogswell, who in 189:^ completed an elegant suburban resi- 
dence in this village. Mr. Cogswell was born at Mt. Vernon, Me., in 1848, son of 
Aaron Cogswell, a farmer and miller. In 1873 he became associated with the Brad- 
ley Fertilizer Company, and in 1874 settled at Rochester as manager of their affairs 
west of Albany, the company's headquarters being at Boston, Mass. Mr. Cogswell 
is also interested in the raising of fine Jersey cattle, and as an intelligent amateur in 
that direction is widely known and referred to. Among his own choice herd of about 
one hundred specimens are some individuals of world-wide fame. A member of 
the board of directors and one of the most active members of the "American Jersey 
Cattle Club " of New York, Mr. Cogswell has given largely of his time and means 
for their advancement and interest, as a member of the World's Fair Commission 
and in other capacities. He has for many years been a member of the Second Bap- 
tist church of Rochester, acting as tru.stee and one of the building committee. He 
is at present the president of the village. In 1869 Mr. Cogswell married Maria 
F. Pratt, of Mt. Vernon. He bought out the famous bull Exile of St. Lambert, 
which has the largest number of titled daughters of any bull the world has ever 
known (49). 

Green, George W., was born in Pike, Wyoming county, October 8, 1825. Thrown 
upon his own resources at the age of fourteen years, he went to Rushford, com- 
menced his trade with Harry Howe, and after seven years of apprenticeship, en- 
gaged in business with Mr. Howe. In 1847 Mr. Green married Matilda, daughter of 
John and Harmony Gordon, of Rushford and a sister of James Gordon of Fairport, 
Luther Gordon deceased, of Brockport, N. Y., Walter Gordon deceased, of Allegany, 
Cattaraugus county, N. Y., Wilson Gordon of Topeka, Kan. 1859 he moved to An- 
gelica, and thence to Belmont, where he was six years county clerk. Later he 
engaged in the lumber business at Rochester. Establishing the firm of Green & 
McAuliffe in 1870 at Fairport, where his extensive business operations, lively public 
spirit and active philanthrophy made him a most influential and valuable citizen. 
He was prominent in Masonic circles and in the church, teaching for twenty years a 
class in the Congregational Sunday school. His children are Adelphia G., wife of 
P. McAuliflfe, and Ella G., now deceased, who was a highly accomplished young 
lady, an artist and musician. Her death, July 6, 1893, was widely mourned. Mrs. 
McAuliffe is the mother of George, Jessie, James, Lulu D., Anna, Ada and Gordon. 
Mr. Green died October 17, 1891, and was interred with Masonic honors at Mount 
Hope, Rochester. 

Andrews, L. E., was born in Windham county. Conn., a son of Timothy A. An- 
drews. The family are of English extraction, and were among the pioneers of Con- 
necticut. Our subject was educated in the common schools, and is a self-made man. 
In 1840 he came to Monroe county and settled in Parma, removing in 1846 to Brock- 
port, where he engaged in house painting, glazing and paper hanging, with which 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 109 

business he has always been identified. In 1847 he married Mary J., daughter of 
Cyrus Carpenter, and their children are Edward, Mrs. H, E. Smith, Mrs. J. F. Harris 
Mrs. F. E. Williams and Mrs. O. D. Humphrey. 

Ward, George R. (deceased), was born at Le Roy, N. Y., April 13, 1837, educated 
in the public schools, and in 1853 came to Brockport and learned the grocery busi- 
ness, soon placing himself in the front rank of merchants. Meeting with reverses 
in the shape of fire, he scarcely paused, but cleared away the debris and started 
again, purchasing one of the business blocks in Brockport, which he remodeled and 
rebuilt, and incorporated in what is now Ward's Opera House, a lasting monument 
to his memory. In 1858 he married Maria Palmer, who died in 1864 ; one son, Albert 
P., now living, was born to them. In 18GG he married for his second wife, 'Marian 
L. Root, daughter of F. P. Root of Sweden, who survives him. Mr. Ward died Feb- 
ruary 8, 1889. Public spirited and foremost in every object for the advancement of 
his town, his death was not only a loss to his own family, but to the community in 
general. 

Rowe, George H., born in the town of Greece, October 20, 1837. His father, Asa. 
was born in that town, in 1806, and his father, Abel Rowe, with his two brothers 
came from Tolland, Conn., about 1790. One of the brothers died, and the other, 
Frederick, settled in Gates. Asa Rowe married Rumy B., daughter of John Reed, 
and was one of the first nurserymen in this county, as well as a prominent farmer, 
serving as supervisor two terms, and was one of the building committee of the old 
court house. In 1842 he came to the town of Sweden, where he has been one of the 
most successful citizens of the town. George Rowe was educated at Alfred Acad- 
emy, Allegany county, and in 1858 went to Michigan, from there to La Porte, Ind., 
and in 1861 enlisted in Co. G, 15th U. S. Vols., participating in the battles of Rich 
Mountain, Corinth, and through the campaign of West Virginia, receiving an hon- 
orable discharge in August, 1863. In 1867 he married Ruby Reed, daughter of John 
Reed, and they have three sons and one daughter — John W., George E., Henry A,, 
and Cora M. 

Lockwood, Mrs. M. E.— Among the local pioneers of 1832 who boldly abandoned 
the older civilization of New England, shaping at the same time their own destinies 
and the social and political affairs of a new arena, we find the name of William A. 
Lockwood, scion of an old family of Stamford, Conn. His oldest son, George Will- 
iam Lockwood married in 1857 Mary D. Wright, whose father, Francis A., was 
once the leading merchant of North Norwich, N. Y. The children of this union 
were; Ida Adella, Inez Gertrude, and William Augustus. The oldest daughter 
died in infancy. Inez is a resident of Fairport, and the son is employed in the ofhce 
of a prominent firm in Rochester. George Lockwood's untimely death in 1873 at 
the age of thirty-nine was widely noted as the fatal error of a dispensing pharma- 
cist. 

Kimball, Rev. Joseph, was a native of Newburgh, Orange county, born August 
12, 1820, and at the age of twenty-three he was ordained as pastor of the Associate 
Reformed church. In 1843 he married Julia, daughter of William M. Wylie, of 
Newburgh, and in 1854 came to Brockport as pastor of the First Presbyterian church. 
In 1862 he went to Fishkill and in 1864 removed to Brooklyn, where he died iu 1874. 



110 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Giving freely his best energies to the service of his Master, unostentatious and un- 
assuming, his hands were always engaged in promoting sf)me charitable enterprise, 
and his voice in promoting the welfare of humanity. He was a graduate of the 
Union College of Schenectady and of the Theological Seminary of Newburgh. He 
began his life work at the age of twenty-two, and for thirty-one years his unceasing 
efforts were given to his chosen work. 

Clinton, Richard, was born in County Louth, Ireland. November 15, 1834, and 
came to this country at the age of eighteen. He first came to Rochester, later re- 
moved to Caledonia, and then spent about two years at lumbering in Michigan. 
He next spent a winter in New Orleans, La., and a summer in Illinois, then re- 
turned to this county, and bought in Ogden a portion of the old Scribner farm. In 
1875 Mr. Clinton bought his present farm, where with the help of his family he 
established a comfortable home. August 14, 1862. he enlisted in Co. M, 8th N. Y. 
Cavalry, and was mustered out September 16, 1865. October 11, 1863, he was 
wounded in the right arm and confined to hospital nearly six months; was then 
transferred to the Second Battalion, Veteran Reserve Corps, with whom he remained 
until his discharge. Returning to Ogden, Mr. Clinton has since been a farmer, a 
quiet hard working man, whose efforts have been crowned with success. April 15, 
1865, he married Julia Archard, of Ogden, and they_ have had these children: 
Charles, Margaret, Frederick, Mary, Jennie, Julia, Christie and Sarah. 

Hubbard, Richard P., is descended from the good old Revolutionary stock and 
was born in Salisbury, Conn., July 25, 1813, son of Josiah, whose father, Josiah 
Hubbard, was a sea captain. The father of Richard P. married Sarah, daughter of 
Elijah Stanton, who was a Revolutionary soldier and one of Washington's aides. 
Richard P. came to Chili in 1838, where, with the exception of a short time spent in 
Ontario county, he has since lived. Coming to Chili empty handed, he worked for 
a time on a farm, but soon purchased a small farm and started out for himself. By 
reason of his thrift and sound judgment he steadily gained headway and was soon 
counted among the leading farmers of the town. In 1864 he purchased the Whit- 
more farm at North Chili of 355 acres, long known as one of the finest farms in 
Western New York. Mr. Hubbard was for many years an auctioneer of exceptional 
ability. He was for nine years a director of the Monroe County Agricultural Asso- 
ciation. January 13, 1842, he married Louisa E., daughter of William Wooden, one 
of the prominent pioneer men of Chili. She died June 11, 1895. His son, Richard 
P. Hubbard, jr., is a prominent citizen of Chili. 

McMillan, James, the well-known organizer and public speaker, was born of High- 
land Scotch ancestry at Schenectady in 1829, where his father, Alexander McMillan, 
was a farmer. James early developed a taste for travel, and a genius for invention 
and improvement. His education was largely acquired by personal research, and in 
addition to the ready'and fluent wit for which his countrymen are famous, his fund 
of general information is wide and varied. When but a youth he went to Indiana 
and engaged in teaching and clearing land, etc., and subsequently interested himself 
in boring artesian wells throughout the west and this State. For the past thirty 
years he has been a resident of Perinton, and his voice and talent often employed to 
better, by organized effort, the condition of the average farmer. He is a leader in 



FAMILY SKETCHES. Ill 

the local grange movement, and a recognized authority on agricultural and political 
economy. Believing in a trinity of money, gold, silver and paper, all issued by the 
government, and a full legal tender for all debts, public and private, and not less 
than sixty dollars per capita of available circulating medium. He has the honor of 
owning at present the celebrated thoroughbred stallion, Jas. McCauley, an inbred 
grand sire of imported Eclipse, England and America's pride, and Monroe county's 
pride and land mark (See Bruce's American Stud Book, p. 400.) He was also 
one of the pioneers in educating the farmers generally how and what to feed the 
plants to increase their crops and improve their farms by the use of phosphates, 
and thorough culture; also among the first to experiment in this county in the culti- 
vation and manufacture of syrup from sorghum, or sugar cane, which we use in the 
place of old wine for our health's sake. Were he to reveal his knowledge and 
thoughts of the past, present, and future, it would make the eyes of many of the 
present generation roll in their sockets like stars or planets in their .spheres and their 
fretted locks stand on their heads like porcupine quills. He has always lived and 
thought in the advance of the age, and thus, like Paul, had ignorance to contend 
with. — Com. 

Eraser, Allan B. , was born on Eraser's Point, near Lancaster, Glengarry county, 
Canada, on January 22, 1848, a son of Alexander and Margaret Eraser, his parents 
being of Scotch birth. Allan began for himself at the age of fifteen working in 
Canada until he was twenty, when he came to the States and to Chenango county, 
where he was employed in a public works office. He then went to Oneida county, 
thence to Oswego, in both of which places he was employed as foreman on the rail- 
road, which brought him to North Parma in 1873, with his brother, E. E. Eraser, the 
latter a contractor on the R. , W. & O. road, our subject having a fencing contract. 
In 1875 he formed a partnership with E. A. Cross, carrying on a general store at 
North Parma. About two years and a half afterwards Mr. Eraser, associated with 
his brother, became sole proprietor and it is now one of the largest country stores in 
Western New York, and one of the most successful. Mr. Eraser was president of 
the North Parma Creamer}^ Company in 1894 and is now secretary and treasurer. 
He has also been treasurer of the village and is treasurer of the First Baptist church. 
In 1878 he married Ella L. Wayne, by whom he has three children. His wife died 
in April, 1892. He married, second, Elfredd L. Tambling, and they have one child, 

Curvin, John, was born in Rochester August 7, 1837, a son of John, who was a 
native of Queens county, Ireland, and came to this country in 1820, settled in Roch- 
ester, and married Margaret Heaney. Later they removed to the town of Chili, 
where he engaged in farming. He died in 1890 m his nintieth year. John Curvin 
was educated in the Christian Brothers' School at Rochester, and then engaged in 
agriculture. In 1865 he married Catherine, daughter of Gilbert Jump, who came to 
the town of Brighton in 1820, where he was a mason. The children of Mr. and Mrs. 
Curvin are: John H., Erank G., and Margaret E. Our subject is a prosperous 
farmer, and enjoys the esteem of his townspeople. 

Stubbs, Joseph, was born in Camden, Me., in 1815, of Engli.sh ancestry. Camden 
is a .semi-maritime village at the estuary of the Penobscot, and was then a flourishing 
center of the ship-building industry. Joseph learned the trade of ship carpenter and 
caulker, and has made it his business since, removing to the vicinity of Boston about 



112 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY 

1821 and to Fairport a year later. August 29, 1852, he married Sarah L. , daughter 
of the late Gould Warren, a millwright of Rochester, and a lineal descendant of Gen- 
eral Warren of Revolutionarj'-fame. Mrs. Stubbs was for twelve years engaged in 
the millinery and fancy goods business in the Stubbs block in Fairport. 

Stedman, George L., was born in Penfield September 13, 1832, a son of Lowrey 
Stedman, a native of Connecticut, born in 1797. The family is of English extrac- 
tion, and came to Connecticut in 1778. Lowrey married Harriet M., daughter of 
John V. Lemon, of Harper's Ferry, Va., and came to Rochester in 1828, and engaged 
in the manufacture and sale of cabinet work. Later he removed to Warsaw, where 
he died in 1890, in his ninety-fourth year. George L. Stedman was educated in 
Rochester, and learned the printer's trade, also being engaged in insurance and 
real estate. In 1860 he married Mary S., daughter of Robert Moore, esq., of Perry, 
N. y., and they have these children: Prof. John M. Stedman, of the Alabama Poly- 
technic Institute, of Auburn, Ala., and George L., jr., who is engaged in the railroad 
business. George L. Stedman came to Brockport in 1863, where he has since re- 
sided, and been identified with all local affairs of the town. Since 1857 Mr. Stedman 
has been engaged off and on in editorial work on different newspapers, and is writing 
for the press at the present time in connection with his other work. 

Uiver, Byron A., was born in Rush, a son of Norton, whose father, Daniel, was 
the first of the name to come to Rush. He was born in Vermont, and came here in 
1806, bought 300 acres of forest, erected a log cabin, and returned for his family. 
He had seven children, among whom he divided his property. His father Calvin, 
came here later and was buried on the farm. Norton Diver married Melissa, daugh- 
ter of Isaac Jackson of Henrietta, and began housekeeping on what is known as the 
Charles Green farm. Of his five children, Emily R., died in 1893, Byron, as above; 
John H., who lives in Lima, and Chloe, widow of Henry M. Hovey of Avon, and 
Isaac W., who died in Rush, March 19, 1895. Norton spent his last years in Honeoye 
Falls, where he died in 1889, his wife dying in 1880. Byron married Maud, daughter 
of Matthew Stull, whose father, Jacob Stull, came here from Maryland in 1801. 
Matthew died in 1871 at East Rush. Our subject bought his present farm before his 
marriage in 1865, the place comprising 115 acres of the old homestead. He has a 
son, Grad, and two daughters, Melissa C. and Eva E. Mr. Diver was supervisor 
during 1888-89-90, being re-elected without opposition. He was also assessor six 
years and collector two years. 

Courtney, Capt. Lewis B., was born in Cortland county March 20, 1823. His 
father, Abyram Courtney, was a native of Chenango county, and the grandfather, 
William, was a soldier of the Revolution. Lewis B. was educated in the public 
schools, and in 1860 came to Brockport. In 1862 he enlisted in Co. A, 140th N. Y. 
Vols., and took part in the battles of the Army of the Potomac, being present at the 
surrender of Lee at Appomattox Court House, and was one of two remaining officers 
in his regiment at the battle of Petersburg. Enlisting as a private, he was promoted 
second sergeant, first lieutenant, and at the close of the war held the rank of captain, 
bringing back but eleven of the original 100 members of his company. In 1865 he 
returned to Brockport and entered the employ of D. S. Morgan & Co., remaining till 
1885, since which time he has been engaged in the fruit evaporating business. 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 113 

Allen, Lemuel, was born in Henrietta April 17, 1824, and ten years later came to 
Penfield with his father, Lemuel, and grandfather, Lemuel, sr., who died there. Our 
subject married in 1846 and settled on the farm across the road from where he now 
lives, and where he remained forty-three years. In 1891 he removed to his present 
residence, and the farm is now conducted by his son, Edwin J., who is married and 
has a son, Lemuel D., and a daughter, Alzora. 

Leake, C. Leverne, was born in Penfield in 1872, and after being educated at Roch- 
ester and Havana, he followed his trade of engineer for a time. In February, 1893, 
he came to Webster, where he started a sash, door and blind factory, in connection 
with which he now manufactures burial caskets also. He is a son of Stephen Leake, 
whose father Thomas Leake, was among the earliest settlers of Penfield. 

Bumpus, William H., eldest son of Alexander N. Bumpus, was born in Henrietta 
in 1845. His father was born in New Bedford, Mass., in 1812, and with several 
brothers was at one time connected with the great whaling industry for which that 
town was noted. He was himself a carpenter by trade, and located on a farm in 
Henrietta in 1821. He has been of considerable social prominence, and is still living 
at Irondequoit. William Bumpus has been a resident of Perinton since the age of 
ten years, and chiefly interested in farming. March 15, 1876, he married Elizabeth 
White of Rochester, and their children are: Ethel aged fifteen, and Myra aged 
thirteen. 

Harris, J. D., was born at Penfield, August 30, 1848, a son of James of that town, 
born in 1821. His father William came here from Scotland in 1815, and his first 
lodging in Monroe county was where James Harris now lives, and the farm where 
they settled is also in the possession of a member of the family. James Harris has 
been and is still a representative man of the people, having been for twenty years 
supervisor of Penfield, justice of the peace about the same length of time, and filled 
besides many minor official offices. In 1879 he was the people's choice for county 
treasurer, and since the expiration of that term of office he has lived retired from ' 
active politics. He had four brothers and four sisters, all resident in Penfield, and 
at the last reunion of the family more than eighty members were present. J. D. 
Harris is one of a family of ten, five now living. After a course at Penfield Acad- 
emy he engaged in farming in that town, removing in 1878 to Perinton, near Fair- 
port, and he is now largely engaged in the shipping of produce. May 9, 1872, he 
married Frances L., daughter of Garry Brooks of Fairport, and they have one 
adopted daughter, Bessie Frances, new eleven years of age. 

Reynolds, Linus H., deceased, was born in Salem, Washington county, Septem- 
ber 28, 1822. He was married in 1846 to Sarah Doane, of Granville, Washington 
county. Came to Monroe county, where he .settled in Holley in 1848. In 1$5() went 
to Virginia where he remained till 1861, then returned to Brockport where he was 
identified with the medical profession all his life, and was prominent in advancing 
the best interests of the town, being especially interested in the welfare of the Epis- 
copal church, of which he was a member. Of a generous and benevolent character, 
his hand was ever extended toward the worthy and needy. He died October 10, 
1891, in his seventieth year. 



114 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Howell, Henry H , has been a resident of F'airport since the age of sixteen, with 
the exception of nine years from 1859 to 1868. During this time he pursued the ad- 
venturous career of a quartz miner of California. He was born at Newark, Wayne 
county, in 1837, of an old Jersey family but of German ancestry, and is the only sur- 
viving son of Jacob W. Howell who in 1858 came to Perinton and engaged in farm- 
ing, and who reached the age of eighty-two years, his death occurring in 1882. After 
returning from California in 1868 Mr. Howell was for several years engaged in farm- 
ing, and for a time conducted a market on West avenue. Mr. Howell was for two 
years police officer of the village, and several years deputy sheriff under Charles S. 
Cornell and for twenty 3'ears has been treasurer Fairport Lodge 476 F. &• A. M , at 
present is a member of the Board of Education and also a member of the Board of 
Water Commissioners. December 20, 1872, he married Carrie M. White. They have 
one daughter, Mabel, born September 17, 1^82; their only son died in infancy. Mr. 
Howell had two brothers and three sisters. One brother died at the age of thirteen 
years, and John, he is a well known and highly esteemed resident of the town of 
Perinton, who in early days went to California, and subsequently made four more 
trips to that country going and returning by water each of the five trips. He was 
well known throughout California being quite a noted quartz miner. He fell from 
an apple tree at his farm in 1891 injuring the base of his brain from which he never 
recovered consciousness. The three sisters are all living. 

Heinrich, William, was born in Montreal, Canada, February 28, 1861, a son of 
Wilhelm, who was a native of Germany, town of Aberfeldt, who came to the United 
States in 1850. In 1862 he came to Rochester and engaged in the confectionery 
business, being also a band leader of note. In 1876 he came to Brockport, where he 
engaged in the hotel business and in 1892 rebuilt the present house known as the 
Heinrich Hotel. He was the leader of the Brockport Band, and one of the founders 
and promoters of the German church. He married Frederica Rhinehart, by whom 
he had six children; William, Julius, George, Frederica, Eva and Elizabeth. He 
died in 1893, leaving his sons to take up the many business interests in which he was 
engaged, the management of the estate being taken by William. 

Johnson, Benjamin F., was born in the town of Sweden, March 25, 1813. His 
father, Ira, was a native of Oneida county and came to this town in 1811. He mar- 
ried Sallie Sturgis, and died in 1816. Benjamin F. was educated in the common 
schools, and in 1842 married Polly M. Owen, by whom he had two children : Lewis 
F. and Mrs. Celestia L. Haight. Our subject is a practical aud successful farmer, 
and takes an active interest in all town affairs. 

Wheeler, Benjamin. — Guy Wheeler came from Sand Lake, N. Y., m 1825, and .set- 
tled with his family in Parma near his present place, where he died. He was a 
thrifty and successful farmer. He had seven children, four of whom were born in 
Parma: Amarilla, who married Leonard Monroe; Benjamin,, of Parma; Martha, who 
married Jefferson Barton ; Rachel, who married Benjamin Cox; Job A., who died in 
Parma; Edward A. and Edwin F. (twins), both now living in Kansas. Guy Wheeler, 
who was born in 1798, died at the age of sixty -nine, and his wife died three years 
later. Benjamin Wheeler was born January 20, 1820, and has always followed farm- 
ing and still lives on the old homestead, although he has large and varied interests 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 115 

in other localities, among them in Maryland, where he has spent several winters. 
When eighteen years of age he learned the art of grafting fruit trees, which business 
he followed six years, earning enough money to give him a good start in life, which 
with a small sum given him by his father, was the foundation of his successful busi- 
ness life. In 1857 he opened a store in North Parma, which he soon gave up and 
returned to the old farm. January 1, 1845, Mr. Wheeler married Melissa Crandall, 
by whom he has one child: Melissa, wife of Charles W. Gaffield. His second wife 
was Dorothy Hiscock, to whom he was married January 14, 1847, by whom he had 
five children; Mary H., William H., Harriet L., Mina and Susan. 

Williams, Charles S., was born in Clarkson October 3, 1848. His father, Mark F., 
was a native of Burlington, Vt., and came to this town in 1832. His wife was Caro- 
line, daughter of Samuel Smith, and their children were: Charles S., Frank E., Mrs. 
Mary Upton, and Isabelle Williams. He was one of the leading produce dealers in 
the county, and also an extensive farmer, identified with all the leading interests of 
his town. He died in 1894, in his seventy-fourth year, a man whose judgment was 
sought by many and who was respected by all. Charles S., his son, was educated at 
the Normal School at Brockport, and has taken the management of his father's 
estate. 

Gallup, Andrew J., was born in Albany county March 31, 1825, a son of Eli Gallup, 
of Stonington. Conn., who came to this county in 1830 and settled in Sweden, where 
he engaged in farming. He married Sally Crary, and his death occured in 1882, in 
his ninety-second year. A. J. Gallup was educated at Brockport Collegiate Institute, 
after which he taught school. In 1848 he married Mary A. Houston, whose father, 
Isaac, was a pi-oininent lumber dealer in this county, and also supervisor, etc., of his 
town. Mr. and Mrs. Gallup have these children: Eli H., William N., Albert J., Mrs. 
Susan C. Garrison, Mrs. Fannie D. Webster, and Miss Sarah O. Gallup. Our sub- 
ject is a practical and successful farmer of his town. 

Cole, Clair M., is a native of Mendon, born in 1851, and here he has always lived. 
His father was Nahum B., a son of Abraham, who came from Connecticut in an early 
day, and was a leading citizen of the town, having served as justice and supervisor 
many years. He reared a large family, all of whom settled in Mendon. Nahum B. 
married Mary, daughter of Captain Burt, and had one daughter, Mrs. Byron How- 
land, who died m 1889, and one son Clair. He took a good citizen's part in town af- 
fairs, having served as assessor. The elder Cole was prominently identified with the 
Presbyterian church, and the family have all been Democrats. Clair Cole married 
Emma Smith, who is of Canadian birth and they have two sons, Benjamin H. and 
Lewis M. Mr. Cole moved on his present farm in 1881, the place comprising 196 
acres under high cultivation. 

McBain, Jamics W. , was born in Ballston, Saratoga county, June 27, 1818, a son o 
Farquahar McBain of Scotland, who came to this country in 1801, settling at Balls- 
ton, where he married Janet Davidson. They removed to Monroe county in 1836, 
and bought the Crittenden farm, where his descendants now reside. He was a pros- 
perous and public spirited citizen, identified in all good works, and especially in the 
cause of education. He died in 1850, aged seventy-two. In 1852 James W. married 
Jane, daughter of Gideon Holmes, and has followed in the footsteps of his father, 
taking an active interest in all public affairs. 



116 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Goodberlet, Joseph, was born in Hesse Castle, Germany, November 8, 1838, came 
to this country in 1853, and settled in Parma, and in 1869 settling in this town. In 
1859 he married Emily, daughter of Alanson Van Brunt. Our subject has been a 
well-known contractor and builder as well as a successful farmer. In 1887 he was 
appointed postmaster, which office he still holds, and he is now serving as road com- 
missioner, being a prominent factor in the local affairs of the town. 

Finucan, A. N., is proprietor of the famous old Phoenix Hotel at Pittsford, which 
has for seventy years been a prominent landmark, having been erected in 1826 by 
John Acker. In all this time the sturdy old hotel has not lost its supremacy as the 
leading hostelry of the place, and in the hands of Mr. Finucan bids fair to maintain 
its position as such. Under his management it has been improved and refitted, and 
extensive additions made to its culinary and dormitory capacity. Mr. Finucan was 
born at East Meudon in 1857, where his father, Daniel, settled in 1843. The latter 
was of Irish birth and came to America at the age of twenty-one. At New York 
city he married Margaret Fitzell, by whom he had nine children. She is still a resi- 
dent of Mendon, having survived her husband. In 1884 Mr. Finucan married Mar- 
garet, daughter of Harvey C. Little, of Henrietta. Her family has always been a 
prominent one here, and in the earliest annals of Henrietta will be found the name 
of Elijah Little, coupled with every measure of improvement and progress. 

Miller, William, came from Sand Lake, Rensselaer county, to Parma in 183G, and 
settled in the northern part of the town, where he was a prosperous and respected 
citizen. He died in 1876, survived by his widow. Eight of their children survive: 
Cornelius, Sarah Ann, John B., Martha Jane, J. Melvin, Mariette, Charles, and 
Alzina. John B. was born in Parma December 28, 1840, and has always followed 
agriculture. He attended the district school and later taught seven terms. He is a 
successful farmer, and is regarded as one of the substantial men of the town. In 
1862 he married Lydia A. Van Voorhis, by whom he had three children : Albert, 
Alma, and Eva. His wife died September 5, 1890, and in 1891 Mr. Miller married 
Elizabeth Oarlock, widow of Amos Emerson, of Charlotte. In the spring of 1890 
Mr. Miller moved to North Parma village. He has two farms of 158 and eighty-four 
acres respectively. He has served as village trustee two years. Dr. Amos Emerson 
was a pioneer physician of Charlotte. He had a brother, John, and a sister, 
Eleanor, the latter an early teacher in Greece. Dr. Emerson had two children: 
Augusta, who married William Babcock, of Brighton, and AmosW. , the latter a 
farmer of Greece and Parma. He married Elizabeth Garlock, by whom he had two 
children: Minnie L. , wife of E. O. Smith, of Kendall, and Gertrude A., wife of J. 
Milton Butcher. 

Harrison, Henry, was born in Brockport April 2, 1854. His father, Josiah, was 
born in Orange, N. J., and came to this county in 1836, and his wife was Adelia, 
daughter of Joshua Field, one of the pioneers of Monroe county, and of the same 
family as Cyrus W. and Dudley Field. Josiah Harrison was a descendant of Richard 
Harrison, who lived in New Haven, Conn., in 1664. Joshua Harrison was actively 
identified in the mercantile business in early life, and for twenty-five years was the 
largest dealer in grain in Brockport and vicinity, holding several positions of trust 
and responsibility. Henry Harrison was educated at Brockport Normal School, and 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 117 

in 1873 entered the University of Rochester, from which he graduated in 1877. He 
first went to Detroit and engaged in the grain business, but returned in 1879 and 
became associated with Horace Belden, which was a continuation of the firm of Har- 
rison, King & Co. In 1881 our subject married Florence, daughter of Dr. Hiram 
Lewis, of Albion, N. Y. He is a member of the local board of the State Normal 
School and takes an active interest in all town affairs. 

Boothe, Reuben N., was born in Brighton August 10, 1867. His late father, also 
named Reuben N., was born in Scipio, Conn., and came to Brighton when two years 
of age with his father, Abijah Judson Boothe, who was born in England. Educated 
at Brockport Normal School, he stands to-day a representative of an old and well 
known family. In 1891 he married Myrtie J. Preston, of Pittsford. 

Warren, Newman, was born in Wheatland, March 7, 1826, a .son of Benjamin Warren 
of Ulster county, who was a son of Newman Warren, a native of England, who came to 
America when a young man, settling in Ulster county. He removed to Rochester in 
1802, and the following year came to Wheatland and settled on the farm now owned 
by our subject, where he spent his last days in the log house erected by him in the 
first clearing in 1815. His wife was Margaret Codding Benjamin. Father of our 
subject was a farmer, and spent most of his life on the home farm, but the last eight 
years were spent in Chili. He married Elizabeth Hicks, and their children were 
Elizabeth, Newman, Isaac, Mary, Benjamin and Janet. He died in 1880, aged 
eighty-six, and his wife in 1884, aged seventy-nine. Our subject remained at home 
until the age of twenty-six, when he engaged in farmmg for himself. In 1871 he 
bought the homestead, where he has since resided. In 1852 he married Catharine, 
daughter of Archibald and Isabella Stewart, of Wheatland, and their children are 
Stewart, Elizabeth, Isabella, Jane E. Benjamin, Archibald, and Catharine. Mrs. 
Warren died in 1870. 

Moore, Adam (deceased), was born in Clarkson, where he was for twenty-five years, 
identified with the mercantile business. In 1844 he married Sabra C, daughter of 
Frederick Shafer, their children being Frederick A. and Clara E. Mr. Moore was 
for years prominent in the affairs of his town, holding various positions of honor and 
trust. He SQrved as supervisor two terms, and was a man whose judgment was re-- 
spected and sought by many. He died in 1888 in his seventy-first year, a loss not 
only to the family, but to all who knew him. 

Patten, J. E., was born in Sweden, February 13, 1848, a son of Daniel B. , a native 
of Argyle, Washington county, who came to Sweden in 1840. He married Nancy, 
daughter of James Hart, and became a prosperous agriculturist. James E. Patten 
was educated at the Brockport Collegiate Institute, and m 1869 entered the employ 
of Tozier & Haight, druggists. In 1878 he associated with B. C. Ketcham, and in 
1883 bought Ketcham's interest and now carries on the best store of its kind in the 
locality, keeping a complete line of imported and domestic drugs and perfumes, with 
a full assortment of stationery, etc. In 1881 he married Kate L., daughter of Sidney 
Spaulding, and their children are Kenneth S., Delia W., and Alice O. 

Cox, John, of Wheatland, was born in Yorktown, Westchester county, N. Y., 
August 31, 1819. His parents were Isaac and Hannah (Fowler) Cox. He first came 



118 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

to Monroe county in 1837 on a visit to friends already settled there. He married, 
October 5, 1842, Mary C, daughter of Oliver and Ann (Mosher) Cunningham, of 
North Castle, Wjestchester county, N. Y. Mary was born in North Castle, Novem- 
ber 15, 1823. They removed to Chili in the spring of 1844, traveling on the Erie Canal 
and taking a week for the journej\ They owned the farm in Chili, since the resi- 
dence of Frederick Fellows, till 1854, when they traded it with him for the farm in 
Wheatland, where they have since resided. It has been their remarkable lot to live 
a wedded life of fifty-three years, and without the death of a child. John was a 
birthright member, and Mary a member by request, of the Religious Society of 
Friends, till the little meeting in the stone house on the hill was discontinued. 
Their children are; Stephen William, who was born February 5, 1844, in Yorktown, 
Westchester county, and resides in Wheatland; Isaac, who was born March 12, 1846, 
in Chili, lives in Rush; Heurj^ E., born October 28, 1850, in Chili, where he now re- 
sides; William James, born April 2, 1855, in Wheatland, and resides in Clark county. 
Wash. ; and John jr., born November 4, 186(1, in Wheatland, and now resides in New 
York city. 

Page, W. L. , born in Cedar Key, Florida, December 25, 1834, came to Monroe 
county in 1848, by way of underground railroad, and settled in the town of Perinton, 
being the first colored man educated in the University of Rochester, also the first 
colored man to serve on a jury in the Supreme Court of Monroe county. In 1863 he 
came to Brockport and engaged in mechanical engineering with Luther Gordon, D. 
S. Morgan & Co., and with J C. Hoadley & Co., introduced the first threshing en- 
gines in this county. He is a man of great industry and force of character and has 
by his unaided efforts secured a liberal education, meriting and receiving the respect 
of all with whom he is associated. 

Perkins, Asa F., is a son of Asa, sr. , now deceased, who was prior to 1827 a spinner 
in a woolen mill at Smithfield, Mass., where he married Martha Erten, who was also 
an operative in the mills. In 1827 they started on what was in those times a long 
journey, by wagon, to Troy, N. Y., where they took canal passage. They settled 
first in Penfield, and four years later removed to Perinton by ox team. Their happy 
, married life covered a period of sixty-nine years, broken by the death of Mr. Perkins 
in 1892, at the age of ninety-two. Mrs. Perkins survives him, at the age of eighty- 
eight, a remarkable instance of mental and physical preservation. Asa F. was born 
in Penfield March 6, 1831, and his home is just north of the village of Fairport. The 
children of Asa and Martha Perkins are Asa F., Samuel F., Jane E., Mary M., Olive 
C. , Martha A. , and Sarah Elizabeth. 

Udell, Parson G., was born in Rochester, December 16, 1849, a son of William C. 
and Mary M. Udell. Our subject was educated in the public schools and Collegiate In- 
stitutes of Statterlee & Peck. His preceptors were Drs. P. G. Shipman and J. F. 
Whitbeck of Rochester. He then entered the University of Pennsylvania, medical 
department, from which he graduated in 1871, having previously had a hospital ex- 
perience and practice. After a year's practice at Rochester, Dr. Udell came to 
Spencerport, where he has been an active and successful practitioner in the town. 
For about two years he was partner with Dr. W. C. Slayton, but has otherwise prac- 
ticed alone. He is a member of the County Medical Society, the Rochester Patho- 



FA\fILY SKETCHES. 119 

logical Society (of which he was one of the founders), and during his residence in 
Rochester was assistant surgeon of the 54th Regt. N. G. S. N. V. He married, 
first, Mary, daughter of William C. Slayton, and second, Jennie, daughter of Sylves- 
ter Warner of Ogden. Of their five children four survive. 

Pitt, William, was born in England, and was a son of William, sr., who came to 
America and settled in Brighton in 1854 as a farmer. They came to Webster in 
1886, the family comprising the father, two sons, and William, jr., with his wife and 
children, who are William, Fannie, Lillian and Pansy. Mr. Pitt has been a farmer 
and fruit grower all his life. 

Kircher, Charles, jr., was born in Rochester in 1852, a son of Charles, who came 
from Germany in 1848, and settled in Rochester, but in 1860 came to Webster, where 
he has been engaged in farming. Charles, jr., married Frances, daughter of John 
Springer, of Syracuse, and they have two sons, Charles and Irving, and two daugh- 
ters, Helen and Estella. Mr. Kircher's farm is in the eastern part of Webster, where 
he is known as one of the thrifty farmers of the town. 

Bridgeman, Robert, was born in Penfield in 1859, son of John, who was born in 
Burwell, England, in 1822. and came to Penfield in 1850 and settled on a farm west 
of the village. He died here March 17, 1894, leaving two sons, Robert and Charles, 
the latter now in Michigan. Robert lives on the farm where his father lived for 
twenty-seven years, one belonging to the Higbie estate. Mr. Bridgeman married 
Emma Thorp, of Brighton, by whom he has one son. Homer J., born in 1884 

Hiler, William H., was born in Clarkson, September 12, 1847. His father, Abram, 
was a native of Boonton, N. J., and came to Parma, this county, with his father, 
John N. Abram married Lydia Buzzard, a daughter of Jacob Buzzard, one of the 
practical and successful farmers of this town. William H. Hiler has always been a 
hard worker and successful farmer. He is largely a self-made man and has received 
but little training in the common schools, yet by a life of industry and economy he 
has obtained as the reward of his hard toil the beautiful property on which he now 
resides. In 1868 he married Laura M., daughter of Ebenezer Hovey, and they have 
had three children. The two daughters died in infancy. Henry E. , born September 
7, 1871, is their only son. He intends to enter the Methodist ministry and has been 
aided by his parents in gaining a liberal education. He graduated from the Brock- 
port State Normal School in 1889, received the degree of Bachelor of Arts from the 
University of Rochester in 1893, and will receive the degree of Bachelor of Divinity 
from Drew Theological Seminary in 1896. His plans are to complete his education 
at the L^niversity of Leipzig, Germany. He married Jessie E., daughter of William 
B. Williams, of Brockport, June 7, 1893. 

Billinghurst, J. H., is the only son of Henry Billinghurst, of Rochester, well 
known as a skilled worker in wood, and builder of boats. He was at one time super- 
intendent of streets, and also a member of the Common Council. He died in 1882, 
aged seventy. The brother, William, achieved a world-wide reputation among rifle- 
men as the maker of very superior rifles and telescopic sights. J. H. Billinghurst 
spent his youth in the city of Rochester, eight years in Pittsford, and since 1882 has 
been engaged at farming at Bushnell Basin. In 1S79 he married Augu.sta Kelly, of 
Brighton, and their .son, Charles Henry, was born December 12, 1890. 



120 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Brydges, William, was born in Queen's county, Ireland, in 1837, came to America 
at the age of twenty-seven and settled in northern Perinton, where he now lives. 
His father, Henry, emigrated at the same time, and died here four years ago. 
Henry H. Brydges was born in New York city in 1855, and has lived in Fairport 
since 1H71, and previous to that date in Canada. He possesses in a marked degree 
the qualities and characteristics by which success is wrested from the severest con- 
ditions. He had absolutely no capital at his command, and is an example of a self- 
made man, surrounded by a family of promising children who will owe their educa- 
tion and advancement to their father's industry and frugality. He has been in the 
hardware business six or seven years. Mr. Brydges is a Protestant in religious 
faith, and a Republican in politics. March 39, 1864, he married Hattie E. Sherman, 
of English birth, and they have had four children: George W., Burton, Frank and 
Mabel. 

Bennett, Stephen, was born on the farm he now owns July 20, 1830, a son of 
Frederic, born in Massachusetts in 1787, whose father was Stephen Bennett. The 
latter served in the Continental army, was at Trenton and Valley Forge. He mar- 
ried Mary, daughter of Nathaniel Gates, one of the early pioneers of the Wyoming 
District, Pa., who was present at the battle of Wyoming, and afterward served in 
the Continental army. Gates married a daughter of Captain Howard, of Connecti- 
cut, who was prominent in the French and Indian war. The Gates family, with 
most of the other settlers of the Connecticut claim in Northern Pennsylvania, were 
refugees in Connecticut for several years after the massacre of Wyoming, but 
eventually returned to their pioneer home on the Walland Paupac Creek, now Pike 
county. Pa., where he was joined by Stephen Bennett, of Massachusetts, who had 
married his daughter Mary in 1785. Frederic, the father of the subject of this 
sketch, grew to manhood in Pike county. Pa., where in early life he engaged in 
lumber manufacture. In 1811 he bought a farm in the Genesee country, in now the 
town of Chili; returned to Pennsylvania and resumed lumbering. The war of 1813 
caused financial reverses and he was forced to sell his Genesee land; but in 1821 he 
moved his family to Western New York and in 1832 settled on the farm now occu- 
pied by Stephen. He married Jane, eldest daughter of Silas and Sarah Chapman 
Killam, who were among the first settlers of Palmyra, Pike county. Pa. The chil- 
dren of Frederic and Jane Bennett were: Erminda, Eliza, Sarah, Lucy, Asher, 
Horace, Otto, Stephen and Jane. In 1856 our subject married Jennette, daughter of 
Archibald M. Stewart, of Wheatland. In 1857 they moved to Commerce, Oakland 
county, Mich., and in 1866 returned and purchased the homestead, caring for his 
parents until their decease — his mother in 1871 and his father in 1874. His wife died 
in 1888. None of their children survive her. 

Skinner, James Avery, was born in Union Square, Oswego county, November 15, 
1835, a son of Avery Skinner, who was a native of Westmoreland, N. H., and came 
to Jeff'erson county in 1816. He was the originator of the first map of the city of 
Watertown, and in 1823 moved to Oswego county, where he was elected to the State 
Senate and Assembly, was made county judge and county treasurer. While in the 
Senate he advocated the building of a ship canal through the State of New York. 
His death occurred in 1876 at the age of eighty. James A. was educated at the Jef- 
ferson County Institute, Watertown, and was graduated from Hamilton College iu 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 121 

1857. The same year he entered the Union Theological Seminary of the City of 
New York, graduating in 1860, was ordained in the ministry in 1861. In 1868 he 
went to California and organized the Westminster Presbyterian church of Santa 
Clara and was pastor of the Presbyterian church of Stockton. In 1869 he returned 
to Cleveland, Ohio, where he organized the Memorial Presbyterian church in 1870, 
remaining till 1875. He then became district superintendent of the Pre.sbyterian 
Board of Publication, remaining till 1880. In 1888 he was ordained to the diaconate 
in the Episcopal church, and to the priesthood in 1889. In 1890 he was appointed 
rector of St. Luke's church at Brockport, and under his ministrations the church has 
increased in membership and financial standing. In 1869 he married Octavia Lane, 
and they have three children. His present residence is in Syracuse, N.Y. 

Holbrook, Silas H., was born at Catskill, September 13, 1845. His father, Rufus 
B., settled in Greene county, where he was identified with the brick manufacturing 
business. Silas H. was educated in the public schools, and in August, 1861, enlisted 
in the 7th N. Y. Cavalry and on the mustering out of that regiment re-enlisted in the 
1st N. Y. Mounted Rifles, and was in the following engagements: Siege of Suffolk, 
Jackson, N. C, Petersburg, Chapin Farm, and the last battles around Petersburg, 
receiving an honorable discharge November 29, 1865. after which he went to Oswego 
county, and in 1875 came to Brockport, where he is a well-known contractor and 
builder. In 1872 he married Tilly M., daughter of Jonathan W. Graves, and their 
children are: Willard G., and Frederick S. Mr. Holbrook is a member of Cady 
Post No. 286, G. A. R., of which he has been twice commander, and is a member of 
Brockport Lodge No. 182, I.O.O.F. 

Jones, Thomas O., was born in 1817, a son of Thomas, sr., of England, whose 
father, John, came with his family to America in 1801, settling in Philadelphia, where 
he spent his days in the tanning business. His sons John, Thomas, and David, and 
a daughter, Elizabeth, came to Henrietta in 1815, where they bought land and made 
homes for themselves. Thomas, the father, at the age of nineteen, bought his time 
from his father, for which he gave his note for fifty dollars, then borrowed money 
from members of the Masonic fraternity, and came to Henrietta. He was a tanner 
by trade, and soon paid back the borrowed money and took up the note. He pur- 
chased a farm, soon became one of the leading men of the town, and took an active 
interest in the building of the Monroe Academy, to which he devoted a great deal of 
his time, and of which he was later a trustee. He was a Mason and did much for 
the order during the Morgan excitement. His wife was Mercy Barber, of Vermont, 
an early school teacher of this locality, and their children were Thomas O., Mary, 
Daniel, Barlow, Lavina, and Edgar. The three latter are deceased. The father was 
killed by the falling of a tree in 1880, at the age of forty, and his wife survived him 
many years, dying at the residence of our subject, aged ninety-two. Thomas O. was 
for many years a farmer in Henrietta, and in 1865 removed to the village, and bought 
a store, a dwelling, and sixty acres of land, and for twenty years engaged in the 
general mercantile business, and also did a large insurance business. He was also 
for twelve years postmaster, and for eight years his daughter Cora held the office. 
In 1888 he removed to Grand Forks, North Dakota, and bought a 320 acre farm, 
which he conducted a few years, then returned to this town and resumed farming. 
He also traded his Dakota farm for Rochester property, and now divides his attention 
P 



122 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

between that and his property in Henrietta. He has been very prominent in town 
affairs, having served as town clerk, assessor, commissioner of highways, etc. In 
1839 he married Samantha, daughter of Samuel Titus. She was born in Henrietta 
in 1817. Their children are Julius, who died in 1893; Cora, Cassius, Mrs. Lavina 
Holcomb, of Henrietta; Frank, who died in New Orleans in 1884: and Samuel T., of 
Rochester. 

Wiltsie, James M., of Pittsford, and one of the foremost business men of that place, 
was born in Duanesburg, N. Y., December 25, 1829. His late father, Thomas 
Wiltsie, one of a family of fifteen, came to Perinton in 1834, taking an active part 
in the affairs of that town, especially as an organizer and deacon of the Fairport 
Baptist church, and as a powerful enemy to the liquor traffic. Of his fourteen chil- 
dren, but three sons reached maturity; John T., the elder, died in 1867; James M., 
is the subject of this sketch, and the sole survivor or male representative of the 
family. The youngest son, George H., enlisted in 1862 in the 4th Heavy Artillery, 
and after surviving the vicissitudes of the field, and the horrors of a rebel prison, 
died at Annapolis, Md., in 1865. In 1849 James Wiltsie, with three companions, 
started for California overland, and the record in detail of that adventurous trip 
would alone furnish material for an interesting volume. Beyond St. Louis, which 
point they reached by raft down the Alleghany river from Warren, Pa., to Pitts- 
burgh, thence from Pittsburgh by steamer to St. Louis, from St. Louis by steamer 
up the Missouri river to Independence, Mo. Their path was almost untrodden save 
by the wiley savage and the bold argonaut himself. The last stage of 1,000 miles 
to Sacramento from Salt Lake, was made by a forced march of thirty days, a severe 
test of physical endurance. Mr. Wiltsie remained at the placer mines until the 
autumn of 1849, and returned via the isthmus, reaching New York on Christmas 
day. Mr. Wiltsie is senior member of the firm of Wiltsie & Crump, who conduct the 
largest retail business in Pittsford, and is also a heavy dealer in produce, coal and 
lumber. He is president of the Board of Health, member of the Board of Education, 
also of the Presbyterian church, and for three years represented Pittsford in the 
Board of Supervisors, the last year as chairman of that body. 

James NcNall was born at Union, Conn., in 1796. He moved from Connecticut 
into Oneida oounty in 1806, and in April, 1811, he settled in Henrietta, where he 
lived up to the time of his death in 1885. When Mr. McNall took up his residence 
in Henrietta, the then village of Rochester was composed of an unfinished bridge, 
the ruins of an old mill, and a solitary log cabin. He commenced his pioneer life 
by splitting rails at fifty cents per hundred and receiving his pay in flour, pork and 
potatoes, which he transported to his home on his back. He sold his first crop of 
wheat for fifty cents per bushel and carried it up one flight of stairs. When the call 
was made for troops to defend Buffalo against the invasion of the British in the war 
of 1812, Mr. McNall, with his horse and wagon, were pressed into the service of 
transporting tents and military baggage from Avon to Buffalo, for which service he 
was in after years pensioned by the government. Mr. McNall had an excellent 
memory, and in his old age was fond of relating incidents connected with the early 
history of the country. He was present and witnessed the sham fight between the 
Yankees and the British opposite the present Arcade entrance on the first Fourth of 
July celebration in Rochester. He also took part in the great canal celebration here 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 123 

in 1824. and was among tfiose who welcomed La Fayette to Rochester when he 
visited America the following year. In 1829 he was present and witnessed the last 
leap of Sam Patch at the Upper Genesee Falls. Mr. McNall's life reached back to 
the early days of the government under the present constitution. He was three 
years of age when Washington died, and nineteen when Napoleon fought the battle 
of Waterloo. He was one of the founders of the West Henrietta Baptist church, with 
which he held his membership up to the time of his death. Mr. McNall was twice 
married. He married Polly Brininstool for his first Svife, and had four sons: Schuy- 
ler, James, Jacob, and William. His second wife was Susan Reynolds, by whom he 
had four children: Mary, Stephen, John, and Harriet. Of these eight children only 
four are living at the present time: James McNall, jr., Jacob B. McNall, Stephen R. 
McNall, and Mrs. Warren Caswell, all of whom reside in Henrietta, except the first 
named who lives in Chili. 

Manning, Wilham L., was born at Derrs, Columbia county. Pa., in 1846, at which 
place his father, the late Abraham Manning, was a miller. William remained in his 
native town until twenty-five years of age, having learned the carpenter's trade. In 
1884 he came to Brighton and became associated with J. F. Le Clare, the well-known 
seedsman, and five years later established a copartnership under the stjdeof Le Clare 
& Manning, at present controlling one of the most extensive and important industries 
of Brighton. Mr. Manning served with gallantry and distinction in the late war, as 
a member of Co. G, 178th Pennsjdvania Volunteers. Among the battles in which 
he was a participant were, Chancellorsville, the Wilderness, and the seven days siege 
of Petersburg. At Chancellorsville he was slightly injured by a bursting shell. Mr. 
Manning has always taken a leading part m local affairs and government. While a 
resident of Columbia county he served the county as mercantile appraiser and was 
three years county auditor. Mr. Manning is a Democrat, and it evinces his personal 
popularity that in March of 1895, he was elected president of Brighton village with 
no opposition ; he is also a notary public. In 1891 he completed a handsome modern 
residence on Park avenue. In 1866 he married Mary W. Derr, and their children 
are: Nancy K., now Mrs. De Hollander; D. Burnett, Mj^rtle E., and Ivy Leona. 

Shaw, Mrs. Alice E., is a daughter of Orisimus Ferris, and married Albert Shaw, 
who died leaving two sons, Claude and Glenn. Mrs. Shaw came to Webster in 1891 
to care for the household of Dana Smith, her deceased sister's husband, and who was 
then the owner of the farm which her grandfather settled in early life, and which 
she now owns. Dana Smith was born in Penfield, the son of Amos Smith, and re- 
moved to Webster more than fifty years ago and resided there during the remainder 
of his life. He married Phebe Ferris, the daughter of Sherman Ferris of Webster. 
For many years he conducted a hardware and tin shop but retired from active busi- 
ness on account of ill health, and died February 21, 1895. Mrs. Smith died March 
27, 1892. 

Denniston, W. H., was born in Rochester March 10, 1850, a son of William and 
Henrietta Denniston, the former a native of North Ireland, who came to this country 
in 1886. Mr. Denniston lived in Rochester until his eighteenth year, when he went 
to Parma ; there he was employed as a farm hand, supporting his mother until her 
death. After the death of his mother he removed to Hamlin where he remained for 



124 LANDMARKS OF MOKROE COUNTY. 

about five years. He then returned to Parma, entering the employ of Demerest & 
Effner as clerk. In 1870 he purchased the store and stock at Parma Center, where 
he has conducted a large and successful business. In 1888 he purchased a farm north 
of Parma Center. Here he has been a successful breeder of trotters and the place is 
now known as the " Buttonwood stock farm." In politics Mr. Denniston is a Re- 
publican. For eight years he served as town clerk and overseer of the poor, and for 
four vears supervisor of his town. In the fall of 1890 he was elected member of as- 
sembly from the 3d district of Monroe, in which office he served four years. While 
in the Legislature he was on various committees, the last year being chairman of the 
excise committee. His whole career in the State Legislature was marked by keen 
energetic work for his constituents. 

Baker, Charles J., is a son of Carl Baker, who came to Webster in 1859, and was a 
farmer having five sons. Mr. Baker w^as also a farmer until 1891, when he, in part- 
nership with his brother and Charles Hockenburger, built a flouring mill at Union 
Hill, where they do a large business. Mr. Baker married a daughter of Andrew 
Martin, and their two sons are Ernest L. and Orrin D. 

Defendorf, Frank J., was born in Rochester, N. Y., February 24, 1855, was edu- 
cated in Rochester and the town of Greece. The family came to this town at an 
early day. Mr. Defendorf began business as a grocery merchant when eighteen 
years of age, which he has continued ever since. He is also a general produce dealer 
and handles the best variety of coal. His first appointment as post^naster at Bar- 
nard Crossing was May 6, 1878, under President Grant's administration, and was re- 
appointed March 19, 1889, under President Harrison's administration. In 1882 he 
married Alice C, daughter of the late ex-Mayor Lutes of Rochester, N. Y. They 
have two children, Fred C. and Flossie L. Mr. Defendorf's father, Elijah, was born 
at Fort Plain, Montgomery county, N. Y., in 1813, and came to Rochester when a 
young man. He married twice, first to Maria Mott, and three children were born to 
them: Emmett, Emily, and Albert, who married Emily Bailey, and had three chil- 
dren, Emmett Fannie, and Lulu. Albert Defendorf died in 1882, and his brother 
and sister died when j-oung. Mrs. Elijah Defendorf died in 1852. For his second 
wife he married Harriett Bevier of Cayuga, formerly of Ulster county, N. Y. They 
have five children: Frank J., as above, George, Helen, Hattie, and Frederick. Mr. 
Defendorf resides with his father and people. The family are of Dutch and Swiss 
origin. 

Dobbin, William H., of the firm of Dobbin & Moore, Fairport, dealers in lumber 
and manufacturers of sash, doors and blinds. Mr. Dobbin w-as born December 9. 
1840, in Wellington, Ontario, where his father, John Dobbin, had been one of the 
earliest settlers, and where later in life, owing to his integrity, his courage and his 
good judgment in matters pertaining to business and government, he came to be 
one of the leaders in social, intellectual and political circles, henored with numerous 
offices of trust and responsibility, and much .sought after for his wise counsels in 
private affairs. Owing to the lack of educational advantages and to the obstacles 
incident to farm life in a new country, it was only by great persistence and pure grit 
that William Dobbin was able to acquire even a common school education, and yet 
.such was his desire to attain the highest possible plane intellectually that he went 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 125 

farther than this and prepared himself for the profession of a teacher, largely by his 
own efforts. This, however, he never engaged in, and took up the trade of carpen- 
ter and builder. In 1864 he married Margaret Calder, and realizing that his sur- 
roundings did not offer the advantages necessary for a full development of his powers, 
he determined to come to the United States in search of a place better suited to his 
needs. In 1866 he came to Fairport and began his career there as a carpenter. It 
was not long, however, before he found opportunities to better himself and by his 
ability to see them, to grasp them and to make the most of them, he soon became 
one of the prominent business men of the town. For eight years he carried on a 
successful business in the manufacture of sash, doors and blinds. In 1879 he en- 
gaged in the lumber business, and since then has been associated with C. C. 
Moore, a much respected citizen and a gentleman of character and ability. By in- 
dustry and economy they have built up one of the largest and most important indus- 
tries in Fairport. When in 1882 their planing mill was destroyed by fire, it was but 
nine days before the machinery was again in operation, a striking instance of un- 
daunted enterprise. Mr. Dobbin has also been one of the most extensive dealers in 
real estate in Fairport and has been largely engaged in building homes for the 
working classes, which are sold on easy terms, a form of practical philanthropy 
worthy of wider emulation. While never having aspired to political honors, Mr. 
Dobbin has taken a great interest in everything pertaining to the welfare and ad- 
vancement of Fairport, and has given freely of his time and energj^ for the upbuild- 
ing of the various institutions connected therewith. As president of the School 
Board for a number of years he did much to advance the standard of education, and 
he was largely instrumental in securing the present excellent system of water works, 
He is president of the Young Men's Christian Association, a deacon in the First Con- 
gregational church, and superintendent of the Sunday school. Mr. Dobbin has five 
children: Clarence E., a graduate of Cornell University, and now a landscape archi- 
tect in New York city; Mabel C, a student at Cornell University; Bessie C, Helen 
M., and Margaret H. 

Gaston, Daniel D., was born in Wayne county in 1836, son of Joseph, who came 
from New Jersey and settled first in Penfield. Joseph Gaston then lived in Wayne 
county for some years, 'but afterward returned to Penfield, settling on the farm 
where Daniel D. now lives, where he died in 1879, leaving two sons, J. H. and 
Daniel D., and five daughters, Mrs. Jane A. Weeks, Miss Mary E. Gaston, 
Mrs. Emaline Foster, Mrs. Martha M. Holley, and Mrs. Margaret E. Voor- 
hees. ' In 1860 Daniel D. married Jane A., daughter of James K. Vosburg. by 
whom he has one son and three daughters: William S., Elva (Mrs. John Wolf), 
Elizabeth, and Estella (Mrs. Carl Marlett). 

Chandler, George A., was born in Gasport, Niagara county, N.Y., August 6, 1860, 
and came with his parents to Charlotte, April 4, 1863, where he was educated in the 
public schools. His early life was spent on his grandfather's farm. He became a 
carpenter and joiner, and has been in the employ of the Rochester Electric Railway 
Company, was foreman of the car repair shop until 1893, when he was made second 
engineer in their electric power house at, or near, Charlotte. May 15, 1882, he mar- 
ried Nellie Archer, of Campbellford, Canada. They have one daughter. Alma, who 
is a student in the Union School at Charlotte. Mr. Chandler's father, George W., 



126 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

was born in Connecticut May 2, 1825, and came to Moravia, Cayuga county, N. Y., 
when he was a small boy. He was educated in the district schools, and taught 
several years. In 1852 he went to California and worked in the gold mines and car- 
ried express and U. S. mail. He returned in 1858 to his home at Moravia. He 
married twice, first, in 1859, to Mary A. Olnj', and went to reside at Gasport. They 
had one son, George A. Mrs. Chandler died March 29, 1873. October 15, 1878, he 
married Emma Mowatt, of Coburn, Canada. They had a son who died in infancy. 
Mr. Chandler died June 22, 1884. Mrs. George A. Chandler's father, Joshua Archer, 
was born in Scotland in 1880. His family moved to Belfast, Ireland, when he was a 
boy. He married Jane Atkinson, and came to Canada. They had ten children, five 
sons and five daughters. Mrs. Archer died in 1879. Mr. Archer resides at the old 
home in Canada. The ancestry of the family is English and Scotch. 

Pearson, Harry M., was born in Philadelphia, Pa., April 11, 1851. The family 
moved to Superior City, Wisconsin, where he was educated in the common schools, 
and upon their returning to Philadelphia he completed his education there. He 
learned the tinner's trade and became an expert tin roofer, and is now a fruit grower 
in the town of Greece, where he has a fine fruit farm planted with the choicest varie- 
ties. December 19, 1878, he married Fannie S. Wilder, of this town, and they have 
three sons: Harry W., Eugene S., and Morley H. Mr. Pearson's father was born in 
Reading, Pa., in SeptemVjer, 1824, and has an excellent education. He married 
Mary R. Widowfield, of Philadelphia. They had six children. Two girls died in 
infancy. The father and mother are both living. 

George Brothers, David and James, were born in Genesee county, N. Y., sons of 
Thomas George, who died in Penfield in 1891. These brothers, after several years' 
experience in the nursery and florist's business with prominent firms in the county, 
have opened extensive greenhouses in East Penfield, making a specialty of raising 
roses and clematis vines. By scientific research and long practical experience they 
are building up a trade of which they are justly proud. 

Hopkins, J. W., youngest of eight children of Marvin and Jane (Phelps) Hopkins, 
was born in Pittsford, Avigust 11, 1857. The scion of an important and historic 
family, he bears character above reproach, and is genial and popular. His aged 
mother, who is an inmate of his home, is a remarkable instance of physical and 
mental preservation, despite her eighty-three years. It was in 1830 that she was 
united in marriage to Marvin Hopkins, and of her eight children all survive except 
Mary, who died in infancy. They are James, Clarissa M., Mary, Dorothy P., Robert 
M., George, Chauncey I., and Jared W. Marvin Hopkins was a man of great enter- 
prise and public spirit, a prominent figure in the councils of the Democratic party, 
and in his town filled acceptably most of the public offices, having been supervisor 
in 1840, 1842, 1846, 1850, 1862. He died in 1867, and his death was widely considered 
as a public loss and a personal one. The elder son, James, is now in St. Louis, gen- 
eral manager of the Diamond Match Co. Dorothy is the wife of Charles W. Rogers, 
of Pittsford. Robert is a farmer, also of Pittsford. Clarissa is the widow of the 
late Lyman M. Barker. George is in business at Akron O., and ChaunCey at 
Granger, 6. The first of the family to become an American was John Hopkins, 
from Coventry, England, who settled at Cambridge, Mass., about 1634. Caleb, the 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 127 

father of Marvin, colonel of the 52d Regiment of militia, achieved distinction as a 
brave soldier no less than as a statesman. We are permitted to quote from a letter 
of Governor Tompkins dated Albany, February 21, 1817: "I recall the distinguished 
part you took in the militia and volunteers of the war, and the intrepid conduct 
exhibited by you in the various battles of that memorable struggle. I cannot com- 
municate an acceptance of your resignation without adding personal acknowledg- 
ment of my gratitude and approbation. Your friend and servant, Daniel D. 
Tompkins." Jared W. Hopkins was married February 1, 1898, to Lettie Male Nye, 
of Pittsford, N. Y., daughter of Alvin E. Nye. They have one child, Irving Nye 
Hopkins, born March 38, 1895. 

Gray, George N., was born in Mexico, Oswego county, N. Y., July 4, 1860. He 
was educated in the public schools, and his early days were spent on the farm. He 
was employed on the Great Lakes for ten years, and was promoted to second mate 
on several vessels. In 1885 he joined the LTnited States Life Savmg Service at Os- 
wego. N. Y., as a surfman. On December 12, 1894, he was promoted to the position 
of Captain of the United States Life Saving Station at Charlotte, N. Y., having a 
crew of eight men in charge. February 12, 1878, he married Carrie E. Rickard, of 
his native place. Mr. Gray is a member of Genesee Lodge No. 507, F. & A. M., 
Rochester, N. Y. Captain Gray's father, Sardious, was born in the Mohawk Valley, 
in 1829. His parents moved to Oswego county when he was two years old, where 
he was educated. He was married twice, first to Dora Harrington, and they had six 
children, one of whom was George N. Mrs. Gray died in 1875. The second time 
he married Miss Briggs, and they reside in Mexico, Oswego county. Mrs. Gray's 
father, Josiah Rickard, was born in Mexico, in 1836. He married Angerose McDon- 
ald, of his native town, and they have had three children, one son and two daugh- 
ters. Mrs. Rickard died April 16, 1889. The ancestry of the family is Dutch and 
Scotch. 

Beardsley, Warren F., was born in Warsaw, in 1889, and is the son of David and 
Meribah (Thayer) Beardsley, grandson of William, whose father was Andrew 
Beardsley. David Beardsley was born in 1818, and came to Penfield in 1846, and 
died in 1888, leaving one son, Warren F., who married in 1870, Celia, daughter of 
Richard Embury, and granddaughter of Thomas, who came from England and was 
an early settler of Penfield. Mr. Beardsley has always been a farmer and settled 
where he lives now in'l863. He has one son, Homer D., and one daughter, 
Mabel E. 

Harris, George F., was born in Penfield in 1823, and was the son of William and 
Sally (Schocraft) Harris. In 1847 he started with his brother, Robert Harris, as a 
farmer, they having bought the farm together. In 1858 he bought Robert's share. 
He married Maria R. , daughter of George Hart. She died in 1892, leaving one son, 
George F. , of the firm of Harris & Nagle, of Webster, dealers in furniture and car- 
rying on the undertaking business, and two daughters, Lydia M. and Minnie L., 
who have kept house for their father since their mother's death. Mr. Harris is one 
of the best farmers in Penfield, as is shown by the fine farm buildings, as well as by 
the thrifty condition of the stock and crops. 

Loyd, Orrin, was born in Penfield, in 1857, and is the son of Orlando and Mary 



128 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY 

Loyd. and grandson of Armour Loyd, who settled in Penfield, in 1804, and died 
leaving three sons, William, Samuel and Orlando. The latter died in 1894, leaving 
one son, Orin, and one daughter, Florence, now Mrs. Ammon Curtis, of Chili, one 
other daughter, Eflfie, died in infancy. Orrin Loyd has always remained on the 
farm where his father lived and died. He married Sarah, daughter of George Sal- 
mon, and they have two daughters, Ethel M. and Mary E. 

Whiting, Lawson J., was born in Webster in 1854, and is the son of Jonas, and 
grandson of John F. Whiting, who was one of the earliest settlers of Webster. In 
1875 Mr. Whiting married Rosalia, daughter of Nathan Kelly, and in 1876 moved 
into the Kelly homestead in Penfield, where he is a farmer. Their six sons are Na- 
than P., Leslie M., Morse E., Reuben W., Edwin B. and John B. Mrs. Whiting's 
mother was a daughter of Ebenezer Pierce, and a granddaughter of Samuel Scrib- 
ner, both of whom were among the early settlers of Penfield. Mrs. Rosalia Whit- 
ing is granddaughter of David Kelley, and the great-granddaughter of David, sr., 
who once owned all the land now comprising Penfield and Webster. 

Weaver, William, was born in Perinton in 1855 and is a son of Michael Weaver, 
who came from Germany in 1840 and settled in Perinton. Later he bought a farm, 
where he now lives, in East Penfield. In 1877 Mr Weaver married Ellen Grenze- 
bach, and bought the farm where he now resides. They have two children: William 
H. and Lillie C. 

Turrill, Edward, was born in Susquehanna county, Pa., in 1818, and came to Pen- 
field with his father, James B., in 1828. James B. died in 1849 leaving five sons and 
two daughters. Jerome B., Leman W. and Edward remained in Penfield where Ed- 
ward and Leman W. were for many years contractors and builders, but for the last 
few years Edward Turrill has lived retired. Mr. Turrill has been twice married, his 
first wife dying in 1889, leaving three daughters and two sons; he then married 
Ruamy Strong, daughter of Dewitt C. Strong, one of the early settlers of Webster. 

Lotz, John, was born in Nassau, Germany, September 19, 1824. He was educated 
in his native land. He came to the United States in 1847, and was the .second one 
to emigrate to America from that town; he located in Rockland county, N. Y. In 
1849 he came to Rochester; being a shoemaker, he at once entered the employ of the 
firm of Sagfc & Pancost,'for whom he worked seventeen years. His first purchase 
was five acres of land on Jenning street, at that time not within the city limits. 
November 27, 1851, he married Catharine Herman, of Irondequoit, by whom he has 
seven children, Henry, Louisa. Emma, Charles, Ella, Clara, and George. Mr. Lotz's 
father, Peter, married Catherine Hild, by whom he had five children, Mr. Lotz being 
the youngest and the only one living. Mrs. Lotz's father, John J. Herman, was 
born in Baden, Germany, in 1790. He was an old soldier, having fought in 
Bonaparte's army. He married Catherine Nagle; they came to the United States in 
1833, locating in this county; six children were born to them at this time, Mrs. Lotz 
being three years old, one child died while crossing, and was buried at sea, two chil- 
dren were born after they came to America. Mr. Herman died in 1862 and his wife 
in 1890. Mr. Lotz has been a resident in the town of Greece for twenty-five years; 
by his industry, he has acquired a fine property. 

Stone, George B., was born in the town of Greece September 10, 1861. His edu- 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 129 

cation was obtained in the common schools, and is a fruit farmer l>y occupat'ion- 
April 19, 1888, he married Jessie M. Wilson, of his native town and they have two 
children, Hattie L, and George W. Mr. Stone's father, J. Bryant, was born in the 
town of Greece May 3, 1837, was educated in the schools of that early day, and a 
farmer by occupation. November 22, 1859, he married Harriet Davis, of Charlotte. 
They had one son, George B., as above. Mr. Stone died November 28, 18G7. Mrs. 
Stone's father, Mark Wilson, was born in Pennsylvania July 14, 1831, was educated 
in the common schools, and reared on his father's farm. In early life he learned the 
carpenter's trade. May 31, 1856, he married Esther Harding, of Pennsylvania, and 
they had four children: Edith, Carrie, Jessie M. as above, and Benjamin. Mrs. 
Wilson's great-grandfather's two oldest brothers were killed in the Wyoming massa- 
cre, and many of her relations in the early wars 

Pollard, Emma M.— The late Henry Pollard was born in Walsham, SufTolk county, 
England, June 20, 1811, was educated in their schools, and was ajiprenticed to 
learn the blacksmith's trade, until he was twenty-one years old. At the e.xpiration 
of that time, he came to Canada. June 11, 1837, he married Eliza M. Moxon, daugh- 
ter of one of the oldest settlers of Charlotte. They had seven children: John H., 
who died in infancy, Edward, Frank H., Arthur W., who also died in infancy, Alfred 
B., John Z., and Emma M. Edward served in the late war, in two regiments, first 
in tha 13th Infantr}', New York State Volunteers, and afterwards as second lieuten- 
ant in the 24th Cavalry, New York State Volunteers, and was honorably discharged 
at the close of the war. He was wounded twice in the ankles. He died in Boston 
in 1892. Frank H. was a soldier in the 188th Infantry, New York State Volunteers, 
in the late Rebellion. Mrs. Pollard died in 1868. For his second wife, he married 
Mrs. Mary H. Greer, nee Holden, June 16, 1870. Mr. Pollard worked at his trade 
from 1840 to 1872. He then retired and took charge of his real estate. Pollard 
avenue was named in his honor. He died August 13, 1889. His only daughter, 
Emma M., was educated in the public schools, and in the Rochester Free Academy, 
graduating from the latter in 1877. After teaching school several years she attended 
the Geneseo Normal School, graduating from that institution in 1891. She has 
charge of the grammar department in the graded school at Charlotte where she has 
taught twelve years. 

Peet, Norman C, was born in Penfield in 1819, son of Minor A. and Ohonor (Austin) 
Peet, and grandson of Ebenezer Peet, who came to Penfield from Connecticut among 
the early settlers. Mr. Peet's father died when he was two years old and later his 
mother married Libeus Ross, with whom Mr. Peet lived until 1842, when he married 
Sophronia L., daughter of Hiram Peet, and settled where he now lives. He is one 
of the leading farmers of the town, although for the last few years his son-in-law, 
Mr. Atwood, has lived with him and looked after the farm. 

Fuller, Harrison C, was born in Penfield in 1851, and is the son of John F. and 
Harriet (Muliner) Fuller, and grandson of Joseph, who settled at Lovetts Corners in 
1806, where Mr. Fuller now lives. John Fuller was born in 1826 and always lived 
on the homestead until he died, January 19, 1894. Mr. Harrison Fuller was elected 
justice in 1878, and in 1891 he became side judge, which position he held three years. 
In 1873 he married Delia S. Tabor, who died in 1875. He married again, Elizabeth, 



130 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. ^ 

daughter of A. G. Northrup and they have six children, John, Joseph E., Albert T., 
who died in infancy, and three daughters, Florence K., Martha E., and Helen H. 

Clark, Henry S.. was born in 1833 and is a son of Chester and Minerva (Rundell) 
Clark, and grandson of Calvin Clark, who came to Penfield in 1800 and was the 
founder of the Clark families in Penheld. He died in the war of 1812. Chester 
Clark settled at an early day on the land where Henry now lives, and died in 1870, 
leaving three sons and two daughters, Henry, Franklin, Horace, Elizabeth, and 
Laura I. Franklin and Horace died. Franklin left one son, Warren, who lives on 
the old homestead. 

Sheldon, Abner, was the first of this name in the town of Mendon. He came from 
Deerfield, Mass., in 1801, and bought what was known as the Ball farm. Two years 
later he bought the farm in Mendon, which has ever since been in the possession of 
the family, and which is now owned and occupied by Judson F. Sheldon, his grand- 
son. His family were as follows: Electa (Mrs. Hawks), Abner, Zelotes, Rebecca 
(Mrs. Anthony Case), Lucy (Mrs. Justin Baker), Ptolemy, Henry A., William Fred- 
eric, Timothy F. Three of his sons, Abner, Ptolemy and Henry served in the war 
of 1812. Henry settled on the home farm, remaining there until his death in .864. 
The others all sought homes in other parts of the country. Henry married Eliza, 
daughter of Charles Gillett, of Mendon, in 1816. Their family consisted of seven 
children: Chas. A., who died in 1825, unmarried. Ransom T., who married Eliza- 
beth, daughter of Zebidee Bond, of Mendon; Louisa, who married Levi Carter, of 
Detroit. Mr. Carter, who was a railroad man, took the first passenger train, as its 
conductor, over the Michigan Central Railroad, which position he held until his 
death in 1874. Horace W., who married Marie, daughter of Jotham Bickford, of 
Mendon; Judson F., married Mary, daughter of Martha Davis, of Mendon; Lucina, 
married Wm. W. Potter, of Greene county. They moved to Medina, Orleans county. 
where Mr. Potter founded the Union Bank of Medina, holding the position of its 
president until his death in 1870. Laura, who died in 1841, aged eight years. Of 
what was once so large a family, the fourth generation has only Frank A., son of 
Ransom, who married Alice Williams, of Henrietta; Estelle M., daughter of Ran- 
som, who married Frank E. Hovey, of Lima; Catherine, daughter of Horace, who 
married William Clapp, of Mendon; Antoinette, daughter of Judson F., whu mar- 
ried William J. Kirkpatrick, of Lansingburgh, N. Y. ; and Chas. F., adopted son of 
Judson F. The politics of the family have always been first of the Whig, then of 
the Republican party. Judson F. Sheldon represented his town in the Board of Su- 
pervisors during the years of 1878-79 and 80, and his assembly district in 1882, and 
also in 1889. 

Markham, Mrs. M. A. — Willard Markham was born in East Avon, then Ontario 
county, now Livingston county, November 1, 1805. He was educated in the schools 
of his day, and has been a successful farmer. He came to the town of Greece in his 
twenty-ninth year. October 1, 1835, he married Louise Bronson, of Greece, by 
whom he had seven children: Laurinda, Joseph, Betsey, Levi A., Eunice A., Frances 
L., and Eliza. Joseph, Eliza and Eunice are dead. Joseph was a soldier in the late 
war, in Company I, 13th Inf., N. Y. S. Vol., and died at Yorktown. Virginia, May 
15, 1862. Mrs. Markham died August 13, 1848. For his second wife he married 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 131 

Mary A. (Drake) Palmer, widow of Daniel Palmer, of Elba, Genesee county, N. Y., 
by whom he had three children: Samuel W., Sylvia J., and Spencer S. Samuel W. 
was born March 10, 1851. He was educated in the public schools and is now a farmer 
at home. January 12, 1878, he married Florence W. Dewinell of this town, by whom 
he had seven children: Joseph W., Horace G., Florence E., Arthur W., Ida, Anna, 
and John D. Mrs. Markham's father, Samuel Drake, was born in Greene county, 
N. Y., in 1791. He married Sylvia Thorne of his native place, and by whom he 
had nine children: Edward, Orrin, William, Moses, Samuel O., Mary A., S. Jane, 
Stephen A., and Elvira. The family at an early day came to Genesee county, N. Y. 
Mr. Drake died April 28, 1873, and his wife May 31, 1868. Mr. Markham is ninety 
years old, hale and hearty, and is one of the town's honored citizens. 

Watson, George W., was born in 1842, and is a son of John M. and Elizabeth 
(Harris) Watson, and a grandson of Samuel Watson, who came from Maine to Pen- 
field in 1816, and had three sons, John M., Daniel, and Franklin. John M. died in 
1880, and left sons, Winfield S., Rufus E., and George W. Mr. G. W. Watson bought 
the farm where he now lives in 1884, and is one of the leading farmers of the town. 

Busch, Frederick, was born in Germany in 1845, and came to America in 1866, 
settling near where he now lives on what is known as the "1600 acres tract." In 
1878 he bought the farm where he now lives and is engaged in farming. He also 
does a large fruit evaporating business. His wife was Minnie Schutt, and their chil- 
dren are Frank H., a merchant tailor of Webster; Henr^^ John, William, Christlieb, 
and Otto, all farmers with their father. They also have four daughters: Lizzie, 
Fena, Mary, and Tena. They have also lost three sons: Fred, who died in 1889, 
Carl, and Julius, who died in 1895. 

Baldwin, Addison R., was born in Topsham, Vt., August 6, 1832. His parents 
moved to Wells River, Vt., where he was educated in the public schools, one year at 
Newbury Seminary, and two years at the Military University at Norwich. On ac- 
count of ill-health he had to abandon his studies, and he then became a clerk in a 
general store at Ogdensburg, N. Y. May 6, 1853, he came to Charlotte, which he 
has since made his permanent home, and entered the employ of Joshua Eaton, as 
clerk and general manager. January 2, 1856, he married Caroline Wheeler of the 
town of Greece, and five children were born to them : Charles A. , who is a banker 
and broker in New York ; Frank E., a banker and broker in Boston, Mass., with 
a fine residence in Brookline, a suburb of Boston; Alvi T., general agent for several 
fire insurance companies, and is also President of the Massachusetts Chemical Com- 
pany of South Boston, Mass. ; Carolyn L., now Mrs. F. D. Hotchkiss of Rochester, 
N. Y. ; and Daisy M., who resides in Brookline, Mass. Mr. Baldwin was superin- 
tendent of the Pittston Coal Company, at Pittston, Pa., where he remained during 
the years of 1859 and 1860. After he returned he again served Mr. Eaton in his old 
position, and was appointed agent of the Merchant's Union Express Company, after 
its consolidation with the American. He afterward became a produce dealer, doing 
a general business in grain, fruits, etc., which continued nine years. In the mean- 
time he was village clerk, and trustee of the village by appointment. Upon the 
death of his brother at Groton Pond, Vt., he took charge of his business which was 
an immense lumber concern, and conducted it for three years. In 1893 he went to 



\:>,-l LANDMARKS OK MONROE COUNTY. 

Boston, Mass., and was made vice-president of the Massachusetts Chemical Com- 
pany, which position he now holds; six months later was made president of the Bald- 
win Bros. XJompany, and also of the National Telegraph Company. In the winter 
of I!:iy4-y5 he was appointed land commissioner of the Suwanee River and Railway 
Land Company in Florida. Mr. Baldwin's father, Erastus, was born in Vermont in 
ISll, and married Lucinda C. Richardson, who was born in his native State. They 
had four sons: Addison R., as above, Alvi T. , Hammond T. , who died at the age of 
fourteen, and Erastus, who is a resident of Wells River, Vt., president of the Wells 
River Savings Bank, and one of the directors of the National Bank of Newbury. 
Erastus Baldwin, sr. , died in July, 1889, aged seventy-eight. His widow resides at 
the old home. Mrs. Baldwin's father, Baruch C. Wheeler, was born in the town of 
North ICust, Dutchess county, N. Y. November 27, 1805, he married Caroline E. 
Hollister, of Sharon, Conn., and came to the town of Greece in 1837, and located 
near North Greece. They had eight children, seven of whom are still living: Joseph 
H., Caroline, Hiram D., Benjamin F., Elizabeth D., Mary L., Ph(L'be L., and Julia, 
wife of Dr. Hess, of Grand Rapids, who died in 1873. Mr. Wheeler died January 2, 
185)0, aged ninety, and his wife April 14, 1890, aged eighty-three. In politics Mr. 
Baldwin is a Democrat, and has been member of the Central County Committee. 
Mrs. Baldwin's great-grandfather, Col. Thomas Wheeler, was a colonel in the 
French war. Mr. Baldwin's maternal grandfather was also a .soldier in the French 
war. 

Ketcham, Byron C. The subject of this sketch was born in Sodus, Wayne county, 
N. Y., September 8, 1837. His grandfather, Joseph A. Ketcham, was born in Pitts 
town, Rensselaer county, N. Y., May 28, 1780, and died April 14, 1834, in Owego, 
Tioga county, N. Y. His father was born March 1, 1801, in Pittstown, Rensselaer 
county, N. V., and died in Hamlin, Monroe count}', N. Y,, February, 1878. His 
mother, Julia Ann Ketcham, was born in Grafton, Rensselaer county, N. Y., Sep- 
tember 11, 1805 and died in Brockport, Monroe county, N. Y., September 17, 1888. 
They had seven children, namely: Caroline M., Warren P., Allen J., Byron C, 
Spencer C, Richmond A., and Gertrude E. Caroline M. was born in Pittstown, 
Rensselaer county, N. Y., November 11, 1828, and died January 22, 1875. Warren 
P. was born in Owego, Tioga county, N. Y., March 14, 1831, and died June 12, 
1883, in Houston, Tex. Allen J. was born in Owego, Tioga county, N. Y., June 7, 
1834, and died about September 1, 1889, in Denver, Colorado. Byron C. was born 
in Sodus, Wayne county, N. Y., September 8, 1837. Spencer C. was born in Sodus, 
Wayne county, N. Y., October G, 1840. Richmond A., w^as born in Sodus, Wayne 
county, N. Y., July 3, 1844. Gertrude E., w^as born in Sodus, Wayne county, N. Y., 
July 29, 1847. His father in his early years was a teacher in the common .schools 
during the winter months and farmer in summer; held offices of trust and responsi- 
bility in the town in which he lived. The subject of this sketch was educated in the 
common schools of the State with the exception of parts of terms in the Academy at 
Sodus, Wayne county, N. Y. In the winter of winter of 1859 and 1860, taught his 
first term in a district .school in his native town of Sodus, Wayne county, N. Y. 
Cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln for president and ever after voted the Re- 
publican ticket. At the breaking out of the late war was engaged on a farm, but en- 
listed as a private October 6, 1861, in Co. H, 64th Regt., N. Y. Vol. Infantry. At 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 133 

the muster-in was made 4th sergeant, promoted to second lieutenant in same com- 
pany September 19, 1862, to 1st Heutenant and quartermaster iJecember 24, 1862, 
acting adjutant of the regiment at Gettysburg in 1863, and captain June 18, 1863. 
Was in command of the regiment during a part of a quarter of 1864 on detached 
service to bring to the regiment the drafted men assigned to them July 28, 1863; re- 
lieved from that duty in November, 1863, and returned to duty with the regiment. 
Was wounded severely in the assault at Petersburg, Va., June 19, 1864. Discharged 
December 4, 1864, by reason of expiration of term of service. In the spring of 1865 
bought a farm near and adjoining his father's and lived upon it one year, after which 
he sold and moved to Brockport, at which place he has made his residence since that 
time. In 1867 he accepted a position in the drug and book store of Fogin & Haight, 
and learned the business, and in 1873 formed a partnership with W. S. Merritt and 
continued until 1878 when Mr. Merritt retired and the firm became Ketcham & Pat- 
ten and continued until 1883 when Mr. Ketcham retired and entered into the busi- 
ness of Fire Insurance to the present date. Mr. Ketcham is now the secretary of 
Monroe Lodge No. 173 F. & A. Masons of this village. Was secretary of the Brock- 
port Union Agricultural Society for several years, retiring some three years 
since. Was town clerk of Sweden for several years, and clerk of the village Board 
of Health for three years. Is commander of Cady Post No. 236, G. A. R., and 
prominent in Grand Army circles. Mr. Ketcham was first married October 6, 1863, 
to Miss Esther S. Clarke, of Sodus, Wayne county, N. Y., who was born in Massa- 
chusetts in 1838 and died September 4, 1874. She is survived by two daughters. 
Bertha B. and Jennie M. Ketcham. The first named was born in Painted Post, 
Steuben county, N. Y., November 29, 1864. Educated in the State Normal School 
located in Brockport and graduated in the Classical course in 1885. September 19, 
1888, was married to Samuel J. Craig, of Canaseraga, Allegany county, N. Y., who car- 
ries on an extensive mercantile business in that village. They have two daughters, 
Esther B. and Gladys. The second daughter, Jennie M. Ketcham, is a teacher of vocal 
and instrumental music in Canaseraga, N. Y., having graduated in the musical course 
of the Normal School at Brockport, N. Y. , in 1882, at the age of sixteen. She was born 
in Brockport, N. Y., October 28, 1866. Mr. Ketcham married for his second wife 
Miss Minnie Agnes Wadhams, only daughter of Edwin and Lucia E. Wadhams, of 
Brockport, N. Y., May 22, 1890. She was born in Parma. Monroe county, N. Y., 
October 30, 1860. One daughter is the result of this union — Gertrude Lawrence 
Ketcham. 

Andru.s, Fairchild, was born in Penfield, in 1814, and is the son of Alanson, and 
the grandson of David, who came from Vermont to Penfield in 1801, where he re- 
sided until 1816 when he removed to Ashtabula county, Ohio, where he died in 1849, 
aged ninety years, and where many of his descendants still live. Alanson came to 
Penfield with his father, and resided there until his death in 1848, aged sixty-five 
years. In 1807 he bought of Daniel Penfield the farm, then an unbroken forest, that 
has since been, and now^ is the homestead of the family. He was a distiller and 
farmer, and in 1811 built, and for several years operated a distillery. At his decease 
he left a widow, three daughters, two of whom are still living, and one son. Fair- 
child, who at eighteen years of age commenced to teach a district school during the 
winter, working on his father's farm in summer, which, with the exception of one 



134 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

year passed in a physician's office in the then village of Rochester, he continued to 
do until 1838, when he engaged in the transportation business on the Erie canal, con- 
tinuing the same until the decease of his father in 1848, when he came back to the 
farm in Penfield. He was married in 1842, and has three children, two daughters 
and one son, who is a fruit grower of Riverside, California. He early took an active 
interest in political affairs, was one of the pioneers of the Republican party, of which 
he was for many years a trusted local leader. At the outbreak of the Rebellion he 
was the supervisor of the town, remaining .such until he was elected to the Assembly, 
where he served three sessions, in 1804-65-66, having been twice re-elected. After 
the adjournment of the Legislature in 1866 he accepted the appointment of assistant 
as'iessor of Internal Revenue, which he held for four years, and until the repeal of 
the law creating the office. On vacating the Revenue office, he went at once to 
Harrison county, Iowa, engaging in farming and stock raising, in which he re- 
mained until the fall of 1884, when he returned to the homestead in Penfield. He is 
of "New England Puritan" lineage paternally and maternally, and now at the age 
of eighty-one years is fairly vigorous, with mental faculties unimpaired. 

Allen, James N., was born in Penfield, June 8, 1840, and in 1846 came with his 
father, Hiram, to the homestead where he has since lived. His father died in 1863, 
leaving five .sons, James, Wesley, Calvin, Peter and Rowe. James married Almira, 
daughter of Abel Willetts, and they reside on the old homestead, which he bought. 
They have two sons, James G. and Fred, also two daughters. Mr. Allen is the 
grandson of Calvin Allen, who was one of the early settlers of Penfield. His mother 
was Martha, daughter of Wm. Harris. 

Brown, Edward S., was born in Chicago, 111., July IT, 1871. He was educated in 
the common school after his arrival east with his parents, also in the Albion High 
School of Albion, Mich., and Brockport Normal- School of Brockport, N.Y. , and isnow 
conducting a meat market at North Greece. He'was elected justice of the peace in the 
spring of 1895. October 7, 1891, he married Sarah E. Clement, of Greece, by whom he 
has one son, R. Stewart, born September 27, 1892. Mr. Brown's father, Robert S., was 
born in this town in 1838, was educated in the public schools and Clarence Academy, 
and was engineer in the employ of the N. Y. C. Sz H. R. R. R. Company for eighteen 
years, and wss killed in Rochester, N.Y., February 4, 1891. He married Jennie E. 
Bascom, of Greece (who also died October 28, 1891), by whom he had three children : 
Edward S., Herman B., and Archie R. His wife died October 28, 1891. Edward 
S. Brown is a member of Clio Lodge No. 77t>, F & A. M. at Parma, N.Y. 

Roberts, Mrs. Julia E. — The late Henry C. Roberts was born in Fowlerville, 
Livingston county, N.Y., Januarys, 1841. His education was obtained in the common 
schools, and at the age of thirteen he left home and came to Rochester, N.Y., learn- 
ing the gunsmith's trade with William Billinghurst, of that city. At the age of 
nineteen he went to California, and upon his arriving in that State his capital in cash 
was five dollars, with which he began business as a gunsmith. He remained in 
California six years, and by his industry and shrewd business judgment he returned 
to Rochester with about $5,000. He then entered the firm of Dewey & Davis, in the 
retail coal business, and .shortly afterward the firm was changed to Smith & 
Roberts, which continued about six years. He then became a wholesale dealer 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 135 

in the coal business, under the firm name of H. C. Roberts & Co. They erected the 
Genesee coal docks and chutes on the Genesee River, above Charlotte. In 1879 he 
was made president of the Charlotte Iron Works, which position he held until his 
death. In the management of his various business interests he exhibited rare tact, 
skill, and ability. He married Julia E. Pollay, of Rochester, N. Y., and they had 
one son, Henry P., who married Anna B. Blackford, of Washington, D.C., and they 
have one daughter, Ruth Elizabeth. Mr. Roberts died August 17, 1885. 

Rashe, Louis, was born in France, September 15, 1822, and came to the United 
States with his parents in 1827. They first located in Albany, where they remained 
five years, and afterward lived in the country on a farm, where he was brought up. 
July 31, 1862, he enlisted in Company B, 108th Infanty, New York State Volunteers, 
and was honorablj' discharged on account of disability (rheumatism and rupture) in 
May, 1863. He has married twice, first in 1847 to Mary Searls, of Lowville, Lewis 
county, N.Y. Mrs. Rashe died in 1890. For his second wife, on June 11, 1891, he 
married Mrs. Silvia Dodge, nee Ford, of Tompkins county, N.Y., formerly of Scho- 
harie county of this State. Mr. Rashe came to this county and town of Greece in 
1859, and has resided here most of the time since. Mr. Rashe's father, George, was 
born at the old home in France in 1786. He married and had five sons : John, Frank, 
Joseph, Louis, and Peter. Mr. Rashe died in 1862, and his wife in 1857. Mr.s. 
Rashe's father. Major Ford, was born in Schoharie county, N.Y., in 1809, and was a 
carpenter by trade, and afterwards became a mill owner. He married Lucinda K. 
Millard, and they had sixteen children. Mr. Ford died in 1881 and his wife in 
1891. 

Butts, Daniel, was born in Northampton county, Pa., September 12, 1821. His 
parents came to the rapids, near Rochester, in 1832, and shortly afterwards to the 
town of Greece. He was educated in the district .schools, and has always been a 
farmer. In 1843 he married Sarah Burns, of Greece, by whom he had four children: 
Louisa, now Mrs. Dr. Carpenter, of Greece; Mary, now Mrs. Joseph Wilder, of 
vSpencerport; Margaret, now Mrs. John Lewis, also of Greece; Melvin, who mar- 
ried Ophelia Snell, of this town. Mrs. Butts died in 1878, mourned by a husband 
and family. For full history of family see another place in the work. 

Frost, Henry, was born in Walworth, Wayne county, N.Y. , in 1844. He is one of 
the four sons of Abner and Betsey (Merritt) Frost. Abner Frost settled in Penfield 
on the farm where Henry now lives in 1854 and died in 1880. Henry, with his 
brothers, Byron and Jesse, enlisted in Co. D, 140th N. Y. Vols., serving until the clo.se 
of the war. He is now engaged in farming and fruit growing. In 1869 Mr. Frost 
married Ada E. Cowel, by whom he has one son, Arthur B. Lewis Frost was in the 
138th New York Infantry. Byron died in prison in Florence, South Carolina. 
Henry Frost was in Andersonville prison one year and came home at the close of the 
war ; he was wounded on the top of the head in the battle of the Wilderness and 
then taken to Andersonville prison. 

Harris, Mrs. William, nee Louisa Herrick, daughter of Rufus, was married to 
William Harris in 1847, and they settled on the old Harris homestead, where Will- 
iam, sr., lived in 1817, and where William, jr., died in 1877, leaving four sons: John 
F., Potter E., and Peter D., who now carry on the farm, and William N., who lives 
east of Lovetts Corners ; also three daughters, Lenora, Maggie, and Jeanette. 



136 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY 

Biuld, Daniel D. . was born in the town of Greece April IT, 1.S42. In 1864 he was 
appointed inspector of customs of Charlotte, was for twelve years justice of the peace, 
and filled other positions of trust. December 26, 1872, he married Lydia A., daugh- 
ter of Rev. Moses Wallace, of Rochester, and they have had four children : D. Wal 
lace, Mary E., who died aged two, Fred D., and Adela E. Daniel, father of our 
subject, was born in Bloomfield, Ontario county, in 1810, and came to this town with 
his parents the same year. He held many public offices and was a man of promi- 
nence. He married Elizabeth Merrill of this town, and had seven children: Mary, 
who died at the age of twenty-seven, Georgiana A., Daniel D., Adda R., Aldin T., 
Evan \V., and Elbert O. Mr. Budd died in November, 1892, and his wife May 4, 
1892. His father, Daniel Budd, was born in Dutchess county and came to Canan- 
daigua in an early day. He was a soldier in the war of 1815. Moses Wallace, 
father of Mrs. Budd, was born in Bethlehem, N. Y., in 181(1. He married Elizabeth 
Eaton, of Albany, and had five children: Abigail, Amanda D., Josiah E., Lydia A., 
and James E. Mr. Wallace has resided in Charlotte fourteen years, in Pittsford 
eight years, then removed to Rochester. He was a Methodist minister. His death 
occurred September 8, 1878, and that of his wife May 1, 1884. 

Copsey, Albert, was born in Suffolk, England, September 29, 1860, and was edu- 
cated in their national schools. He is a professional and scientific gardener, begin- 
ning at the early age of twelve years serving his term of four years, during which 
time he attended regularly the night school of public elementary schools. In 1881 
he came to the United States, locating in Rochester, N. Y., and entered the employ 
Elwanger & Barry, and soon afterward became the private gardener of Elwanger, 
where he remained three years, and then entered the employ of A. G. Yates as gar- 
dener and florist. He is a specialist in the cultivation of roses. " His success in 
growing magnificent La France, Nephetes, Sunset, and Mermot roses for the last 
two years, when other growers failed, testifies to his skill and knowledge." March 
27, 1883, he married Maria Beatty, of Rochester, N. Y., and they have three children: 
Walter B., Elizabeth M., and Albert V. Mr. Copsey's father, William, was born in 
England, in 1810. He was foreman in a woolen matting factory twenty-three years. 
He married Maria Allen of his old home, and they had seven children. Mr. Copsey 
died August 11, 1891. Mrs. Cop.sey's father, James Beatty, was born and lived in 
Ireland. He married Ann Armstrong, and they had eight children. Mr. Beatty 
died before Mrs. Copsey was two years old, and his wife in 1882. Mrs. Copsey came 
to the United States when she was sixteen years old. Mr. Copsey is a member of 
Genesee Lodge 507 F. & A. M., Rochester, N. Y., also of Monroe Tent, No. 147, K. 
O. T. M., and St. Andrew's Brotherhood, of St. Andrew's Episcopal church. 

Lascell, Jo.shua B., was born in Niagara county, N. Y., October 31, 1856. His par- 
ents moved to Canada when he was two years old, where he was educated. In 1869 
he came to the United States, and located in Monroe county, where he is a trusted 
employee of the Rochester Electric Railway Company. September 4, 1877, he mar- 
ried Artie M. vStace, of the town of Greece. They have four sons: Harry S., Ernest 
R., Walter I)., and Raymond. Mr. Lascell's father, George, was born in Niagara 
county, in 1829, was educated in the common schools and was a farmer by occupa- 
tion. He married Emily Traviss, formerly of Canada, and they had three children ; 
George B., Thomas H., who died in 1889, and Joshua B. George Lascell died in 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 137 

1888. Two of his ancestors on the paternal side were soldiers in the war of 1812. 
Mrs. Lascell's father, Stephen Stace, was born in Kent, near the Sussex line, Eng- 
land, in \S:V2, w here he was educated. He has married twice. His first wife was 
Emily Willard, of his native place, and they had four children; Jennie, George W., 
Artie M., and Albert E. The family came to the United States in 1853, and located 
in the town of Webster. Jennie married "Wesley Spears, and had three children: 
Maud, who died in infancy, Grace C, and Estella. Mrs. Spears died in 188-5. 
George W. married Frances Studly, of Greece. They had two sons: Charles A. 
and Addison C. Albert E. resides at home. Mrs. Stace died March 13, 1876. 

Fallesen, Andrew P., was born in Denmark, November 23, 1853. He was educated 
in the schools of his native land and came to the United States in 1872, locating in 
the town of Greece, near Charlotte. He is a small fruit grower, having thirty-five 
acres of very choice varieties of fruit on Hopper's Hill. April 3, 1879, he married Lil- 
lian Watkins, of Phelps, Ontario county, by whom he had three children: John A., 
Julia H., and Eva E. Mr. Fallesen's father, Andrew, married Helen Peterson, by 
whom he had twelve children. Mrs. Fallesen's father, John T. "Watkins, was born 
in England February 22, 1835, and came to the State of New York when a young 
man. He married Julia De Bois, of New York city, by whom he had five children. 
Mr. "W^atkins is a merchant tailor by occupation. He enlisted in Co. H, 148th Inftr., 
N. Y. S. "Vols., and served till the close of the war. He now holds the office of town 
clerk and is one of the honored citzens of Phelps. 

Knipper, Peter, was born in Bavaria, Germany, January 21, 1855, and came with 
his mother to this country in 1859, his father having preceded them one year. They 
located in Rochester. He was educated in St. Joseph's Catholic School, with one 
term in the Rochester Business University, and his early life was spent as a shoe- 
maker with various manufacturing concerns in Rochester and other places, but for 
the past six years he has been a hotel-keeper in the village of Greece, his house hav- 
ing the reputation of being the best within ten miles, outside of Rochester. Novem- • 
ber 15, 1877, he married Mary E. Mura, and their children are Frances J., "William 
P., Sarah D., M. Genevieve, and three who died in infancy. They attend St. John's 
Catholic School here. John, father of our subject, was bom in German}' May 14, 1832. 
He conducted a distillery at Cartersville for twenty years. He married Dora Rosen- 
ing of his native place, and they had these children ; Peter, Barbara, Mary, Anna, 
and Frank, who died in infancy. His second wife was Mary Kuhn, and they have 
one son, Joseph, and now reside in Rochester. Mrs. Knipper's father was Erasmus 
Mura, born in France- in 1822, who came to this locality when a young man. He 
married Justine Ochs of Rochester, and they had six children: George M., Mary E. 
Theresa, Justina, Kittie, and one who died young. Mr. Mura died October 6, 18()2,' 
his widow residing in Rochester. The ancestry of the family is German and French. 

Burlingame, Herman G. (deceased), was born November 26, 1835, in Norwich, 
Chenango county. He was a son of Charles Burlingame, who was well known in 
that section for his ability as a mathematician and his work as a surveyor. Herman 
inherited his father's mathematical tastes, and under the stimulus of his own love for 
the subject and encouragement of his father, he soon developed remarkable power 
in his grasp of mathematical truth. At the age of fifteen he entered Norwich Acad- 



138 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COl'NTY 

emy Inmi wliich place he graduated three years later. He soon after accepted a posi- 
tion as teacher and then began at the age of eighteen what proved to be a life work. 
For two or three years his work was alternately in district and select schools. Dur- 
ing this time he was married to Ellen W. Wicks. To them were born Hvc children. 
Mr. Burlingame successfully filled positions in Susquehanna Seminary of Biughani- 
ton and Norwich Academy. From the Madison University he received the degree of 
Master of Arts. In the fall of 1868 he accepted the invitation to take charge of the 
matliematics of the Normal School newly organized at Brockport. This position he 
held till the time of his death February 19, 1891. For a period of more than twenty- 
two years his interest, his life, out.'side of his family was centered in the school with 
which he became identified. To it he devoted the ripest and best years of his life, 
and it was through him that many new features have been added to the school. 

Beebe, Asa, was a native and former re.sident of Windhall, Vt., a town situated on 
the top of the Green Mountains, Vt. He was prominent in local history in Vermont, 
and was in the Legislature many years, and for a long time justice of the peace. In 
1825 he sold his mountain farm and emigrated to Monroe county, settlnig in West 
Greece where he died. He was for five years overseer of the poor in this town and 
was one of the chief supporting members of the Congregational Church. He brought 
eight children to this locality, of w-hom but two survive: Salmon and Sarah, wife of 
Loomis Sheldon of Rochester. Salmon Beebe was born August 17, 1817, and mar- 
ried first Abigail Pari.sh, by whom he had three children: Albert P., of Greece; Silas 
D., in Montana; and Lydia A., wife of Jesse Howe, of Michigan. His second wife 
was Miranda Benedict, by whom he had one son, Frank S., who was drowned when 
a young man. Albert P. Beebe was born in Greece, January 2, 1845, lived at home 
until the age of twenty-five, and w^as educated at Parma Institute and Holly Semi- 
nary. For a time he engaged in fruit dealing but later went to New York and be- 
came a Pullman car conductor on the Pennsylvania railroad, and after three years 
was made a regular passenger conductor. He was so engaged for ten years, then 
went to Utah and for nearly three ^-ears was conductor on the then Denver and Rio 
tirande road, his brother, Silas D. Beebe, being superintendent of the road. In 1885 
our subject returned to the old home, where he has since resided conducting the 
place, and being also an extensive fruit dealer. He has served a number of terms as 
supervisor. His wife was Emily Truesdale, who bore him one child, Wilbur S. He 
married second, in Salt Lake City, Emma Ain.sworth. Mr. Beebe is a Mason. 

Gallery, Michael, was born in Ireland, in the j-ear 1827, and came with his father 
to the United States in 1833 and purchased a homestead on the Latta R(nid near 
Greece Center, where he has since resided. He was educated in the common schools, 
and is one of the best farmers in the town, He married Mary Beatty, of the town 
of Greece, by whom he had nine children: Francis, who died at the age of forty-one 
years; Mai-y, Martin, Elizabeth, Gertrude, Anna, Josephine, Effie, and Mortimer. 
Martin and Elizabeth are dead. Mrs. Gallery died in the year 1877, mourned by a 
husband and family. Mr. Gallery's father, Francis, was born in Ireland March 3, 
1795. He died at the age of ninety-seven years at the family residence in Greece 
February 25, 1892. 

Sheldon. Luther G., was born in Parma, this county, October 29, 1860; his cduca- 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 13<J 

tion was obtaiued in the district schools, and he is a farmer and fruit grower by occu- 
pation May 25, 1880, he married Mina Welch, of Greece, and they had four chil- 
dren. Harry L., Luther G.. jr., Emma M., and Errol G. Gilbert, father of our sub- 
ject, was born in the town of Parma December 19, 1834, was well educated, and was 
a carpenter and builder; he taught school several terms. December 28, 1859, he 
married Nellie B. Warner of this town and they had one son, Luther G. , as above. 
He died August 12 1864, and his widow survives him. Mr. Sheldon's grandfather, 
Luther Sheldon, was born January 5, 1803, and married first Almeda Hills, by whom 
he had one son, Gilbert. His second wife was Harriet Trowbridge. He died June 
7, 1867. Mrs. Sheldon's father, John Welch, was born in Gates January 15, 1839. 
He married Agnes Maneely in 1861 ; she was a native of Ireland. Their children 
are Mina, John L. and Elon G. John L. married Luella Breeze and they have one 
.son, Francis C. 

Lose}', William, was a former resident of Seneca count}-, from whence he went to 
the war of 1812. He was a shoemaker and farmer, and pursued both avocations after 
coming to Parma in 1822. His children were James, Lydia, Jane, Wilsher and 
Luther. William Losey died at Albion, Mich., about 1861. James was born in 1818 
and is remembered as the cabinetmaker and undertaker of Parma for many years. 
At the time of the gold fever, he with many others went to California, and suffered 
many hardships while crossing the ocean in a sailing ves.sel; they were caught in a 
calm in which they remained for a number of days and were put on an allowance of 
one pint of water and one sea biscuit per day. He married Laura Meserve, by whom 
he had one son, George A., of Parma. James died in Parma April 30, 1890, and his 
wife January 12, 1863. George H. Losey was born January 10, 1843, and although a 
miller by trade, his chief occupation has been farming and market gardening. He 
also worked as clerk in a store for several years. March, 15, 1865, Mr. Losey en- 
listed in Co. L, 50th N. Y. Engineers, and although in service only until June 13 wit- 
nessed a number of severe engagements. He returned to Parma in 1867, marnedi 
Belle S., daughter of Henry Pulis of Greece. They have one son, James Le Yere. 
Living for a time in Greece Mr. I^osey was elected justice of the peace and overseer 
of the po(5r, also was appointed and served as postmaster during Cleveland's first 
administration. 

Deming, Howard C. , was born in Canaan, Conn., June 15, 1847, was educated in 
the common schools, supplemented by an academic course, and his early life was 
spent as a bookkeeper and clerk, later as a farmer. September 25, 1872, he married 
Ella A. Smith of vSouth Greece, and they have three children, Wilbur C, Nellie E., 
and Edith A. Mr. Deming's father, Chester M., was born at the old home in Con- 
necticut, December 25, 1822. He married Ellen M. Woodruff, of New Hartford, 
Coi.n., their four children being: Howard C, Wilbur M., Minnie A., and John W. 
Mrs. Deming died November 16, 1881. The father of Mrs. Howard Deming was 
Allen Smith, who was born in Wales, England, May 6, 1810. His parents went to 
Londonderry, Ireland, when he was a child, and his mother, Isabelle Marshall Smith, 
died April 26, 1818, in Londonderry. The balance of the family came to this coun- 
try, locating in Whitehall, this State. He married Amanda Benham of New Hart- 
ford, Conn., in 1847, the ceremony taking place in Syracuse, and they located on this 
homestead near .South Greece; she died May 11, 1887, and he, at South Greece, 



140 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

April :2!», 1895, aged eii^hty-five years. They had two children, Ella A and John A., 
who died aged five years, March 17, 1859. Mr. Deming has resided in town since 
1875. The ancestry of the family is Scotch and Welsh. 

Paine, John, was born in the town of Fort Ann, Washington county, December 22, 
18:M, and removed with his parents to Kendall, Orleans county, when a child. They 
remained one year, then removed to Clarkson, now Hamlin, this county. He was 
educated in the public schools, and at Brockport Collegiate Institute. September 
;W, 1802, he married IklaryJ. Fisk, of Hamlin, and has had eight children; Horace (i., 
who died in his fiftieth year; Louise M. wife of Hiram Kishlar; Florence J., Lillian, 
Mary D.. wife of Dr. W. B. Hillman; Herbert J., Jessie E., and Willis F. Reuben, 
father of our subject, was born in Argjde, Washington county. May 3. 1804, was 
educated in the schools of his day, and in early life was a wagon maker. He mar- 
ried Delora Mason, and they had six children: Daniel M., Wealthy, John, Reuben, 
Laura, and Horace, who died in extreme infancy. Mr. Paine's mother, Delora, was 
l)orn in Connecticut in 1807. She died July 15, 1884, and her husband's death oc- 
curred August 27, 1869. Nathan Fisk, father of Mrs. Paine, was born in the town of 
Pen field in 1804, married Melinda Manley, born in 1810, in Massachusetts, and had 
nine children, eight now living: Julia, wife of E. C. Whipple; Mrs. Helen Banker, 
Nathan, who married Laura Paine; Greenleaf, who married Jennie Rowley; Mary 
J., wife of John Paine; Minnie, wife of E. S. Hoskins; Susan R., wife of Judson 
Briggs; Mrs. Louise C. Williams. Both parents now reside in Brockport. They 
were pioneers in this locality, and moved into this county when it was nearly all a 
wilderness. 

Stone, Mrs. S. A.— Enos G. Stone was born in the town ot (Jreece June 23, 1845, 
and was educated in the public schools, and the High School at Le Roy. He is now 
a farmer and fruit grower. January 22, 1868, he married Sarah A., daughter of the 
late John Todd, of the town of Greece, and six children were born to them: Bryant, 
Minnie S., Ralph T., Louise, John A., and Harold J. Mr. Stone's father, James S., 
was born in Rochester May 4, 1810, and said to be the first white child born there on 
the east side of the river. He was educated in the schools of that early day, and 
followed the honorable occupation of farming. April 29, 1835, he married Sophia P. 
Coe, of Le Roy, Genesee county, N.Y. Seven children were born to them: William 
T., Louise P., Clara C, Enos G., as above, and Martin O. Mr. Stone died January 
2, 1892, and Mrs. Stone in November, 1870. Mr. Stone was customs collector at this 
port two years, and supervisor of the town two terms. Mr. Stone's maternal 
grandfather, Martin O. Coe, was a colonel in the war of 1812. His great-grand- 
father, Enos Stone, was from Berkshire, Mass., and was a captain in the Revolu- 
tionary war. For full account of Mrs. Stone's family see article of the late John 
Todd. 

Salyerds, Isaac W. , a prominent resident of Scottsville, was born in Preston, 
county of Waterloo, Canada, January 21, 1851, a son of Isaac, who was a native of 
Pennsylvania. His father having died when he was very young, he bought his time 
from hi| employer and went to Canada, where he plied his trade of weaver. He 
married Caroline Whitsell, and had four children: Isaac, Eli, Nancy, and Henry. 
He died in 1855, and his widow resides in Holyoke, Mass. When a lad of thirteen 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 141 

our subject began to earn his own living. He worked in Rochester in the flour 
mills for a number of years, tiien spent two years in Scottsville as a miller and sales- 
man for Malcolm McVean, and in the fall of 1876 removed to Garbuttsville, where 
he engaged in milling for himself. In 1878 he returned to Scottsville and engaged 
in the meat business, conducting a market for nine years. In the meantime he 
purchased a lot and erected a store and residence. He has served as constable 
several years, and is an exempt fireman of the Rochester Volunteer Fire Depart- 
ment, of which he was a member five years. He also organized the Scottsville Fire 
Department, of which he has ever since been an active member. He was president 
of the Scottsville Musical Association, which was second to none in the county, and 
has been trustee of the cemetery and of the M. E. church several years. He is also 
deputy sheriff, and a Mason. In 1870 he married Sarah E., daughter of David and 
Elizabeth Rife, of Hespler, Ontario, and their children are: Byron, of the state en- 
gineer's office in Rochester; Nancy, who died aged five; David C, Mary L., Ida M., 
and Ethel. 

Rowe, Lucian A., was born in Greece January 15, 1835, educated in the public 
schools, and has always followed farming. In 1857 he went to California prospect- 
ing for gold, returning in 1861. He carries on general farming, having two special- 
ties, berries and dairying. He markets in Rochester. He has a large silo with a 
capacity of 100 tons. In 1865 he married Jennette Colby, of this town, but born in 
Nunda, Livingston county, and they have four daughters: Mattie L. , who married 
Edward J. Benedict; Pearl J., a teacher; Ruth A., and Helen I. His father, 
Lucien, was born in this town in 1808, and died April 27, 1886. In 1831 he married 
Lovina Doty, of this town, who was born in Geneva in 1809. They had four chil- 
dren: Lucian A., Elizabeth L. (now Mrs. William Kenyon), Ruth E., who resides 
with her mother, and Aria P. (now Mrs. Sydney E. Brown). The grandfather, 
Frederic, was born in Connecticut, and came to this town when a young man. He 
was a soldier in the war of 1812. There were eight brothers. One was accidentalljfc 
killed, one remained at the old home, and si.x came to this State. The father's name 
was 1 an. Philura Church was born in East Haddam, Conn., August 2, 1784, and 
came to this State in 1799. She taught school several years and became the wife of 
Frederic Rowe in 1807. Their children were: Lucian, Emeline, Ruth H., Frederic 
A., Ira G., Abel, Henry C. , Nancy, who died in infancy, Nancy P., and William E. 
Of these, but one is now living, Nancy P., of California. The father of Mrs. Lucian 
A. Rowe was Zacheus Colby, born in Greece in 1811, a nurseryman, who mar- 
ried, first, Rhoda Shearman, by whom he had one daughter, Rhoda; and second, 
Jennette Shearman, by whom he had three children: Zacheus, Jennette, and 
Charles. Mr. Colby died May 23, 1891. His father, Zacheus, was a surgeon in the 
war of 1812. Mr. Rowe is a member of the Grange, in which he is past master, 
and both he and his wife are members of the Baptist church of this place. The 
family is of Engli.sh, Scotch, Irish, and Dutch ancestry. 

Jones, Edwin A., was born in Herefordshire, England, May 7, 1839, a son of David 
and Rachael Jones. The family came to Rochester in 1840, where the father was a 
blacksmith. Later they moved to Riga, and thence to Michigan, where David died 
in 1884. Edwin returned within a year to Monroe county. He was promised a cap- 
tain's commission if he would raise a companj' for the war. This he did, securing 



142 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

the enlistment of 118 men, ready for muster, but through some political manceuvrc- 
iug he was deprived of his captaincy for many mouths, and although the commis- 
sion finally came, Mr. Jones was mustered in and out as first lieutenant. However, 
he was a good soldier, a kind officer, and not afraid to lead his men. for he in jiart 
commanded his company throughout the service. Reterning to Chili, Captain Jones 
.settled on a farm, but later lived m Gates, and then removed to the city, where he 
was a builder, principally for himself, and erected fcrty-two houses during one sum- 
mer. After a time he bought a good property in Ogden, to which he removed in 
the latter part of 1894. March 26, 1868, Mr. Jones married Matilda Wooden, grand- 
daughter of William Wooden, of Chili, and they have one child, Laura. William 
Wooden came from Geneva to Chili in 1810 or 1811 and settled on the farm on 
which he died in 1863. He had a family of fourteen children, of whom but three 
survive. 

Allen, John M., was born at Charlotte, November 7, 1848. He was educated in 
the common schools and in De Graff's Collegiate Institute. In early life he entered 
the employ of Eaton & L^pton and was with them for several years. He was also a 
grocery merchant for fourteen years and postmaster of the village of Charlotte for 
twelve years and a member of the Board of Education from 1891 to 189"); held sev- 
eral minor village othces. In connection with his other business he has been a real 
estate dealer and is now devoting his whole time and attention to it. He married 
first, February 17, 1873, Emogene Wilder, of Charlotte, who died December 4, 1S79. 
On November 9, 1882, he married Margaret A. Campbell, of Mendon, by whom ho 
has two daughters: Luella M. and Emma C. Mr. Allen's father, John W., was born 
in Greene county, October 7, 1818, and came with his parents to Monroe county in 
1822, locating in the town of Greece. He was a contractor and builder. He mar- 
ried Pamelia Merchant, of Hanford's Landing, by whom he had two sons: George 
W. and John M. Mrs. John W. Allen died in 1849. Mr. Allen as a contractor has 
erected some of the best buildings in Charlotte. George W. has been a merchant for 
the last twenty years. 

Roe, Charles, is a native of Long Island. He received an academic education at 
Oberlin College and Johns Hopkins L^niversity. He read law in the offices of Theo- 
dore Bacon and J. B. Perkins, attended the Columbia Law School and was admitted 
to the bar in New York city in 1883. He returned to Rochester in 1884 and com- 
menced the practice of law, which he has since followed. 

Davis, Thomas S., was born in Monmouthshire, Wales, May 18, 1839. He was 
educated in the .schools of his country, and learned the millwright's trade, which he 
followed until he came to this country. December 25, 1804, he married Kezia Hiett, 
of Wiltshire, England. They came to this country, September lo, 1809. and located 
in this town, and on their present place, north of the Ridge road in 1876. They have 
had nine children, two of whom died in infancy. The others are as follows: John C, 
Sarah K., Annie A., Elisabeth J., Thomas W. , James A. G., and Abner A. John C. 
married Ida Karn of South Dakota, where they reside. Their children are: Annie 
A., Thomas S. and Edra. Sarah K. married Harry W. Edwards of the town of 
Gates, formerly of Wales, and they have two children: Harry W., jr., and Walter 
D. John, father of our subject, was born in Pembrokshire, South Wales, in 1790, 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 143 

and married Sarah Davis, by whom he had eleven chil(h-en. Of these our suljjcct 
was the eighth. Mr. Davis died in 1869, and his wife in 1866. Mrs. Davis' father, 
Charles Hiett, was born at tlie old home in Wiltshire, England, and married .Sarah 
Reynolds, of his native place, and their one daughter was Kezia as above. Mrs. 
Hiett died January 9, 1888. The Davis family is an old one, extending back to the 
ancient Britons. 

Eldredge, George I., was born in Penfield, Monroe county, N. Y.. in 1856, and is 
the son of Charles D. and Laura A. (Rowland) Eldredge, and a grandson of Erastus 
Eldredge. Mr. Eldredge lives with his mother on the farm where his father settled 
in 1850. Charles D. Eldredge was one of the leading founders of the t(nvn, and died 
July 1, 1892, leaving two sons and two daughters: George I. Eldredge, Ida B. Clark, 
William E. Eldredge, and Nellie M. Kennedy. George I. Eldredge was elected jus- 
tice of the peace in 1892, which office he still hokhs. He has charge of the farm which 
consists of 153 acres where his mother lives, also a 300 acre fruit farm and evaporat- 
ing plant in Michigan which they now own. 

Boardman, Washington, was born in Rochester in 1835, son of Francis, who came 
from Canada to Rochester in 1832 and to Penfield in 1837. Francis Boardman died 
in Webster in 1887. Mr. Boardman married in 1859, Ann, daughter of Edward Weir, 
of Brighton. They lived two years in Brighton, then moved to Penfield, where they 
have -since lived. They have four children: John W., Frankie, Emma, and Mattie. 
Mr. Boardman entered the army in 1862, enlisting in Co. F, 140th N. Y. Vols, and 
served until the close of the war. He is now engaged in farming. 

Willson. Rev. M. V., was born m Somerset, N. Y., in 1832, son of Rev. R. L, 
Willson, who was for many years pastor of the Baptist Chuixh of that town. In 
1859 M. V. Willson was graduated from the Hamilton Theological Seminary, Ham- 
ilton N. Y. In the same year he married Miss Sara E. Cole, of Eaton, N. Y., by 
whom he had three children: Dr. F, L. Willson, of Sodus; Edwin J., of Denver, 
Col. ; and Helen S., of Penfield. In January, 1860, Mr. Willson was ordained to the 
ministry at Colos^e, N. Y., serving the church five years. He was then with the 
Pulaski church nine years, the Newark church six years, Manchester church eight 
years, and is now on the tenth year as pastor of the Bapti.st church of Penfield. In 
his thirty-five years as a minister he has preached over five thousand sermons, has 
received into the several churches over four hundred persons, has married two hun- 
dred and fifty couples, and has officiated at one thousand funerals. He has been a 
member of twenty-eight Ordination Councils. 

Woodham, James, was born in Sussex, England, December 8, 1828, and in 1849 
came to America, locating in the town of Greece, where he engaged in farming and 
fruit growing. In 1852 he married Martha Langham of this town, formerly of Eng- 
land, and their children were: Frank, Rachel A., Ira, Edward J., Catharine P., 
Martha M., Nina J., and Laura D.. who died aged seven. Rachel married William 
Babbage, and has four children: Rachael E., Clara L., Martha E., and J. William; 
Edward J. married Elzora House, and has five children: Jay, Lewis, Edward J., jr., 

Zilpha, and ; Ira married Sarah A. Campbell, and has four children: Mabel, 

Randolph, Edna, and ; Catherine married Lloyd Pierce, and had one son, 

Elmer. She died in her twenty-seventh year; Martha married the third time J. W. 



1 1 1 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Stewart. Slie had one daughter by her first marriage, Mina B. ; Nina J., married 
William H. Shaffer. Mrs. James Woodham died in 1880, and he married second in 
18S3 Elizabeth B. Barnes, of Parma. Mr. Woodham's father was born at the old 
home in England, in 1806, and he was a farmer by occupation. He married Edith 
Wren of his native place and they had thirteen children. They came to this 
country in 1850, locating in Greece. He died in 1890, and his wife February 10, 
18i>.'). Morgan L. Barnes, father of Mrs. Woodham, was born in 180") in this State, 
married Elizabeth Knowlton, and had six children. He died in 1885 and his wife in 
1893. The family is of British descent on both sides. 

Macy, Silvanus Jenkins, was born in New York city, July 28, 1838. Was educated 
there and at Alexandria, Va. In 1853 he became a member of the firm of Josiah 
Macy's Sons, which membership he retained until 1878 (25 5'ears), when he removed 
to Rochester. In 1868 he compiled and published the " Macy Genealogy." He has 
held many positions of honor and trust both in New York and this city, such as 
trustee in the Seaman's Bank for Savings, trustee in the Rochester City Hospital, 
receiver of Sodus Point & Southern Railroad, receiver of Rochester & State Line 
Railroad (now Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh). He is now one of the trustees and 
second vice president of the Rochester Savings Bank and one of the governors and 
president of the Rochester Homeopathic Hospital. 

Hannan, John W., was born in Perinton, Monroe county, N, Y., September 19, 
1847, .son of Cyrus P. Hannan. John W. received a common school education in his 
native town and in 1865 received the appointment of messenger and superintendent 
of documents in the State Senate, where he remained until 1875. In July of that 
year Mr. Hannan was appointed United States ganger and after eight years of 
faithful service resigned to enter into the wholesale and retail liquor business in 
Rochester. He made friends with all he came in contact with and when nominated 
for sheriff of Monroe county in 1884, was elected by a very large majority, which 
position he faithfully filled for three years. At the expiration of that time he be- 
came proprietor of the National Hotel, where he remained from 1888 to 1892. In 
1893 he was elected sheriff for a second term. March 1, 1876, Mr. Hannan married 
Mary E. Hommel, of Kingston, Ulster county, N. Y. 

Malley, James, born at Rochester, N. Y., January 10, 1849. Was educated at the 
Academy of the Christian Brothers. Mr. Malley followed the trade of shoemaking, 
first entering the factory of Pancost, Sage & Co. , and subsequently that of A. J. 
Johnson & Co. He remained with the latter about fifteen years. In 1886, he was 
appointed Commissioner of Excise by Mayor Parsons and reappointed in 1888. 
Upon the expiration of his term of office as commissioner in 1891, he was appointed 
excise clerk, which position he holds at the present time. Mr. Malley is a resident 
of the 15th Ward and has been elected for two terms as the representative of that 
ward in the Board of Supervisors of Monroe county. Mr. Malley is associated with 
John H. Ashton in the business of fire insurance with offices located in the Ellwan- 
ger & Barry building, the partnership having been formed in 1891. 

Ashton, John H., was'born at Rochester, N. Y., October 24, 1847, and received his 
education in the public .schools. He followed the business of shoemaking for about 
twenty years and then engaged in the grocery business ; later he formed a partner- 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 145 

ship with James Malley. under the firm name of "Ashton & Malley," and engaged 
in the business of fire insurance. Mr. A.shton has been the representative of the 
Ninth ward in the Board of Supervi.sors of Monroe county, having .served two terms 
as such. He has large property interests in the Tenth ward and has done a great 
deal to improve and increase the value of the property in that locality. Recognizing 
his services in that direction and the executive ability he displaj^ed while in the 
Board of Supervisors, he was elected alderman by a large majority and represents 
the ward in the Common Council at the present time. 

Tennison, David, was born one-half of a mile west of Charlotte, September 20, 
1822, and received his education in the district schools and has always been a farmer, 
is also an ingenious machinist He married Bridget Garrity of this town, by whom 
he had eight children. Mr. Tennison's father, John, was born in Yorkshire, Eng- 
land, about the year 1784. He married SarahJ^^ollison, by whom he had eight chil- 
dren: Ralph, Harriett, Ann, Rachael, David, ^ohn, Zilpha and Betsey, who died at 
Charlotte. The family came to the United States about the year 1820. He died in 
1860 and his wife some time before. Mrs. David Tennison's father, Lawrence Gar- 
rity, was born in Ireland November 1, 1792, and died September, 1872. Catherine, 
his wife, was born in Ireland about the year 1794, and died March 4, 1894; settled in 
this town in 1812, directly upon commg to America. Lawrence Garrity married 
Catherine Rheal of his native place, by whom he had eight children. 

Ferguson, Alexander, was born in Oswegatchie, St. Lawrence county, March 8, 
1854. He was educated in the common schools and in early life was a farmer. 
When twenty years old he came to Charlotte and purchased a quarter interest in a 
hardware business with his cousin, Alexander H. Ferguson, with a joint capital of 
§600, which continued until 1881 when the partnership was dissolved. He has car- 
ried on business on his own account up to the present time and the capital is now 
about $9,000 and first class in all its appointments. Mr. Fergu.son first married, in 
1878, Sarah, daughter of Alamander Wilder, of Charlotte, by whom he had one son,* 
John W., who died in infancy. Mrs. Ferguson died in 1879, and he then married, in 
1881, Emily E., daughter of John D. Allen, of Brockport, by whom he has three 
.sons: Roy L., John G., and Floris Allen Ferguson. Mr. Fergu.son's father, John A., 
was born in St. Lawrence county and was a farmer. He married Jeanett Jameson, 
by whom he had ten children: Mary, Alexander, Nettie, John, Agnes, Charles, Cora 
Margaret, Daniel, and Bertha. Both father and mother reside in Rochester. Mrs. 
Ferguson's father, John D. Allen, was born in Hamlin. He married, first, Livonia 
Stickney, of Sweden, by whom he had four children: Floris J., Lewis, Ella, and 
Emily E. Mrs. Allen died in 1859 and he then married Lettie P. Bragg, of Carleton, 
Orleans county, by whom he had five children. Mr. Ferguson is a trustee and rul- 
ing elder of the Presbj'terian church, also superintendent of the Sunday school. 

Rich, Noah F., was born in 1834, and has always lived on the farm where lie was 
born, and where his father settled when he married, and where he died in 1865. 
His father, Samuel Rich, was the son of Dr. Noah Rich, who was among the early 
settlers of Penfield. Noah F. married Maria, daughter of Densmore Graves, and 
they have (me son, Charles, who married a daughter of Linus Keith, and has one 
son, Francis L. ]\Ir. Rich was overseer of the poor for two years. His mother was 



146 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Minerva, granddaughter of Francis Esget, who was the first settler on the farm 
where Mr. Rich now lives. 

Fellows, John B., a son of William, and a grandson of Nathan Fellows, was born 
in Penfield in 1839. For many years he was actively engaged in the raising of 
nursery stock and is now engaged in agriculture. He married Bessie J., daughter 
of Edward B. and Julia (Johnson) Young, and they have two sons, Harry S. and 
John L. They are living on the old Fellows place, which his father settled in IKlfi. 

Fleckenstein. George V., was born in Rochester. N. Y., March 22, 18(58. His 
father, Valentine Fleckenstein, was also born here, a son of Valentine, sr., who came 
from Germany at a very early day. George V. attended Sts. Peter and Paul's 
parochial school and from 1880 to 1883, the Rochester Free Academy. He then en- 
tered Canisius College of Buffalo, from which he received the degree of B. A. in 
1888, standing the highest in his class and received the gold medal prize for mental 
and moral philosophy. Leaving college he read law in the office of Bacon, Briggs 
and Beckley, in Rochester, and finished his legal studies in the Columbia Law 
School, being admitted to the bar in the First Department in 1890. Immediately 
after his admission he became managing clerk for Morse & Wensley, of New York 
city, which position he held for two years. He then returned to Robhester and 
opened his present office. 

Shuart, Hon. William Dean, was born in the town of Mendon, Monroe county, 
August 11, 1827, received an academic education, and attended Genesee Wesleyan 
Seminary at Lima, N.Y. He read law with D. G. Shuart, George P. Townseud and 
Smith & Corn well, of Lyons, N. Y., and afterwards entered the Law School at 
Ballston, Spa, from which place he was graduated and was admitted to practice in 
Schenectady, N.Y., in 1850. The following year he opened a law office in Rochester, 
and in 1863 was elected city attorney by the Common Council. In June. 1864, he was 
commissioned in the army as paymaster, _with rank of major, served until the close, 
and mustered out at Louisville, Ky., in November, 1865. He returned to Rochester 
and resumed his practice, and in 1867 was nominated and elected surrogate of Mon- 
roe county, twice re-elected, and served in all sixteen years. January 1, 1884, he 
formed a partnenship with Hon. William A. Sutherland, under the firm name of 
Shuart &- Sutherland, to which Hon. Arthur E. Sutherland was subsequently ad- 
mitted but has since withdrawn. Mr. Shuart is a very successful practitioner, is 
authority on all cases involving the settlement of estates, and his decisions while 
surrogate were seldom reversed by higher courts, and is one of the most popular men 
and promising lawyers in Western New York. 

Herrick, C. Elbert, was born in Penfield in 1854, and was the son of Jerome B., 
and grandson of Rufus N. His mother was a daughter of Calvin Allen. In 1877 
Mr. Herrick married Carrie L., daughter of N. S. Perkins and they live on the Calvin 
Allen homestead. They have three sons, Clinton S. , Lloyd W. , and Carl B. ; also 
one daughter, Bessie M. One son, Ora E., died at the age of thirteen. 

(iast(ni, Joseph H., was born in Penfield in 1847, son of Joseph who came from 
New Jersey to Wayne county in 1825 and later to Penfield, where he died I\Iarch 22, 
1H79, aged seventy-four years, leaving two sons, Joseph and Daniel. In 1870 Joseph 
II. married Xira H., daughter of Nirani H. Peet, and lived on the old homestead 



{'AMILY SKETCFiES. 147 

until 187fi, when he bought the farm where he now lives. Mr. fiaston is one of the 
leading farmers in Pen field and since 1884 has been assessor. Mr. and Mrs. Gaston 
have two sons, Arthur H. and Harrj? L., also four daughters. 

Eldridge, Irving B., son of Erastus and Anna (Watson) Eldridge, was born in Pen- 
field m 18:^9 and he is the grandson of William Eldridge, who fought in the Revolu- 
tionary war. Erastus Eldridge fought in the war of 1812, and in 1815 camfe to 
Penfield from Washington county. He married Anna, daughter of Samuel Watson, 
who came from New England and settled here in 1816. Irving B. was one of eight 
sons, three of whom now reside in Wayne county. He followed farming till 1886, 
when he moved into the village, and for two years conducted a store. He served as 
justice of the peace eight years, and in 1884 was elected supervisor. He married 
Marian E., daughter of James Lovett, who came here from Rhode Island in 1825. 

Fuller, C. Lacy, is the only son of Giles T. and Kate L. (Lacy) Fuller. His mother 
was a daughter of Charles Lacy, of Dutchess county, and his father, Giles, was the 
son of Harvey Fuller, and grandson of Joseph, the latter one of the early settlers of 
Penfield. Lacy Fuller, with his father, moved to Penfield in 1888, where his father 
died in 1889. He was engaged in life insuiance for some time, but is now engaged 
in produce shipping, having bought a large warehouse in connection with Bown 
Bros, under the firm name of Bown Bros. & Fuller. 

Cutler, James G., appointed by Governor Morton as charter commissioner for 
Rochester, was born in Albany in 1848, and has been a resident of Rochester since 
1872. He is an architect by profession, a fellow of the American Institute of Archi- 
tects and an ex-president of the Western New York Chapter of the same ; a member 
of the Architectural League of New York; for the past seven years a trustee of the 
the Rochester Chamber of Commerce, and now its first vice-president; vice-president 
of the Alliance Bank; president of the board of trustees of St. Peter's Presbyterian 
church; a director of the James Goold Company, of Albany: a trustee of the Post» 
Express Printing Company; and has considerable real estate and manufacturing in- 
terests, in which he is associated with his brother, J. Warren Cutler. He is a Repub- 
lican and active in public matters. He served four years as secretary of the joint 
water supply committee of the Common Council and Chamber of Commerce and is 
now serving on a similar committee on public markets. He was chairman of the 
Monroe county delegation at the Republican State Convention of 1894. 

Sloan, Samuel, son af Timothy Sloan, was born in the North of Ireland, near 
Belfast, in 1828, where he receiv-ed his education. In 1848 he emigrated to the United 
States and upon arriving in New York secured a position with the first wholesale dry 
goods house on Broadway, and engaged in the Australian shipping business. He 
remained in New York until it became necessary for him, in the interests of his firm, 
to go to Melbourne, Australia, where he remained for six years. In 1860 he returned 
to America and came to Rochester and embarked in the steam and gas fitting busi- 
ness, as a partner of R. E. Sherlock, and continued under the firm name of Sherlock 
& Sloan until 1880, when, upon the death oi Mr. Sherlock, Mr. Sloan became sole 
proprietor, and is now conducting an extensive wholesale business in plumbers', 
steamfitters' and engineers' supplies. Mr. Sloan is one of the original trustees of the 
Reynolds Library, and is president of the Mechanics' Savings Bank. 



148 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Watkins, George B. — The successful establishment and management of such a 
business as that of W. H. Glenny & Co. in this city is a task requiring so much com- 
mercial ability that the guiding mind in control must be possessed of rare qualifica- 
tions; and a sketch of George Benton Watkins's career supports that view. Born in 
Utica, N.Y., August 12, 1852, of sturdy English descent, the youngest of ten chil- 
dren, his mother having died in his early infancy, he lived with an uncle on a farm 
until twelve years old. It was now that the elements of his future success began to 
manifest themselves. The farm could not hold him, aad with the two-fold pur- 
pose of taking advantage of the more advantageous educational facilities and 
opportunities aflorded in the city for making his own way in the world, he re- 
turned to his father's home. He attended the Utica High School, graduating there- 
from at si.xteen. While at school, in the early mornings he delivered papers, and in 
the afternoons worked in the newspaper office. Having secured a position in the 
leading crockery store of the place, with characteristic energy he applied himself to 
master the details of the business. His advancement in five years to the leading 
position in the store is an index of his success. His ambition still unsatisfied he 
looked for a position offering larger opportunities. This was secured with the firm 
of W. H. Glenny, Sons & Co., of Buffalo, N.Y., one of the largest importing houses 
in the countiy, their receiving, packing and shipping departments with its force of 
twenty men and ten boys being placed under his supervision. Strict attention to 
business and untiring energy brought further preferment, and soon he was in charge 
of their wholesale department. In 1876 the financial embarrassment of a Rochester 
house, largely indebted to Glenny, Sons & Co., necessitated the sending of a repre- 
sentative here to look after their interests. Mr. Watkins was chosen, and so well 
did he fulfill his trust, the local firm was enabled to pay all their indebtedness and 
continue their business. While attending to the company's interests here, Mr. Wat- 
kins was impressed with the desirability of Rochester as a point for the establishment 
of a permanent business. He .suggested the idea to Mr. Glenny, who, after mature 
deliberation, decided to open a store and did so under the .style of W. H. Glenny & 
Co., with Mr Watkins as manager. From its earliest inception the business here 
has been under the entire control of Mr. W' atkins. Established on the broad basis of 
equity and integrity its growth has been one continuous succe.ss. In 188(5 the elegant 
commercial building which the firm at present occupies at 190, 192 and 194 East Main 
street, was erected, and its seven floors are required for their constantly increasing 
trade. In 1891 Mr. Watkins was admitted to partnership, a well merited reward for 
his faithfulness and success. Of a retiring disposition, he is seldom identified with 
l)ublic interests, though often sought after. He is a charter member of the Chamber 
of Commerce, was five years director of the Y. M. C. A., and for ten years has been 
trustee and treasurer of the First Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Watkins was 
married at the age of twenty-one to Carrie, daughter of Sanford Peckham, Madison, 
Oneida county, N. Y. He is a Republican, and resides at 626 East Main street. 

Kinney, Hon. John F., was born in Ogden, Monroe county, N.Y., June 20, 1860. 
He received his elementary education in the Union School at Spencerport, after 
which he took a collegiate course at St. Joseph's College, Buffalo. After graduating 
he began the study of law in the office of William H. Bowman. He afterwards 
graduated from the Albany Law School and was admitted to the bar in 1881. In 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 149 

January, 1890, a vacancy was created in the office of s])ecial county judge by the 
resignation of Judge Werner, and Governor Hill appointed Mr. Kinney to that posi- 
tion. Judge Kinney occupied the county bench so acceptably that in the ensuing 
election, when he was nominated by the Democratic party for special county judge, 
he was elected by a majority of 798 and was the only one on the ticket to escape de- 
feat. As a lawj^er he has conducted many important litigations and is regarded as 
one of the most able members of the Rochester bar, while as a judge he has dis- 
tinguished himself by his able, comprehensive and impartial decisions. In 1883 
Judge Kinney married Elizabeth 'J. Hanlon, of Albany, by whom he has two sons 
and two daughters. He resides at No. 64 Lorimer street. 

Garlock, James S., was born in Parma, N. Y., January 4, 1836. He attended the 
public schools and later became a student at the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary at 
Lima, N. Y., then entered the Genesee College, and later attended the Satterlee & 
Dexter Collegiate Institute in Rochester. LTpon choosing law as his profession he 
entered the ofhce of Joseph A. Stull, and was admitted the the bar in 1860, at which 
time he began to practice in Rochester. In 1863 Mr. Garlock raised a company of 
cavalr}^ for the 24th Regiment New York State Vols. , and was mustered in as first 
lieutenant and commissary of the regiment. In 1864 he resigned bis office and re- 
sumed the practice of his profession. He is regarded as one of the leading attorneys 
of the county. 

Spahn, Jacob, was born in the city of Wartzburg, kingdom of Bavaria, Germany, 
February 24, 1849, of military stock and the second son of Andrew Spahn, soldier 
and revolutionist, who was compelled to flee from his native land the same year and 
who was himself the son of a veteran under Napoleon who survived the retreat from 
Moscow. He received his primary education in the public schools of New York city. 
The elder Spahn was for many years a manufactui'er of mouldings, in business with 
the late overseer of the poor, Joseph Schutte, on State and Water streets, prior to 
1875. He settled in Rochester in 1862, where Jacob Spahn entered college and 
graduated from its university in 1870, having made his mark to some extent in litera- 
ture, for in his junior year a sketch, "The Prince Suwarow," which he had written, 
appeared in the Galaxy Magazine. Like his brother, Louis Spahn, of the Chicago 
bar, he secured the first Davis Medal of his year for oratory in his class on com- 
mencement day. During his college course he joined the Theta Delta Chi Fratern- 
ity and was its orator twice in 1873 and 1883. He was appointed major and engineer 
of the 25th Brigade National Guard April 21, 1877, by Governor Lucius Robinson. 
Upon leaving college he became a journalist, working successfully upon the staffs of 
the Union and Advertiser and the old Chronicle, whose city editor he became and 
remained until that paper's consolidation with the Democrat in 1872. He was ad- 
mitted to the bar in Buffalo, N. Y , June 21, 1871, after reading law with Hon. 
Francis A. Macomber, afterward a justice of the Supreme Court. In 1878 he became 
one of the organizers and secretary of the big Genesee Brewing Company at Roch- 
e.ster. At about the same time he began to take an interest in local pcjlitics and was 
nominated unanimously for member of Assembly by the city convention, but de- 
clined the honor. The same year he was appointed to write and deliver the poem 
before the associate Alumni of the University of Rochester. From 1878 to 1881 he 
officiated as military editor of the Sunday edition of the Democrat and Chronicle. 



150 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

As such he allowed many criticisms upon the local military to appear and was in con- 
sequence court-martialed and cashiered from military rank after a long trial, cover- 
ing thirty sessions of the court, prosecuted against him by Hon. George Raines, then 
the judge advocate; but he secured a review of the case by writ of certiorari from 
the Supreme Court, which reversed the sentence and reinstated him. From this de- 
cision an unsuccessful appeal was taken by the adjutant-general. Major Spahn had 
for a short period theretofore officiated as temporary judge advocate of the local mili- 
tary and is still an officer in the National Guard S. N. Y., having been honorably re- 
tu-ed from active service by order of Adjutant-General Josiah Porter in 1886. His 
court-martial case now constitutes a precedent in military law. He has a commis- 
sion as colonel. Since his retirement from journalism he has written many .sketches 
and done general literary work for the magazines, among others the Galaxy, Harp- 
er s, Green Bag, Albany Law Journal, &c., besides the local papers. His law prac- 
tice is general and mainly confined to Germans, among whom it is very e.xtensive 
and must have been successful because he is a large tax-payer. As the oldest jirac- 
titioner of German extraction in Monroe county he is the dean of that nationality 
among the lawyers. One of his principal cases was to defeat the Rochester and 
Glen Haven Railroad Company from condemning the premises of Ferdinand Grisbel 
under the right of eminent domain m a proceeding begun in the Supreme Court, 
which is always a rare victory under the railroad law. The case is reported in 14 
N. Y. Supplement 848. He also established the pioneer precedent in the State with 
reference to the police powers of cities as to shade trees on streets and their removal 
under city ordinance, in the case of Ellison vs. Allen reported in the 67 State Re- 
porter 274. For many years he has been a discriminating book buyer, and now pos- 
sesses not cmlv a law library containing with one exception every decision published 
in the State; but one of the largest collections of standard miscellaneous literature 
in the city. As a tax-payer his frequent denunciation of alleged municipal extrava- 
gance and mismanagement have furnished him quite a political following. Nomina- 
tions to office are from time to time tendered him by his friends and neighbors, but 
up to date he has shown no inclination for public life. At present he figures as 
chairman of a permanent good government club irrespective of party, formed from, 
among the leading citizens in the 6th, 8th and 16th wards, and as such he was author- 
ized to call a meeting any time for action at the election polls in these wards. 

Warner, George E., was born in Fair Haven, Cayuga county, N. Y., November 7, 
1855, came to Rochester when an infant, and was educated in the public schools of 
this city. He afterwards entered the office of H. H. Woodard as a student at law, 
and was admitted to the bar at the General Term in Syracuse, in January, 1877, and 
opened an office in Rochester for the practice of general law. In 1881 he was elected 
judge of the Municipal Court, and re-elected in 1887 and again in 1898. IMr. Warner 
is one of the best known attorneys in the county, 

Williams, Charles M., was born in Rochester, N. Y., April 30, 1851, eldest son of 
Charles H., and grandson of Rev. Comfort Williams, the first settled pastor of Roch- 
ester, N. Y. Mr. Williams received his early education at the Free Academy of this 
city and was graduated from the University of Rochester in 1871, at which time he 
entered the office of E. A. Raymond, as a student at law; he was afterward in the 
law office of Hon. John Van Voorhes, and was admitted to the bar in 1875, at which 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 151 

time he entered m co-partnership with J. R. Fanning, for the practice of general law. 
In 1879 he was elected school commissioner of the sixth ward, being nominated by 
both parties. In 1888 Mr. Williams was elected a member of the Board of Trustees 
of the University of Rochester, and has been its secretary and treasurer since 1891. 

Cummings, Scott, was born in 18.52 in Cattaraugus county, this State. His educa- 
tion was derived from the common schools, and a few terms at an academy, in con- 
nection with special courses of study. His father, John T. Cummings, was a man of 
excellent mind, character, and intelligence. The .son inherited the disposition for 
general reading, and early acquired this wholesome habit, so that his education came 
largely from self-help. Mr. Cummings pursfled a four years' course of legal study, 
and was admitted to the bar of this State at Buffalo, General Term, in June, 1881. 
For five years thereafter he practiced law in Erie county. In the spring of 1886 he 
removed to the city of Rochester, since which time he has been the attorney and 
counsel for the mercantile agency of Messrs. R. G. Dun & Co., and which position 
he still holds. 

Barnes, Charles R., was born in Rochester, N. Y., in 1853, and at an early age 
was appointed telegraph operator at Spencerport, N. Y., where he studied electricity 
as much as opportunity permitted. He was appointed superintendent of fire alarm 
system of Rochester and afterwards city electrician, in which capacity he still serves. 
Mr. Barnes has just completed the construction of an electric yacht, which is quite a 
little marvel. 

Lodge, Clarence V., was born in Henrietta, Monroe connty, K. Y., June 24, 1853. 
He was educated at Henrietta, at Auburn, N. Y., and in 1873 was graduated from 
the Gene-see Wesleyan Seminar\-, after which he conducted a farm in Henrietta un- 
til 1886, when he was appointed keeper of the Monroe county Alms House. In the 
fall of 1894 he was elected county superintendent of the poor for thi-ee years. His 
father, James L. Lodge, came to Henrietta from Cayuga county in 1852 and still re- 
sides there. He married Mary D. Savery and has had two sons, Clarence V. and 
Lionel S. , the latter a dentist in Buffalo. Clarence V. Lodge was married November 
15, 187d, to Mij.s Nellie S. , daughter of William Remington, of Henrietta. 

Walter, John A. P., was born in 1840, in the Electorate of Hesse, near Frankfort 
on the Main, and came to this country with his parents in 1855 and located in Roch- 
ester, where he attended the jDublic schools, and later the Lutheran Parochial schools. 
In 1862 Mr. Walter enlisted in Company H, 105th N. Y. Vols., and served several 
months, when he was transferred to the 94th New York Volunteers, and served in 
that company until the surrender at Appomattox. He was in the battles of Cedar 
Mountain, Gettysburg and Petersburg, and was honorably discharged in 1865, at 
Albany, N. Y., as commissary sergeant of his regiment. In 1866 he returned to 
Rochester and joined the National Guard, from which he resigned as captain. At 
that time he began working at his trade as tinsmith, and in 1872 started for himself 
in the general hardware business at No. 198 Hudson street, and is still in that busi- 
ness under the firm name of Walter & Son. Mr. Walter was a member of the Board 
of Supervisors from 1879 until 1881. In 1891 he was appointed City Fire Marshal, 
which office he has held for the last four years. He is a member and past commander 
of Peisner Post No. 106, G. A. R., member of Monroe Commandery No. 12, K. T., the 
Odd Fellow fraternity, the order of Redmen. the Knights of the Maccabees, etc. 



l.Vi LANDMARKS OF MONROK COUNTY. 

Kuichling, Emil, was born in Germany in 1848. son of the late Dr. Louis Kuichling. 
He received his early education in Rochester, and in 186H was graduated from Roch- 
ester University, and the following year he took the post-graduate course and received 
the degree of Civil Engineer. In 1872 he entered the Polytechnic school at Karls- 
ruhe, Germany, where he spent three j^ears in the further study of his profession, 
and in the spring of 1873 he was appointed assistant engineer on the water works of 
this city then in process of construction, which position he held for ten years. The 
fall, winter and spring of 1888-84 were spent in Europe in the study of the sanitary 
conditions of the sewerage systems and water supplies of large cities. In the spring 
of 1885 Mr. KuichUngwas elected a mejnber of the executive board of th'scity on the 
Democratic ticket, and after servmg two and a half years he made the survey and 
preliminary plans for the east side trunk sewer, which work occupied his time for 
nearly two years. He spent the summer of 1889 in Europe, studying municipal 
engineering, especially the various methods of sewerage disposal. Upon his return 
he was engaged by the East Jersey Water Company as assistant engineer in the pre- 
paration of plans for the large street conduit for the water supply of Newark, N. J., 
and he remained on this work until the fall of 1890, at which time he was appointed 
as chief engineer of the Rochester water works, and to prepare plans for the new 
conduit which is now completed. Mr. Kuichling has been called as an expert wit- 
ness in many judicial proceedings. He is a member of all branches of the Masonic 
order. 

O'Brien, John Charles, was born in Rochester, N. Y., May 8, 1838. In June, 1856, 
he was graduated from Hobart College with the degree of B. A., and in 1881 received 
the degree of Master of Arts. He read law with Judge Charles J. Folger, of Geneva, 
N. Y., and in 1863 was graduated from the Albany Law School, where he received 
the degree of LL.B., and also passed the General Term examination, and subse- 
quently was admitted to the United States District and Circuit Courts. He was act- 
ing assistant district attorney under William H. Bowman and C. C. Davison. He was 
the first supervisor of the fifteenth ward, and for the second term was nominated on 
both the Democratic and Republican tickets, but declined to accept the office. Jan- 
uary 31, 1867, he married Agnes E. O'Leary, of Ontario, by whom he had six chil- 
dren. Two of his sons have been graduated from the University of Toronto, and one 
from Cornell University. The oldest son is to be associated with his father in the 
practice of law in this city. Mr. O Brien's practice has been chiefly in the drawing 
of wills, the settlement of estates, and as referee. 

Crittenden, William Butler, was born in Deerfield, Mass., August 5, 1851, at the 
Memorial Hall, which was then Deerfield Academy, of which his father. Cotton M. 
Crittendon (formerly librarian of the Court of Appeals Library at Rochester), was 
principal. He received his education from his father, who moved to Rochester in 
1853. He studied law in the Boston University Law School, was upon the reporto- 
rial staflf of the Boston Journal from 1872 to 1874, and was admitted to the bar in 
187(), at Rochester, N. Y., where he has since practiced his profession. 

Sprague, George W., son of Foster and Elvira Sprague, was born in Coburg, Ont., 
May 14, 1838, and the following year removed with his parents to Rochester. He 
attended the public schools for some years, after which he entered into partnership 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 153 

with his father, and carried on a general hardware store in this city under the firm 
name of F. Sprague & Son. In 1875 he sold his interest in the hardware business 
and entered into the fire insurance bu.siness, in which he still continues, representing 
a number of first-class English and American companies. He is a member of the 
Rochester Board of Underwriters. 

Hulett, Pierson B., was born in Brighton, Monroe county, N. Y., November 17, 
1837. He became a student of law and was admitted to the bar December 18, 1858, 
at the General Term in Rochester, where he has been a most successful practitioner. 
In 1875 Mr. Hulett was elected special county judge and served in that capacity for 
three years, and was re-elected in 1879. In the fall of 1884 he formed a partnership 
with Vincent M. Smith, as Smith & Hulett, which terminated with Mr. Smith's death 
in May, 1886. About two years ago the present firm of Hulett & Gibbs was formed. 
Mr. Gibbs was a student of Mr. Hulett' s. 

Hone, Frank J., was born in Rochester, August 9, 1857, and is a son of Alexander 
B. Hone. His early education was received in private schools of this city, and in 
1879 he was graduated from Seton Hall College, of South Orange, New Jersey, at 
which time he began the study of law in the office of Rowley & Johnson, of Roch- 
ester, and was admitted to the bar at the general term in October, 1881. In 1884 he 
formed a co-partnership for the practice of law with Charles B. Ernst, which has 
since continued, and upon Mr. Ernst being appointed city attorney Mr. Hone was 
associated with him as assistant city attorney, and while holding that position he 
was the acting counsel for the Board of Park Commissioners of Rochester, and of 
the Board of Health of this city. Upon retiring from the office of assistant city 
attorney he was appointed attorney for the Board of Health, which position he still 
retains. 

Lewis, Hon. Merton E., was born in Webster, Monroe county, December 10, 1861. 
He attended the Webster Union School and was graduated in 1882. He read law 
with James B. Perkins, of Rochester, and was admitted to the bar in this city in 
June, 1887. In 1890 he was elected alderman of the Sixteenth ward, to fill the 
vacancy caused by the resignation of H. G. Thayer; he was re-elected in 1891 as 
alderman of the Eighteenth ward, and in 1895 became mayor on the resignation of 
George W. Aldridge. In 1886 he married Adeline L. Moody, of Webster, N.Y., who 
died June 9, 1894, leaving two sons, Donald and Roscoe. He was elected president 
of the Common Council in 1894, and is also president of the Riverside Cemetery 
Association. His father, who was born in New Jersey in 1826, now resides with his 
son in this city, was one of the early settlers of Wayne county. Merton E. Lewis 
was elected delegate to the National Convention in 1894, and is the senior member 
of the law firm of Lewis & Jack. 

Yeoman, George F., ex-justice of the Supreme Court for the Seventh Judicial Dis- 
trict of this State, was born in Delaware county, N.Y., in 1846. He studied at the 
University of Rochester, and began the practice of law in this city in 1875. The 
death of Judge Francis A. Macomber caused a vacancy on the bench and on November 
10, 1893, Governor Flower appointed Mr. Yeoman to fill the same. He took the oath 
of office November 15, 1893, and retired December 31, 1894. 



15i LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Block, Alviu, was born in Rochester, N.Y., April ;>0, 1SG2, where he attended the 
public schools and later became a student at the Rochester Free Academy, from 
which he was graduated in 1880. He then entered the office of Fanning & Williams 
for the purpose of studying law, and later the office of Charles M. Allen, from wliich 
he was admitted .to the bar in 1885. In 1885-86 Mr. Block represented the Twelfth 
ward as a member of the Board of Supervisors. He is a very sharp and shrewd 
attorney ; which has won for him a large practice. 

Rochester, John H., vice-president of the Board of Park Ccmimissioners, is the last 
male representative of the famous family by which Rochester was founded and 
after whom it is named. He was born here April 20, 1828. He was educated in the 
schof)ls of this city and at the age of eighteen entered upon his life work in the 
Rochester City Bank, of which his father, Thomas H. Rochester, was president. He 
subsequently carried on a private banking business for five years with his brother 
under the name of John H. Rochester & Bro. Then he became cashier in the Flower 
City Bank for three years. When the Mechanics' Savings Bank was chartered and 
entered upon its career, John H. Rochester became its secretary and treasurer, a 
position he has filled ever since for a period of over twenty-seven years, being the 
oldest banker in active service in this city. He has been connected with social, 
religious and public institutions throughout his career. He is a member of the liene- 
see Valley and Whist Clubs and was for three years president of the Rochester 
Club. He is the oldest member of St. Luke's church in point of years of member- 
ship. He has been treasurer of the Church Home for twenty-five years; treasurer 
of the Red Cross Society and yellow fever fund; is president of the Rochester 
Historical Society, and, as stated above, vice president of the Board of Park Com- 
missioners. He has traveled extensively and is a well informed and public spirited 
citizen. He has always taken a deep interest in public affairs of his native city, 
but has never sought or held public office. He married, in 1853, Elizabeth L. Moore, 
of Vicksburg. He has two sons: Thomas M., a practicing physician in Brooklyn, 
and Paul A., in the railroad service in New York. Mr. Rochester is one of the fore- 
most citizens in Rochester and one of the hardest working of the commissioners. He 
has always taken an interest in the parks and is a man of practical ideas. His 
selection to the board was a wise one and he was honored at the first meeting by an 
election as vice-president. John H. Rochester is the kind of man who honors a city 
by public spirit and enterprise. 

Cook. John C, was born in Rochester, October 8, 1857, and was educated in public 
and private schools. His father, Levi, was a skilled mechanic, and naturally the son 
developed considerable ability in that direction in his early years, but subsequently 
developed a preference for mercantile pursuits, and on the 14th of February, 187(i, 
he was tendered a position in the Rochester office of R. G. Dun & Co. His faithful- 
ness to the interests of the bu.siness won him the confidence of his employers and 
after a few years he was assigned the duties of chief clerk ; he was subsequently ap- 
pointed assistant manager, which position he held for a number of years, until 
January 1, 1893, when he was appointed manager, which recognition by the company 
was highly complimentary to Mr. Cook, as he is the youngest manager whom they 
have entrusted with their large and growing business in Rochester. He is favorably 
known by all businessmen in this community, thoroughly posted in his bu.siness, and 



Family sitETCHfis. i55 

his untiring efforts to serve the patrons of R. G. Dun & Co. have gained for him an 
enviable reputation. He was married to Jennie M. Plass in 1880, by the venerable 
Dr. James B. Shaw, which union has been blessed with three children, two of whom 
are uow living, Mildred E. and Howard M. Mr. and Mrs. Cook are members of the 
Brick Presbyterian church, with which they have been connected a number of years. 

Hebing, Henry, was born at Bochold, Germany, November 24, 1834. He at- 
tended the schools of Rochester, where he received his academic education. In 1855 
he engaged in the hardware business as clerk for Galen & Moore. The firm of 
Moore, Hebing & Co. followed them in 1859 and conducted a successful business 
until 1864, when Hebing & Miller succeeded. In 1866 Mr. Miller retired and since 
that time Mr. Hebing has conducted the bu.siness alone. He has always interested 
himself in public affairs, and has filled various jDositions in the gift of his fellow citi- 
zens. He represented the Twelfth ward in the Common Council for two terms from 
1861 to 1865, and the Sixth ward in 1879 and 1880. In 1888 he represented the dis- 
trict in the Electoral College, and in August, 1889, was appointed collector of cus- 
toms for the port of Genesee. For several years he has been a director of the Ger- 
man American Bank, and a member of the Chamber of Commerce, and has been a 
member of the Mannerchor for more than a quarter of a century and president of 
the organization for half that time. It may be safely affirmed that no one has con- 
tributed more than he to the ediication of this community in the most delightful of 
all arts, while in addition to this, his gifts and skill as an amateur painter have 
found expression in the production of some work of rare merit. 

Sibley, Rufus Adams, was born at Spencer, Mass., December 3, 1841, being a lin- 
eal "descendant of John Sibley, who came from St. Albans, England, and settled at 
Salem, Mass., in 1629, about ten years later than the settlement of Plymouth. He is 
also a lineal descendant of that Henry Adams, who arrived from Devonshire, Eng- 
land, and settled at Quincy, Mass., in 1632, to whom Pres. John Adams erected a 
monument in the old burying ground at Quincy, Mass., which bears this inscription ' 
— " In memory of Henry Adams, w^ho took his flight from the dragon persecution in 
Devonshire and alighted with eight sons near Mt. Wollaston." Also a lineal de- 
scendant of John Livermore, who arrived in New England, in 1634, and settled in 
Watertown, Mass., in 1642. At the age of fifteen Mr. Sibley taught the winter term 
in a district school, and a second term the year following. At seventeen he entered 
a general store as clerk and bookkeeper, where he remained five j'ears, leaving this 
situation for the purpose of completing his studies in civil engineering at the Law- 
rence Scientific School of Harvard College. He decided, however, to accept a posi- 
tion in the office of Hogg, Brown & Taylor, at Boston, remaining there three years, 
when he resigned in order to commence the dry goods busines in Rochester, N. Y., 
under the firm name of Sibley, Lindsay & Curr, in March, 1868. Mr. Sibley was 
married October 11, 1870, to Martha, daughter of Rev. John Haven, of Charlton, 
Mass., who died in 1883, leaving a son, Edward R. Sibley. He married Elizabeth 
Sibley Conkey, in 1885, by whom he has two children. Since the foundation of the 
business house referred to, Mr. Sibley has been closely identified with the growth 
and prosperity of the city of his adoption, and has large interests in other portions of 
the United States The twelve story, fire-proof structure, known as the Granite 
building, in Rochester, erected by the firm of Sibley, Lindsay & Curr, in 1893, is an 



156 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

important contributiou to the growth of the city. Mr. Sibley is a trustee of the 
Rochester Savings Banks, of the Rochester Trust and Safe Deposit Company, of the 
Security Trust Company, the Industrial School, the City Hospital, and the Univer- 
sity of Rochester, and a director in several corporations, and is, at the present time, 
actively engaged in the dry goods business with his partners in Rochester, New 
York city, Erie, Pa., and in Minneapolis, Minn., with offices in England, France, 
Germany, and Switzerland. 

Paine, Cyrus F., was born January 16, 1827, at Broadalbin, Montgomery county, 
N. Y. At the age of nine years he removed with his parents to Albion, Orleans 
county, N. Y., where he received his early education, graduating from the Albion 
Acadtemy. He came to Rochester in 1846 and entered the book store of Sage tV 
Brother, where he remained until 1852, when he formed a partnership with Alfred S. 
Lane. Together they purchased the stock of drugs of L. B. Swan, and Mr. Paine 
remamed an active member of the firm until 1888, when he retired from active busi- 
ness, leaving the management of the store to the firm, which is well known through- 
out Western New York as the Paine Drug Company. In 185:3 Mr. Paine was elected 
treasurer and in 1873 trustee of the New York Baptist Union for Ministerial Educa- 
tion, which position he has since held. He has also been trustee of the Monroe 
County Savings Bank for the past twenty-five years, is a trustee of the Reynolds Li- 
brary, and was a member of the Common Council in 1866-68. The family in America 
is descended from Thomas Paine, who came to Massachusetts from England in 1621. 
It is one of the oldest families in genealogical descent in the United States and 
traces its lineage in an unbroken line to the earliest accessions to the Plymouth Col- 
ony. Cyrus T. Paine's father. Dr. L. C. Paine, was born in Shaftsbury, Vt., No- 
vember 9, 1787, and died in Albion, N. Y., January 3, 1873, where he was in active 
practice up to within a few years of his death. Dr. Paine was appointed surgeon of 
the 121st Regiment of Infantry of the State of New York, April 29, 1814, by Gov. 
Daniel D. Tompkins. 

Foote, Nathaniel, son of Nathaniel Foote, was born in Morrisville, N. Y., Novem- 
ber 15, 1849. He received his early education in his native town, after which he 
entered the Cazenovia Seminary, where he remained for two years, when he entered 
the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary at Lima, N. Y., and was graduated in 1866; in 1870 
he was graduated from Hamilton College as Bachelor of Arts, and afterward re- 
ceived the degree of Master of Ai'ts; he then became instructor of classics at the 
Monticello Academy, where he remained one year, after which he began the prac- 
tice of law in his native town and formed a partnership with John E. Smith, which 
continued until July, 1873, when he came to Rochester and opened an office. Mr. 
Foote is recognized as one of the leading attorneys of Western New York. January 
10, 1872, he married Charlotte, daughter of the late James C. Campbell, of this city. 
Mr. Foote was for three years a member of the law firm of Stull, Foote & Taylor, 
and later of Stull & Foote, and is now senior member of the firm of Foote & Haven, 
with offices in the Granite building of Rochester. Mr. Foote was one of the dele- 
gates from this senatorial district to the Constitutional Convention, which made and 
submitted to the people the Revised Constitution of the State which was adopted in 
1894. On the organization of the Rochester Bar Association in 1893, Mr. P"'oote 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 157 

was chosen as its president and was re-elected to the same office the following 
year. 

Butts, Simon, was born in Monroe county. Pa., in 1822, and came to the town of 
Greece with his parents in 1832, was educated in the public schools, and followed the 
occupation of farming. He was married twice, first, in 1850 to Elizabeth M. Low- 
den, and they had two children: Emmett, who died in his fourth year, and Flora, 
now Mrs. John Desmond of Rochester, and they have one daughter, Laura M. 
Mrs. Butts died March 12, 1855. For his second wife, March 21, 1860, he married 
Sarah E. Way of this town, and they have had six children: Nellie D., Martie M., 
George W., Anna L., Sadie H., and Chesa M. Anna L. died in infancy. George 
W., who was a promising young man, died in his twenty-second year. Mr. Butts's 
father, Christian, was born at the old home in Pennsylvania in 1790, was a cooper 
by trade, and came to Rochester in 1824 and went to work for Benjamin Wilcox at 
the Rapids and moved to Greece as above stated. He married Mrs. Elizabeth Ar- 
nold of his native State and they had six children: Daniel, Simon, as above, Sarah 
A., Betsey, Mary and Susan. Mr. Butts died in 1888, aged ninety-eight years, and 
his wife in 1876. Mrs. Butts's father, William B. Way, was born in Cape May, 
N. J., March 9, 1803, and was a farmer by occupation, and came to Western New 
York in 1838. He married Deborah A. Ellis of Burlington, N. J., and they had 
five children that grew to maturity: Micajah E. , Anna M., as above, William B. , 
who was a soldier in the war in the 9th Michigan Cavalry Vol., was honorably dis- 
charged at the close of the war, and died soon after reaching home, Sarah E., as 
above, and Bertha M., who died .some years ago. These old families have been 
identified with the best interests of the town and county since they came here. 

Morgan, Mrs. D. S. — Dayton S. Morgan was born in Ogden, November 17, 1819, 
son of Samuel Morgan, who traces his ancestry to James Morgan, of Wales, who 
came to the United States landing at Boston in April, 1636, and settled in Roxbury 
Mass. Samuel left Connecticut in early life with his father's family and came« 
to the Mohawk Valley settling in Herkimer county but afterwards came to Monroe 
county where they were all engaged in farming. Samuel married Sarah Dayton ; he 
was always prominent in all good measures, both religious and moral, and took an 
active part in the earlj' development of the town. Dayton S. was educated in the 
Brockport Collegiate Institute, and at Herkimer, and as a young man took an in- 
terest in the leading social, religious and charitable institutions near him. In 1844 
he entered into partnership with William H. Seymour, in the manufacture of mowers 
and reapers, which business developed into a gigantic enterprise, known not only 
throughout the United States but in all foreign countries. In 1864 he married Susan 
M. Joslyn, daughter of Isaac Joslyn, of Oneida, and they are the parents of seven 
children: George D., William P., Henr}% Gifford, Mrs. Sarah Manning, of New York 
city, Susan, and Gladys E. Dayton S. took a deep interest in the development of 
Brockport, its schools and religious institutions, and was vestryman of St. Luke's 
church for twenty years. Mr. Morgan died in 1890, aged seventy-one years, a loss 
not only to his immediate family but to all who knew him. 

Clark, Charles H., was born in Yates, Orleans county. December 14, 1842. His 
father, Lambert Clark, settled in that town about 1830, was one of the founders and 



158 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

supporters f)f the old Yates Academj', and died there in 1889. After receiving his 
education in the district schools and pursuing a course of study at the local academy 
Charles H. Clark came to Rochester, where he began active life in a machine shop 
on a very small salary. Since then he has followed, in one capacity or another, the 
machinist's trade, rising through all its branches to proprietor and employer. For 
seventeen years conrjected with the firm of Sargent &• Greenleaf, lock manufacturers, 
working in their establishment as contractor and foreman. In 1804 he started in 
business for himself manufacturing machinery, special tools, punches, die.s, formers, 
and metal specialties. He originated a kerosine oil heating sy.stem for machinery 
and also many other devices of practical and general utility. Since 1890, when his 
brother. Morns F Clark, was admitted to partnership, the business has been con- 
ducted under the style of the Clark Novelty Company. July, 1895, the firm moved 
to its present quarters at Nos. 380 and 382 Exchange street. Starting in a small 
way with limited facilities, the concern has grown into one of the important manu- 
facturing indu.stries in Rochester, and commands a trade extending over a wide ter- 
ritory. In 18G8 Mr. Clark married Sarah A., daughter of Humphrey Jones, a retired 
woolen manufacturer of Rochester. They have had two sons: C. Herbert, born 
November 24, 1874, a graduate of the Rochester Free Academy, class of '93, and 
Laurens M., born June 12, 1888. 

Warner, J. P'oster. — The Warner family in America of which J. Foster Warner, of 
Rochester, is a representative, descends from Amos Warner, sr. , a resident of Con- 
necticut, who served three years in the Continental army during the Revolution. 
He was the father of Amos, jr. , whose son, Andrew J. came to Rochester in 1847. 
The latter was a draftsman in the office of his uncle, Merwin Austin, architect, and 
made the drawings of the old court house, which was torn down to give place to the 
new structure in 1894. J. Foster Warner, son of Andrew J., was born in this city 
May 5, 1859, and received his education in the schools of his birthplace. Deciding 
upon architecture as a life profession he entered the office of his father, tf) whose 
artistic conception many of the earlier buildings of Rochester and vicinity are in- 
debted; afterwards he was for one year in the office of Charles H. Marsh, architect, 
of Detroit, and upon returning to this city formed a partnership with his father, 
which continued successfully until 1889. Since then he has practiced . alone. Mr. 
Warner is one of the leading architects in Western New York and has acquired a 
wide reputation. Possessing in a high degree the finer qualities of an artist he has 
exemplified the conceptions of a master in many handsome structures which grace 
the city of Rochester and other centers of activity. In purity of outline his designs 
are clear, concise, and forceful, while in style and finish they are at once beautiful 
and striking. Among the numerous buildings that stand as monuments of his skill 
are the Rochester State and Hom<t>opathic hospitals and the Granite building, the 
handsome new Monroe county court-house and the present George Eastman and 
William H. (iorsline residences on East Avenue; many others might also be men- 
tioned. In 1883 Mr. Warner married Mary L. Adams, of Rochester. He is a mem- 
ber of the Genesee Valley Club, the Rochester Yacht Club, and the Society of Sons 
of the American Revolution. 

Garson, Charles, was born February 16, 18<)2, and received a common school edu- 
cation. He began the study of designing clothing, for the product of which Roch- 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 159 

ester has a world-wide reputation. Mr. Garson has made a great success of his 
avocation and is regarded as one of the leading designers of the country. In 1889 
he started an extensive clothing factory of his own, and is now one of the foremost 
manufacturers of this city. 

Atkinson, Hobart Ford, son of William Atkinson, a prominent miller of Monroe 
county, was born in Rochester, N. Y.. October 5, 1825, and was educated in the pub- 
lic schools of his native city. At an early age Mr. Atkinson began his banking career 
as clerk in the old Commercial Bank, and was gradually promoted until he became 
cashier, which position he filled until the closing of that bank. After its reorgani- 
zation he was elected president and served for several years. In .888 he was elected 
vice-president of the Bank of Monroe, and the same year was appointed one of the 
executors of the large estate of Hiram Sibley. In 1855 Mr. Atkinson married Miss 
Louise, daughter of the late Hiram Sibley, who died in 1865, leaving two daughters. 
In 1875 he married for his second wife INIiss Harriet, daughter of James P. Apple- 
ton, of Manlius, N. Y. 

Brewster, Henry C, son of Simon L., was born in Rochester, N. Y., September 
7, 1845, and was educated in the public schools. In 1863 he entered, as clerk, the 
Traders National Bank, was appointed cashier in 1868, and, after faithfully serving 
over twentj'-six years in that capacity, was elected vice-president in January, 1895. 
October 5, 1876, he married Alice E., daughter of the late Louis Chapin, of Roch- 
ester, N. Y. Mr. Brew.ster has always been prominently identified with the Repub- 
lican party and in the fall of 1894 was elected, by an overwhelming majority, member 
of Congress; he is also commissioner of Mt. Hopecemetery, direqtorof the Rochester 
and Genesee Valley Railroad Company, vice-presidentof the Alliance Bank, vice-presi- 
dent of the Rochester Trust and Safe Deposit Company, trustee of St. Peter's Pres- 
byterian church, director of the Eastman Kodak Company, governer of the Rochester 
Homoeopathic hospital, director of the Rochester anu Irondequoit Railroad Com- 
pan3% and the Rochester and Lake Ontario Railway Company, vice-president of New 
York State Bankers' Association, a member of the Genesee Valley Ch:b, and Roch- 
ester Whist Club, and is one of the most popular and enterprising men in Rochester. 
He was one of the originators and a charter member of the Chamber of Commerce, 
of which he was for two years first vice-president and for one term president. He 
was also for four years joresident of the Rochester Clearing House Association, and 
has long been prominently identified with the material growth and prosperity of the 
city. 

Gibbs, Everett O., son of Warren S., who came to Rochester about 1860, was born 
in this city April 1, 1870. He was educated in the public schools of Rochester and 
Syracu.se, and later was under the private tutelage of Prof. E. M. Sparling. In Sep- 
tember, 1887, he entered the office of ex-Judge P. B. Hulett for the study of law, and 
was admitted to the bar at the Rochester General Term, March 30, 1893. The same 
year he formed a partnership with his preceptor, under the firm name of Hulett & 
Gibbs, which .still continues. He is a member of the Flour City Democracy, and one 
of the rising young attorneys of Rochester. 

Fenn, Albert O., was born in Rochester, September 5, 1861, and son of William W. 
and grandson of Harvey C. Fenn, who came to this city in 1836. He received his 



IfiO LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

early education in No. 5 School, and in 1878 was graduated from the Rochester Free 
Academy. Mr. Fenn has been connected with the banking business from the first, 
starting in as messsenger boy for the Commercial Bank, then located in the old 
Wilder building, corner of Main and Exchange streets. In 1880 he became connected 
with the Traders' Bank as collection clerk, and during his fourteen years' service 
occupied each position successfully up to that of paying teller. In 1893 he severed his 
connection with this bank and became interested in the formation of the Alliance 
Bank, accepting the position of cashier, which he still holds. 

Murphy, Judge John Martin, was born in Lima, N. Y., March 24, 1859, and received 
his education at the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, from which he was graduated in 
June, 1870. The same year he began the study of law in the office of D. C. Feely, of 
Rochester, and was admitted to the bar in October, 1883, when he at once com- 
menced the general practice of his profession. Mr. Murphy has built up a good 
reputation as a lawyer. In 18j5 he was appointed judge of the Municipal Court, at 
a meeting of the Common Council, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of the late 
Judge Craig. 

Taylor, Zachary P., was born in Oneida county, N. Y. , February 8, 1846, removed 
with his parents to Clarendon, Orleans county, and was educated in the Brockport 
Collegiate Institute, now^ the State Normal School, from which institution he was 
graduated in 1864. After teaching school one year he entered the University of 
Rochester and was graduated in 1869. He was then for two and one-half years 
instructor of classics in the Buffalo Central High School, and later held the same posi- 
tion in the Central High School of Cleveland, Ohio. In the meantime he read law in 
the offices of Wadsworth & White, of Buffalo, and Judge Jesse P. Bishop, of Cleve- 
land, and was graduated from the Cleveland Law School in 1872, being valedictorian 
of his class, which comprised twenty-six members. He was principal of the West 
and Central High vSchools of Cleveland until 1883, when he came to Rochester as 
principal of the Free Academy, which position he acceptably filled until the fall of 
1886, when he resumed the practice of his profession in Rochester. He is now 
senior member of the law firm of Taylor & Marsh. Mr. Taylor has been actively 
identified with the Prohibition party, workmg and speaking for its cause, and was its 
candidate for State senator, in 1887, when he received a very flattering vote. He 
was lay delegate to the General Conference of the M. E. Church held in New York 
city in May, 1888. and was a member of the committee of five which prepared a 
resolution to be submitted to the subordinate conferences as to whether women 
should be admitted as lay representatives to the general body. December 29, 1875. 
he married Miss Mary E., daughter of the late Hiram Davis, of Rochester, and they 
have had four children : Mortimer D. (who died August 2, 1892, aged fifteen), and 
Herbert R., Helen, and Marion, aged respectively fourteen, eight, and six years. 

Heughes, Frederick Lee, was born in Rochester in 1850, and is a son of William 
Heughes, one of the first publishers of books in this city, who settled here in 1843. 
Mr. Heughes served an apprenticeship in his father's printing office and received his 
education at the public schools, graduating from the old High School in 1866. After 
leaving school he returned to the printing business, and being of a mechanical turn, 
be invented and patented a press for printing in colors, a working model of which is 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 161 

uow in the patcMit ofiiL-e. In 1871, after a severe illness, lie entered the employ of 
W. H. Cheney as bookkeeper and later became general manager, and it was here 
that Mr. Heughes sawthe general use that could be made of rolled beams, as girders, 
joists, etc. In 1878 he became an n-on contractor, and since the fall of 1879 has 
been very successful, having finished and erected the Wilder building, the Granite 
and Sibley, Lindsay & Curr buildings, the Powers Hotel, the German Insurance 
building, the new Chamber of Commerce, the new Court House, and hundreds of 
other fire-proof structures throughout Central and Western New York. He has been 
eminently successful and has accumulated a fortune. Commencing active life with 
no capital but perseverance, energy and shrewd foresight, he has attained through 
his own efforts the highest position among the leading manufacturers of the country. 
Prompt, upright and candid m business transactions, he has never given or received 
promissory note, his word being always considered as good as his bond. Few men 
have ever enjoyed the wide and enviable reputation which Mr. Heughes has ac- 
quired, and fewer still have ever ranked higher in their cho.sen calling. He is largely 
interested in Rochester real estate and has built up, literally speaking, more of the 
city than any other man. In politics he has always been a Republican and is an ad- 
vocate of sound money on a gold basis. His home life is especially happy, and his 
leisure is spent amidst the social environments of his family. In 1883 he was mar- 
ried to Miss Efhe M. Kinne, of Lockport, N. Y.,'and they have had three sons: 
■ Herbert F., Walter Lee, and Benjamin A. 

Shantz, Closes B., was born in Berlin, Canada, August 24, 18r)2, where he received 
his early education, later attending a business college for a few months, aftei which 
he entered the eniploy of his father as a bookkeeper and business manager, in which 
capacity he remained for a number of years, making a study of the business in which 
he is now engaged, the manufacturing of buttons. In 1887 Mr. Shantz came to 
Rochester and in a small way began the manufacture of buttons, which has since in- 
creased until at the present time it is one of the largest plants of its kind in the * 
United States. In 1891 the stock company of M. B. Shantz & Co. was organized and 
incorporated with a capital of $150,000 and with Mr. Shantz, president; H. E. 
Wheeler, vice-president; H. K. Elston, .secretary and treasurer, all of whom still 
hold their respective offices. The company has branch salesrooms in New York, 
Philadelphia and Chicago. 

Bly, Myron T., son of John E. Bly, was born in Henrietta, Monroe county, New 
York. He prepared for college at the Genesee Wesleyan Seminaiy, and entering 
the LTniversity of Rochester in 1876 was graduated in June, 1880. He paid the ex- 
penses of his education by his own labor. During the first part of his college course 
he filled a reporter's position on the Rochester Morning Herald. Later, he became 
editor of the Sunday Morning Herald, which post he continued to hold uniil his 
graduation. Immediately after graduation he began the .study of law, and was ad- 
mitted to the Mcmroe county bar m 1883. He began tt) practice in Rochester immed- 
iately afterward, and has built up a large and lucrative business. Mr. Bly's journal- 
istic work, originally entered upon for the purpose of paying college e.\penses, has 
produced other results. During his senior year in college, besides attending to his 
college work and editing a weekly paper, he contested for and won the highest liter- 
ary prize of the university. While studying law he prcj-iared a scries of articles on 



162 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

"Milling Law and Legislation," which were published in The American Miller dur- 
ing the year 188L In the same year he wrote for the American Tanner a serial story 
entitled -'My Tannerville Client." During the four years from 1885 to 1889 he wrote 
monthly articles for The Boston Path-finder, under the title: " Legal Hints for Trav- 
eler.s." He has written two text-books for use in academies. The first, "A Treatise 
on Business Law." was published in 1891. In 1893 came " Descriptive Economics." 
The latter has attracted wide attention among educators. Mr. Bly is one of the 
esteemed business men of Rochester and is known as a careful, conscientious at- 
torney. 

Davis, William G., was born in New York city and finished his education at the 
Wilson Collegiate Institute in Niagara county. At the age of fifteen he began his 
active life as a clerk in the old dry goods house of S. B. Chittenden & Co. in New 
York city, where he remained until the breaking out of the war in 1861, when he en- 
listed in the 1st R. I. Inf., Col. (afterward general) A. E. Burnside, and served three 
years, being promoted to the rank of major. Returning to New York he engaged in 
the dry goods business until 1880, when he removed to Rochester, where he has been 
associated with the firm of Burke, Fitz Simons, Hone & Co. until 1889. He then en- 
gaged in his present busmess as a general dealer in real estate. He is a member of 
the Rochester Real Estate Exchange, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Masonic 
fraternity, being a Knight Templar. 

Menzie, Herbert J., was born at Riga, N. Y. , June 19, 1802. He attended the 
pulilic schools of his native town and later became a student at the Brockport Normal 
School, from which he was graduated in 1881. He then entered the University of 
Rochester and was graduated from that institution in 1886, receiving the degree of 
B. A., winning the senior mathematical prize (Stoddard medal), being one of the 
commencement speakers, and being elected a member of Phi Beta Kappa fraternity. 
From 1886 to 1888 he was principal of the 17th district school of Milwaukee, Wis., 
and while there received a State life certificate for teaching. He then entered the 
law department of Yale College and remained one year, when he came to Rochester 
and began the study of his chosen profession in the office of McNaughton & Taylor. 
He was admitted to the bar in 1890, and since then he has practiced law in this city, 
where he has been successful. He is a member of the Rochester Lodge, No. 600, F. 
& A. M., the Alpha Delta Phi, and of the Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity. 

Chamberlain, Philetus, was born in Rose, Wayne county, N. Y., April 14, 1854, 
and received his education at the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, of Lima, N. Y., and 
Syracuse University. Choosing law as his profession he began his studies in the 
office of Martindale & Oliver, of Rochester, and was admitted to the bar at the Gen- 
eral Term in October, 1879. He began practice in this city, and has been more than 
successful. He is a leading factor in and a hard worker for the Republican party, 
and is actively identified with a number of charitable societies and various other 
organizations of the city, where he is well and popularly known. 

Keenan, Edward Arthur, was born at East Bloomfield, Ontario county, N. Y., 
August 1, 1861. Receiving his rudimentary education in his native town he became 
a student at the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, from which institution he was gradu- 
ated with honor in June. 1ST7. lie engaged in teachnig in the public schools, and in 



Family sketches. i(i3 

the spring of 1889 entered tlie office of William \V. Mumford, of Rochester, N. Y., 
as a student at law. He was admitted to the bar at the General Term m the fall of 
1892, and immediately afterwards formed co-partnership with his brother-in-law, 
Judge John M. Murphy, for the prtictice of general law, which still continues. 

Hamilton. John B., was born at Avon, Livingston county, N. Y., January 10, 1843, 
and is of Scotch parentage. He received his early education in his native town and 
subsequently attended the schools of Poughkeepsie and New York city. He spent 
some time in the West and in 1872 removed to West Rut-h, Monroe county, where he 
engaged in the produce business. Mr. Hamilton has always been actively identified 
with the Republican party and was a delegate to the National Convention at Chicago 
in 1888. He was a member of the Advisory Council on cereal industry at the World's 
fair in 1893, and in the fall of the same year was elected county treasurer by a large 
majority, and still efficiently fills that responsible position. He is a member of Hen- 
rietta Lodge, F. & A. M., and of the Rochester Whist club. In 1868 he married 
Mary C. McMillan, of York, Livingston county. 

Houck, George H., was born in Rush, Monroe count5% N. Y., October 30, 1844. 
He was educated in his native town, and later entered the Genesee Wesleyan Semi- 
nary, from which institution he was graduated in 1862. He was then called home to 
manage the farm on account of the death of his father, which occurred in December, 
1862. In 1873 he was elected supervi-sor and re-elected for three consecutive years. 
In March, 189;"), he was appointed by President Cleveland as collector of customs of 
the port of Genesee. Mr. Houck still resides in Rush in the house in which he was 
born. 

Buell, Jesse W., M.D., was born in Geneseo, N.Y., and was reared from childhood 
in Rochester. He was a member of the class of '74 of the L^niversity of Rochester, 
and took his degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts from that institution. 
After graduation he entered the New York Homeopathic Medical College, from 
which he was graduated in 1887. Since that time he has been in active practice in Roch- 
ester, and has been, from its organization, one of the staff of the Homeopathic Hos- 
hital, having done service in both the medical and surgical sides of the house. He is 
a member of the New York State, Western New York, and Monroe County Medical 
Societies and was in 1885 president of the last named organization. 

Barhite, John A., was born in Auburn, N.Y., January 11, 1857, and when quite 
young moved with his parents to Hopewell, N.Y. He attended the Canandaigua 
Academy and was graduated in June, 1876. Remaining at home until the fall of 
1877, he then entered the University of Rochester, from which institution he was 
graduated in 1881. He then read law in the office of Theodore Bacon, of Rochester, 
and was admitted to the bar at the Buffalo general term in 1883. Mr. Barhite is an 
active worker for the Republican party and was a delegate to the National Conven 
tion in Minneapolis in 1892. He has held a number of prominent offices and many 
positions of trust, which, by his extensive knowledge of public affairs, he has honor- 
ably and efficiently filled. He was a delegate from the old Twenty-eighth Senatorial 
District, comprising the county of Monroe, to the Constitutional Convention in 1894. 
and is a member of Frank R. Lawrence Lodge, F. and A. M., Hamilton Chapter, 
and Monroe Commandery, Kislingbury Lodge No. 257, K. of 1'., the Rochester 
Whist Club, etc. 



IGl LANDMARKS OF MONHOK COUNTY. 

Ilofheinz, Dr. R. H., was born in Heidelberg, Germany, and received his educa- 
tion at llie G}-mnasium of his native city. In 1870 he came to America. lie studied 
dentistry in Rochester and entered the New York Dental College, from which insti- 
tution he was graduated in 1878, after which he located in Rochester and began the 
practice of his profession. In 1883 he took a trip to Europe and remained two years, 
after which he returned to Rochester and resumed his practice. In 189;} he went to 
]')crlin, where he remained eighteen months. January 4, 1884, he married Catherine, 
daughter of Henr\- Bartholomay. He is a member of the Monroe Club, the Roches- 
ter Dental Society, the Seventh District Dental Society, and the New York State 
Dental Society. 

Lamb, George \Y., was born in New London, Conn., in August, 1840. His earlv 
schooling was received at Penfield, Monroe county, after which, on account of an 
accident he was obliged to finish his education at home under the instruction of his 
sister. He became a law student in the office of John W. Willson, at Penfield, and 
was admitted to the bar in 1867. He is well known throughout this section of the 
State on account of his extensive practice as pension attorney. He practiced in Pen- 
field and Fairport, N. Y., each two years, and .since 1871 in Rochester. He is a 
Mason, and is prominently identified with various other organizations. 

Weeks, William H., was born m Penfield in 18H2, son of John and gr'ind.son of 
Pcnjamin Weeks, who came from Danburj% Conn., to Penfield in 1197 and in 1800 
ran a hotel, it being the first public house in Penfield. I'eujamin Weekr. built a 
tannery in what is now Pittsford, which he ran for several years and then sold to 
Stephen Lusk. In 1812 he bought the farm where William Hefl'er now lives, where 
he reared a large family and died in 1840, aged sixty-nine. His sons were John R., 
George W., Benjamin B., and David, all of whom settled in or near Penfield. John 
P. settled on the farm where William H. was born and lives, where he died in 1873 
leaving two sons, George M. and William II. In 1857 William K. married Augusta 
M., daughter of Joseph N. Ferry, of Lewis county, N.Y., by whom he has two sons, 
Frank D. and D. M. Ferry Weeks, and one daughter, Lucy A. Mr. Weeks is ex- 
tcnsi\ ely engaged in the culture of choice fruits and is one of the best informed men 
of the town. The family trace their ancestry back to their coming from P^iigland 
in l<i35. 

Gray, David S., was born on the farm where he now lives. His father, Clark 
(5ray, settled on the farm in 1824 and died in 1805, leaving two sons, David S. and 
(Jlark, and thi'ee daughters. Mr. Gray married Alice Miller, of Ontario county. 
He has always been engaged in farming. His mother was vSamantha, daughter 
of Rev. Seidell Graves, who is mentioned as among the prominent settlers of Pen- 
field. 

Coggswell, William F., was born in the town of Perinton, M(mroe county, Septem- 
ber 2(), 1824, was admitted to the bar in May, 1840, and has practiced his profession 
in Rochester ever since. William N. Cogswell, son of William F., was born in this 
city July 9, 18,58, was graduated from the University of Rochester in 1878, and studied 
law with his father. He was admitted to the bar in 1881, since which time he has 
practiced in partnershiji with his father, the firm being Cogswell & Cogswell. 

Tubl)s, Joseph Nelson, was born in EsiJeranee, Schoharie county, N.Y., Septem- 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 105 

ber 24, 1882. His parentage on his father's side was Enghsh, and Scotch on his 
mother's side. His early education was obtained in the public schools of Esperance 
and Albany, and h^. was graduated from the State Normal School at Albany in Oc. 
tober, 1850. He pursued mathematical studies with Prof. George R. Perkins, tlie 
auth'jr of a series of mathematical text books. He studied law with Hon. John K. 
Mann, afterward justice of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, and with Judges 
Frazer and Stewart, of Johnstown, N.Y. In consequence of ill health he abandoned 
the profession of the law when nearly ready to be admitted to the bar, having in the 
meantime taught school for short periods in some large towns in this State. In ISM 
he accepted a position in an engineer corps engaged on the enlargement of the 
canals in this State. Mr. Tubbs came to Rochester in 1861. He remained in the 
service of the State in responsible positions until 1872, during which year he was en- 
gaged as chief engineer of the proposed water works for Rochester and was also 
chief engineer and superintendent of the constrdction of the Elmira I- eformatory. 
From thence onward he designed and supervised the construction of the Rochester 
water works, and remained in charge until June, 1890. P'rom that time until Febru- 
ary, 189;, he was engaged in business as a consulting engineer. Among the im- 
portant w^orks on which he was emplo3-ed as an expert engineer during this period 
were the designs for the Syracuse water works, and the condemnation proceedings 
to acquire the property of the old water works company and the water power rights 
on the outlet of Skaneateles Lake ; condemnation proceedings connected wdth the 
construction of the new water supply conduit for Rochester ; the legal contest be- 
tween the D., L. & W. Railroad Company and the town of York, Livingston count}' ; 
the town of Geneseo 7js. the Board of Supervisors; the case of White vs. the D.,L. 
<!<: W. Railroad Company; the water power owners on the Oatka against the Salt 
Works in the Wyoming Valley; the water works contractor against the village of 
East Syracuse and the contractor against the village of Ilion. At various times Mr. 
Tubbs has designed works or acted as consulting engineer or expert of water works 
at Rochester, Syracuse, Geneva, Geneseo, Medina, Dryden, Albion, Mt. Morris, 
Lyons, Oneida, Port Jervis, Penn Yan, and East Syracuse in this State, and in many 
cities and towns in other States. Since February, 1895, he has been in the employ 
f)f the superintendent of public works as general inspector of all the New York State 
canals. He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American 
Waterworks Association, the New England Water Works Association, of the various 
Masonic bodies, and of the Rochester Whist Club. His first vote was cast for the 
nominee of the old Whig party, and since the organization of the Republican party 
has been affiliated with it. He never held an elective ofHce. Mr. Tubbs was mar- 
ried in 1856 to Elithea Mandell Wooster, who survives, and has two sons and one 
daughter; William N., Frank W. , and Josie Elithea. His residence is now No. 
13 Rutger street, Rochester, N.Y. 

Putnam, Earl B., son of the late George Putnam, was born in Waterville, N. Y., 
where he resided until 1881, when he moved to Rochester. He was a graduate of 
Harvard College in 1879, and in 1880-81 studied law at the Columbia College Law 
School, after which he read law with Hon. Martin W. Cooke, of Rochester, and was 
admitted to the bar in 1882 from the office of Cooke &■ Pond, where he remained as 
managing clerk until 1SS:J. I'ntil ISSS Ik- practiced alone, at which lime he formed 



\Cr, LANDMARKS OP MONROE COUNTY. 

a partnership with George F. Slocum, which has continued up to the present time. 
During Mr. Putnam's residence in Rochester he was director and secretary of the 
Silver Lake Ice Company, director of the Silver Lake R. R., and of the Union Bank 
of Rochester, trustee of the Society for the Organization of Charity, vestryman of 
St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal church, member of the New York State Bar Associa- 
tion, Genesee Valley Club, Whist Club and Kent Club. October 17, 1882, he married 
Grace Williams Tower, daughter of the late Charlemagne Tower, of Philadelphia. 

Uigbee, Abijah Peck, Penfield, Monroe county, N. Y., was born in Duanesburg. 
Schenectady county, N. Y., March 29, 1818. His father, William Higbee, moved to 
Penfield in IS^o, and purchased the farm now owned and occupied by the subject of 
this sketch, so that Mr. Iligbee has lived in the same house for sixty years. In 1841 
he married Sarah jane Ross, of Penfield, N. Y., by whom he had two sons and two 
daughters, viz: William deceased; Horace, of Wellsville, N. V.; Mrs. R. W. 
Warner, of Penfield, N, Y; and Mrs. J. F. Forbes, of De Land, Fla. Mr. Higbee 
was educated in the Academy at Penfield, and in 1848 he united with the Baptist 
church at that place, and he has been for years one of the most influential and liberal 
members of the church. Mr. Higbee has held no office in his town except that of 
assessor, but he has always been a prominent and successful farmer, and his judg- 
ment has been uniformly respected by his neighbors and fellow citizens in financial 
and business matters. 

Vick, Henry H., was born on the homestead, November 13. 1857, and his educa- 
tion was obtained in the public schools, Satterly Institute, and was graduated from 
Rochester Business University. He is a florist, seed grower, and market gardener 
by occupation. May 8, 1879, he married Carrie English, of the town of Greece, and 
they had six children: Lizzie I., Fern M., a baby boy who died in infancy, Blanche 
L., Henry H., jr., and Carry L. Mr. Vick's father, Joseph H., was born in Ports- 
mouth, England, November 14, 1830, and came to New York city with his parents 
in 1833. In 1834 the family came to Rochester, where he was educated in the public 
schools. His father established one of the first and best boot and shoe shops in 
Rochester. At the age of eighteen Joseph H. had mastered the art of boot and shoe 
cutting, and was foreman in his father's shop. In 1856 he married Eliza A. Hawley, 
of Janesville, Wis., formerly of Gravesend, England, and six children were born to 
them: Henry H., as above, Arthur T., Clara L., Maude M., Frank J., and Albert 
R. Henry H. Vick's grandfather, James Vick, purchased the homestead in 1850. 
He erected a shop and with his sons, George and Joseph, followed the occupation of 
farming and shoemaking. James Vick, an uncle to Henry H., became the famous 
seedsman. He began in a small way in 1857. In 1865 Joseph H. and family again 
went to Rochester, where they cultivated seeds, and in 1868 returned to Greece for 
permanent business, as foreman for his brother James, which he followed until his 
death, June 3, 1892. Mrs. Vick's father, Nathan EngHsh, was born in Carlton. Or- 
leans county, N. Y., November 11, 1820, was educated in the common schools, and a 
farmer by occupation. November 16, 1842, he married Mary J. Hobbs, of Rush, 
Monroe county, N. Y., and they had eight children: H. Eugene, Wells D., Louisa 
D., Nathan W., George C, Carrie, as above, Jennie and Newton. The family came 
to the town of Greece in 1847. Mrs. English died January 28, 1890, and Mr. English 
December 17, 1890. Mr. Vick is a member of Valley Lodge No. 109, F. & A. M., 
Rochester, N. Y., and of Lake Ontario Grange No. 311, (ireece, N. Y. 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 167 

Micliel, Albert, bcirn in Germany in 1837, emigrated m IHf)?, eoniin.i^ dirccUy to 
Rochester. Mr. Michel's father was a farmer of limited means, and Albert may he 
rightly termed the architect of his own success, as his available capital when he 
reached Rochester was but two dollars His independent position has l)een reached 
by methods which have not forfeited the esteem and respect of his neighbors, and is 
wholly due to his own frugality and integrity. He has been a resident of Brighton 
since 1865, now occupying a handsome home in the central part of the town, and 
engaged in general farming. In 1861 he married Petronella Schumann, also of 
German birth, who has born him eleven children, of whom four, William Victor, 
Claia, Joseph and Carrie are deceased. Seven children are living: Frances, John, 
Matthew, Lillian, Frank, George and Albert. 

Raymond, Charles C, was born in 1846, a son of Isaac and Mary (Rich) Raymond, 
the father being born in 1805. He came to Penfield from Connecticut in ]8:5i5 and 
served at different times as supervisor, legislator, and deputy sheriff. His death 
occurred in 1849, leaving three sons: George W., Wm. I. T., and Charles C. His 
grandfather, Samuel Rich, came to Penfield in 1799 and lived on the place where Mr. 
Raymond now lives. The latter was for some years engaged in raising nursery 
stock with his brother, George, since which he has devoted his attention to farming. 
He has served as collector, assessor, and in 1894 was elected supervisor. His wife 
was Francelia E., daughter of Myron R. Smith, and they have one son, Clinton B., 
and one daughter, Grace 

Frank, George, was born at Auburn, N. Y.,in 1851. His father, Valentine Frank, 
who was a hotel proprietor at Syracuse, came to Brighton in 1861, where he still re- 
sides, being now seventy-seven years of age. George married in 1890, and has three 
children : Carrie, Floi-ence and Laura. 

Terrill, Ervvin, is the second son of the late Thaddeus Terrill of Ogden, who set- 
tled here in 1860, removing from Middletown, Vermont, where his children were 
born, and where his wife had died three years before. She was Lydia Loomis, of an 
old and prominent Vermont family, and her father was a soldier in the Revolution. 
Erwin Terrill was born in 1840 at Middletown, and was twenty years old when the 
family settled at Ogden. He completed his education at Spencerport. He first en- 
gaged in farming in the town of Irondequoit, where he remained eight years, in 1860 
coming to Brighton, and becoming the posses.sor of a valuable suburban farm, de- 
voted chiefly to dairy products. In 1870 Mr. Terrill married L. Isabelle, daughter of 
George W. Winship, of Parma, and their two sons, Whitcomb, who is associated 
with his father in the dairy business, and Edwin Osgood, attending Rochester Uni- 
versity. Mr. Terrill is a Republican, and he takes a leading part in town affairs, 
having been assessor since 1889, and in March, 1895, was elected village trustee 
without opposition. 

Northrop, Burr S., was born in Penfield, July 16, 1850, the .son of Abel G. and 
Cornelia A. (Scoville) Northrop. Abel G. Northrop was born in January, 1823, and 
lived on the farm where Burr now lives, and died there in 1879. Burr Northrop was 
married January 31, 1878, to Ruth, daughter of Samuel Raymond, and they have five 
children, Raymond, Abel, Laura, Burr, and George. Mr. Northrop is at present, 
and has been for ten years, overseer of the poor, and has also been school trustee. 



16S LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

His jirandfalhcr, lUnr Xnithrop, settled here alioiit IS'iN, and bought tlie farm wliere 
the present Burr Northrop lives. 

Plumb, William T., was born in Lewis county, N.Y., September 14, lS(jT, where he 
received his rudimentary education. He removed with his parents to Rochester and 
entered the Free Academy, and upon graduation received a scholarship to the Uni- 
versity of Rochester, from which he was graduated with honor in ISHl, taking the 
Townsend scholarship. Choosing law as his profession Mr. Plumb began his studies 
in the office of Shuart & Sutherland, and was admitted to the bar at the general 
term at Rochester in October, 189^3. He has successfully built up a large and lucra- 
tive practice. In January, 1890, Mr. Plumb was appointed by Mayor Lewis secre- 
tary of the Civil Service Board. He is a member of tlie Psi Upsilou and Lhi licta 
Kappa fraternities and the Rochester Athletic Club. 

Carnahan, Hon. George Alexander, was born in Ravenna, Ohio, May2L 18(i:2. He 
received his early education in his native town, and was graduated from the Wes- 
leyau University of Middletown, Conn., in the class of 1884, after wdiich he entered 
the office of Morgan & French, of Rochester, for the study of law. He was admitted 
to the bar in this citj' in 1886, and immediately afterward opened an office here In 
1894 he was elected judge of the Municipal Court of the city of Rochester, and served 
on that bench until January, 1895, when he resigned to accept the appointment by 
Governor Mcjrton of special county judge of Monroe county, to fill the vacancy 
caused by the resignation of Judge Arthur E. Sutherland. . Judge Carnahan is also 
a member of the Board of Managers of the State Industrial School of Rochester. 

Beahan, James, M. D., was born in Newark, N. J., July lo, 1823, and came to this 
State with his mother. He was educated in Starkey Seminary and Hobart College 
and came to reside in the town of Gates, this county, in 1847. He graduated from 
Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Pa., in 1852, and at once began practice in 
(iates, where he had a fine business many years. In 1875 he removed to Rochester, 
but still retains a large portion of his old patrons from Gates. January 27, 1857, he 
married Abby Scofield, of the town of Chili, by whom he had two sons, Herman S. and 
Charles C. The ff>rmer is a graduate of Columbia College of Physicians and Sur- 
geons of New York city, who has a large and growing practice in Rochester and 
suburbs, and Charles C. is a coal merchant. Dr. James Beahan is a member of the 
Monroe County Medical Society, and of Teoronto Lodge of Odd Fellows. 

Heenan, Martin M., .son of Martin, was born in Ireland on the 27th of October, 
185G, and came to America in May, 1875, after receiving his education and serving an 
apprenticeship in his native country. For the first three years after his arrival he 
was a clerk in a dry goods store in Oswego, following which he spent a like period in 
Auburn, N.Y. During the ne.\t six years he was a clerk in the cloak and suit estab- 
lishment of Garry Brothers in New York city, and for a similar term he was in the 
enij)loy of D. McCarthy & Co., of Syracuse. In 189;} he removed to Rochester and 
purchased an interest in the New York cloak and suit hou.se at No. — vState street, 
and in May, 1895, he bought out the business of Francis Fitzgibbon, and became sole 
proprietor. His business is confined exclusively to ladies' cloaks and suits, and in 
this connection it is one of the leading concerns of the kind in llic ciiy. Mr. Hecuan 
has been a nienihcr of the A. O. IT. for about ten years. 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 1G9 

White, Richard E., was born in Mansfield, Mass., June 1'2, ISJN, and in If^."),") re- 
moved with his parents to the town of Wheatland, Monroe county. He received his 
education in the district schools of that town, at Faliey Seminary in Fulton, Oswego 
county, and at the Brockport Normal School. He read law in the office of Joseph A. 
Stull, of Rochester, and was admitted to the bar at the grneral term of the Supreme 
Court in Buffalo in June, 1875. He immediately began the practice of his profession 
in Rochester, where he has since been eminently successful. While George A. Ben- 
ton was district attorney of Monroe county Mr. White was associated with him in 
partnership. He has been an elder of St. Peter's Presbyterian church for the past 
fifteen years and clerk of the session for six years. 

Beach, Daniel Beers, was born in Temple street in New Haven, Conn., November 
14, 1822, and received his preliminary education in his native city. Reared under 
the influences of that historic seat of learning, he became a private tutor in families 
in Brunswick county, Va., in Rockingham county, N. C. He was graduated from 
Yale College in the class of 1842 and from the law department of that institution in 
1845, being admitted to the bar of that State in August following. The same year 
he removed to Rochester, N. Y., and was admitted to the New York State bar at 
Albany, in Jaruary, 1847. He began the practice of his profession at Rochester im- 
mediately afterwards. In 1867 he temporarily returned to his old home in New 
Haven and j^racticed law there until the spring of 1871, when he again came to 
Rochester, where he has ever since resided and followed his chosen profession. He 
served as supervisor of the then fceventh ward of Rochester in 1865, being elected on 
the Republican ticket. Except this, he has given his attention almost exclusivelv to 
his business. June 1, 1853, Mr. Beach married Miss Loraine Rogers, of Lockport, 
and has had two sons and four daughters, of whom three daughters are living. 

Chadsey, John H., was born in the village of Ballston Spa, Saratoga count\\ N.Y., 
March 1, 1845, the eldest son of Dr. Alonzo J. Chadsey, a well known and eminent 
physician of said county. He was educated in private and public schools, and at 
eleven years of age removed to Schenectady, where he attended the preparatory 
school in the old Union College building, and graduated from the classical depart- 
ment at the age of sixteen j-ears; attending the County Institute, he received a cer- 
tificate to teach any common school in Schenectady county. The war of the 
Rebellion breaking out, he enlisted in Co. A, I32d Regiment, N. Y. S.Vols., but was 
not mustered in the service on account of being under the required age. After leav- 
ing school he was a clerk in his uncle's store for two years, and then removed to 
New York city and entered the office of the famous lawyer, John Graham, esq., as a 
student at law, and at the age of twenty-one years was admitted to the bar, Hon. 
Eldridge T. Gerry being one of the examiners. He remained with Mr. Graham 
nearly five years thereafter, and was, in May, 1870, employed as an assistant to 
Messrs. John Graham and Eldridge T. Gerry, the counsel for the prisoner in the 
celebrated trial of Daniel McFarland, for the killing of Albert D. Richardson, in the 
Tribune office, in the city of New York. He took a course in political economy and 
debate at the Cooper Institute, and was vice-president of the Cary Political Science 
Society. In February, 1871, he removed to St. Mary's, Kansas, and became a 2)artner 
in the firm of Sedgwick & Chadsey, in the land, law. and insurance business, and 
had exclusive charge of the law department; returning cast in December of the 



170 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

same year he was married to Miss Emma J. Covey, youngest daughter of Alvah 
Covey, of Penfield, Monroe county. In 1873 he returned to Penfield and opened a 
law office at Fairport, which he afterwards removed to Rochester, retaining his resi- 
dence at Penfield until 1891, when he removed to the city of Rochester. He has been 
constantly engaged in the practice of law, is well known, and has an extensive prac- 
tice in Monroe county and vicinity; he has been a member of the Masonic fraternity 
for years, and is past master of Penfield Union Lodge, F. & A M. In politics he is 
a Republican, casting his first presidential vote for U. S. Grant in 1868; he was a 
member of the Republican County Committee of Monroe county for four years, two 
of which he was treasurer of said committee. 

Hopkins, John Hampden, was born in Rochester, June 20, 1852, and in 1872 was 
graduated from Hamilton College. He read law in the office of Cox & Avery, of 
Auburn, N. Y., and later entered the Albany Law School, from which he was grad- 
uated in 1875. Returning to Auburn he practiced law until 1877, when he came to 
Rochester, where he has since folloAved his chosen profession. 

Hays, David, was born in Rochester, N. Y., November 28, 1858. At an early age 
he attended the grammar schools in New York city, and in 1874 the Free Academy 
of Rochester, and graduated from the Rochester University in 1878, after which he 
took a course in political science at the University of Berlin, and was a graduate of 
the Columbian Law School in the class of 1881, at which time he was admitted to the 
bar. In January, 188:?, he became a partner of Mr. James B. Perkins, which part- 
nership continued until the removal of Mr. Perkins to France in August, 1890, and 
was renewed in August, 1895, on the return of Mr. Perkins to Rochester. 

Maurer, Edward W., was born in Rochester, N. Y., April 17, 1858, was graduated 
from the University of Rochester in 1877, and in the fall of the same year entered 
the University of Goettingen, Germany, where he remained for over two years. In 
1880 he returned to America and entered the law office of ex-Congressman (now jus- 
tice of the Supreme Court) John M. Davy, and was admitted to the bar in the spring 
of 1882. He then formed a partnership with Mr. Davy, which continued until 188(5, 
when he opened an office alone for the practice of the law. In 1887 he was elected 
member of assembly on the Republican ticket. He is a member of the Central Pres- 
byterian church. His father was one of the oldest grocery merchants in this city, 
and died in 1892, his place of business being at 149 East Main street. His mother is 
still living in the old homestead, 67 North Clinton street, in Rochester. Mr. Maurer's 
offices are at Nos. 416, 417, and 418 Elwanger & Barry building. 

La Salle, B. F. & C. W. — Dr. B. Frank La Salle, son of Francis La Salle, was born 
in Paris, France, March 29, 1842, and came to this country in infancy with his par- 
ents, who located in St. Lawrence county, where Dr. La Salle received his prelimi- 
nary education. Afterwards he entered the office of Dr. J. D. Huntington, of 
Watertown, N. Y., for the study of dentistry, where, after three years of diligent 
work, he passed the State examination and began the practice of his profession in 
Oswego, N. Y. In 1876 he removed to Rochester, where he has built up a very large 
practice. His son. Dr. Clint W. La Salle, who is a graduate of the Buffalo Dental 
College, and who was the first student to matriculate in that institution, is associated 
with him under the above firm name. Dr. B. F. La Salle is a member of the Seventh 



FAAflLY SliETCnES. m 

District Dental Society and was the organizer of the Rochester Dental Chib, now 
the Rochester Dental Societ3% of which he was president for one year. He is a 
member of Valley Lodge, No. 109, F. & A. M., and served it as master in 1881-82; 
he also belongs to Hamilton Chapter R. A. M., Doric Council, and Monroe Com- 
mandery. No. 13, K. T. 

Thayer, George W., was born in Livonia, N. V., December !), 18-iO, and is a sou 
of George and Phebe Thayer. He received his rudimentary education in his native 
town, and later took a three years' .special course at the Genesee Wesleyan Semi- 
nary. He soon after became proprietor of the Bank of Lima, and conducted the 
same for about twenty years. He moved to Rochester in 1888 and was in active 
business until 1893, when the Alliance Bank was organized, of which he became 
president, which position he has since held. 

Finnessy, James H., M. D., son of Patrick T. Finnessy, was born in Allegany 
county, N. Y., October 3, 1864. He finished his education at the Geneseo State 
Normal School, after which he entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons at 
Baltimore, Md., and was graduated with the degree of M. D. from the University of 
Baltimore in 1890. After completeing his collegiate course he came to Rochester 
and accepted the appointment of house physician to St. Mai'y's Hospital, which posi- 
tion he filled for one j^ear, when he opened an office for the practice of medicine. 
Dr. Finnessy is medical examiner for a number of prominent insurance companies, 
is a member of the Monroe County Medical Society, and is one of the rising young 
physicians in Rochester. 

Paviour, Robert S. , son of William and Sarah Paviour, was born in Rochester, N. 
Y., September 17, 1859. He attended the public schools of his native city and later 
entered the Rochester Free Academj^ from which he was graduated in 1876. The 
same j'ear he became a clerk in the fire insurance office of Ward & Clark (established 
in 1870), in which capacity he remained until the death of Mr. Ward in 1880, when 
he was made general manager, Mr. Clark being a resident of Boston, Mass. In 1881 
Mr. Paviour was admitted to partnership under the firm name of Clark & Paviour, 
and in January, 1891, he became sole proprietor of the business, which he has since 
conducted. He has been very successful, and is well and favorably known. He 
represents the Phoenix Assurance Company of London, the Phoenix Insurance Com- 
pany of Hartford, the Westchester Fire Insurance Company of New York, and the 
Equitable Fire and Marine Insurance Company of Providence, all leading fire insur- 
ance companies, and the New Jersey Plate Glass Insurance Company of Newark, N. 
J. He was formerly president of the Rochester Board of Fire Underwriters, is ac- 
tively interested in various institutions of the city, and takes a prominent part in 
promoting and fostering their welfare, being officially connected with several organ- 
izations of note. 

Brown, Richard, was born in the town of Mayfield, Sussex, England, August 11, 
1828, and came to this country with his parents when an infant. They first located 
in Canada, and later in Pittsford, Moni-oe county, where he received a part of his 
education. The family again returned to Canada, remaining until 1845, when they 
came to Port Byron, Cayuga county. August 17 of that year he began to learn the 
tinner's trade and did extensive work on Auburn Prison. He returned to Port Byron 



172 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

in li^-VJ. In that year lie married Caroline Springer of that place, and went to Addi- 
son, Mich., later to Hillsdale, Mich., and from there to Logansport, Ind., where he 
did ])usines« for a year on his own account. From there he went to Mt)utice]lu, the 
same State, and carried on business until 185(1. In 18G6 he came to this city, and 
began at his trade. In 18C7 he began business on his own account, which continued 
till 18S4, when he took partners into the concern, which became the Richard Brown 
Manufacturing Company, doing a- large trade in tinware. Mr. Brown has three 
children: Josephine A., wife of Willis J. Smith of Philadelphia; Frank A., wife of 
William Uhl, now of Monticello, Ind., and Clarence R., who married Annie Myer, of 
this city. He is a music teacher in the State Normal School in Greensboro, N. C. 

Shuart, Denton G., was born in 1805, at Plattekill, Ulster county, N. Y., and in 
1807 came with his parents to Mendon, Monnjc county, one mile from Honeoye Falls. 
His father, Abraham Shuart, was one of the pioneers of this section of the county. 
Denton G. received an academic education and in 1825 he returned to Ulster county 
for the purpose of studying law. In 1832 he was admitted to the bar in New York 
city, and shortly after began practicing at Honeoye Falls. From 1852-185() he was 
surrogate of Monroe county, and for nearly a half century was one of the prominent 
members of the county bar. His wife was Mary Elizabeth Barrett, daughter of 
Stephen Barrett of Honeoye Falls. He had four children; Denton Barrett, who 
died in 186G, and William H., of Rochester, N. Y., Clarence A., of Honeoye Falls, 
N. Y., and Irving J., of Chicago, 111. He died at his home in Honeoye Falls, N. Y., 
Augu.st 29, 1892. 

Shuart, William II., was born September 21, 1852, at Honeoye Falls, N. Y., and is 
the son of Ex-vSurrogate Denton G. Shuart. He was educated at Genesee Wesleyan 
Seminary and Syracuse University and received the degree of A.B. from the latter 
institution in June, 1875. After his graduation he studied law with his father and 
later with Judge John S. Morgan of Rochester. He was admitted to the bar in 1877 
and has since practiced his profession in this city. February 7, 1884, he married 
.Xclhi Sumner Phillips of Springfield, Mass. 

De Floo, Jacob, was born in Holland, November 6, 1847, emigrated when eleven 
years of age, being accompanied by an uncle with whom he settled near Brighton. 
By perseverance and industry he has achieved independence and success, and built 
a pleasant home at Brighton, being engaged in gardening. Mr. De Floo is a staunch 
Republican, and now serving his second term as village commissioner f)f streets. 
In 1872 he married Nellie Wage, and their sou, Henry, is employed by the vSinger 
Sewing Machine Company. 

Ross-Lewin, George W., has been engaged in the wall paper business in Rochester, 
since 1879, when he succeeded the firm of Tower and Ilerrick. He deals in all grades 
of American, French, and English wall papers, .special interior decorations, window 
shades, picture and room mouldings, Japanese grilles, etc., and executes fresco and 
general painting, solid and plastic relief ornamentation, etc. The concern, located 
in Liberty Building, 11 East Avenue, corner Main street, is the largest of the kind 
in the city, and ranks among the leaders in Western New York. 

Brooks, Frank J., was born in Penfield in 1855, son of Hiram Brooks, who, with 
his father, Elias Brooks, came from Vermont and settled in Penfield about 1803. 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 173 

Hiram Brooks married a daughter of Thomas WiUse, of Pitlsford, by whom he had 
ten children. Frank J. married Sarah Saunders, and they have one son, Burton. 
Mr. Brooks settled on the farm where he now lives in 1880, where he is engaged in 
farming and gardening. 

Lee, John Mallory, M. D., was born in Cameron, N. Y., September 29, 1853, and 
is a descendant of the late Gen. Robert E. Lee. Dr. Lee received his rudimentary 
education at Pultney, Steuben county, N. Y., and at the Penn Yan Academy. I lis 
father dying when he w^as a child, he was thrown on his own resources, and at the 
age of seventeen he became a clerk in the leading drug store of Palo, Mich., where 
he remained three years, during which trnie he also received private instructions and 
prepared himst If for the Homoeopathic depai'tment of the Univensitj' of Michigan, 
where he passed a successful entrance examination September 28, 187(5, and was 
graduated with the degree of M. D. in 1879. He returned to his native State and be- 
gan the practice of his profession in Rochester, and in 1888 took a postgraduate 
course at the Polyclinic College Hospital of New York, for the purpose of completing 
his surgical studies; he also studied in the Postgraduate School of New York in 1890, 
1891, 1892, and 1894; and since 1889 has confined himself .solely to surgical practice, 
being surgeon-in-chief and vice-president of the medical and surgical staff of the 
Rochester Homoeopathic Hospital. He is also State examiner in .surgery for the 
Homoeopathic School, and is one of the mo.st prominent surgeonsin the Empire State. 
He is ex-president of the Monroe County, the Western New York, and the New York 
State Homoeopathic Medical Societies; ex-vice-president of the New York State 
Homoeopathic Medical Society; a lecturer on surgery to the Rochester Training 
School for Nurses, of which he was an incorporator; honorary member of the Hom- 
oeopathic Medical Society of Michigan; member of the American Institute of Hom- 
oeopathy ; president of the Alumni Association of the Homoeopathic Department of 
the University of Michigan ; and was for several years associate editor of the Physi- 
cians' and Surgeons' Investigator. He is now one of the corps of writers on the 
Homoeopathic Text-Book of Surgery. Many of Dr. Lee's valuable papers are found 
in the "Transactions" of these various societies and in the magazines of his school. 

Petten, John J., was born in St. John's, Newfoundland, April 30, 1832, and was 
educated there and in the United States. At the age of sixteen he came to this 
country, located at Charlotte, and followed the lakes for several years in various po- 
sitions, and was captain for many years. He has been village trustee eight years, 
school trustee three years, and now holds the position of overseer of the poor. He is 
a member of Genesee Falls Lodge, No. 504, F. & A. M., also member of Monroe 
Tent, No. 147, K. O. 'I". M. He has been married twice, first in 1854 to Eliza Loper, 
of Charlotte, and they had two children: Frances and Mary. Frances married Rich- 
ard P. Herrick, of Rochester, N. Y., and Mary is now Mrs. Van Hamburg, of Pitts- 
ford, N. Y. Mrs. Petten died September 4, 1872. His second wife was Emeline 
Hannahs, whom he married in 1873, and she died January 19, 1891. Mr. Petten's 
father, William, w^as born at the old home in Newfoundland in 1786. He married 
Christiana Woods of his native place, and they had eight children. Mr. Petten died 
of cholera in 1855, and his wife some years later. The ancestrj' of this family is 
French and Emjlish 



174 LANDMaUKS of MONROE COUNTY. 

Tearc, Mrs. Eliza J., is the widow of Thomas Arthur Teare, who died April 7- 
1878, at thirty-six years of age. Mr. Teare was born in New York city, and in early 
life was owner of a lime kiln business at Newark, N. J., of which he disposed in 1868 
and purchased the Brighton farm. He married, at Newark in IS(>'2, Eliza J., daugh- 
ter of Robert Gelling, late a Rochester miller. Three children were born to them: 
William, Chester and Carrie. Mr. Teare served, with credit, in Comi)any F, 27lh 
New Jersey Volunteers, under General Burnside. 

Guenther, Frederick. — One of the self-made men of Brighton is John F. Guenther, 
the well-known Park Avenue florist and gardener, whose business has now passed 
into the hands of his son Frederick. The elder Guenther was born in (iermany in 
1829, and was then apprenticed to the business which has been his life work, and the 
results of which speak well for that method of instruction. He came to America in 
1852, going directly to Rochester, where he entered the employ of Ellwanger&- Barry. 
During his connection with this firm he traveled widely in their interest, at one time 
paying a visit to the old city of Mexico. In 1881 he established himself in business 
at Park Avenue, ten years later locating on Blossom street, Brighton, where his ex- 
tensive greenhouses are flanked by a handsome modern residence. In 18C8 he mar- 
ried Helena Hanson, who became the mother of Frederick, and three years later of 
the only daughter, Elizabeth, who is now the wife of Alfred R. Clapper of Rochester. 
Frederick Guenther is a stirring business man and will without doubt achieve success 
in the line so ably mapped out by his father. In 1884 he married Lillian Houser of 
Rochester, and they have one daughter, Mattie, born March 14, 1892. 

Butterfield, Clarence E., son of Edwin and Sarah (Hanks) Butterfield, was born in 
Centerville, Allegany county, N. Y., July 4. 18G8, and moved with his parents to 
Brighton in 1883. He was educated in the district schools of his native town and at 
the Rochester Free Academy, and was graduated from the Rochester Business 
University in 1890. His parents were New Englanders. His father died in Sep- 
tember, 1891. Upon his graduation in 1890 Mr. Butterfield formed a partnership 
with Charles B. Down, under the firm name of Down & Butterfield, and engaged in 
tlie grocery and provision business in the village of Brighton. December 4, 189;^, 
this firm was dissolved, and since then Mr. Butterfield has conducted the business 
alone, materially increasing it, adding dry goods, boots and .shoes, crockery, etc. 
A meat market is also connected, making the business now one of general merchan- 
dise. He is a member of the I. O. of R. M., and prominently identified with the 
welfare and advancement of the village and town. December 25, 1891, he married 
Miss Lena A., daughter of Norman Peet, of Penfield, and they have one child, Ruth, 
born December 24, 1893. 

Bohachek, Edward, was born in Bohemia in 1S52, and came with his parents to 
America in 1865. He received a public school education in Cincinnati and Dayton, 
Ohio, married Miss Gertrude Stewart, of Bellefontaine, Ohio, and came to Roches- 
ter in 1881 and connected himself with the Manhattan Life Insurance Company of 
New York as general agent for Monroe. Orleans and Livingston counties, which 
position he efficiently fills at the present date. Mr. Bohachek is a member of the 
I. O. O. F., and deputy grand chief of the A. O. F. of A. of the State of New York. 

Elwood, Frank Worcester, was born in Rochester, N.Y., April 4, 1850. His father. 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 175 

Isaac R Eluood, was a law partner of Jiulj^e Ilcury Selden in Rocliester for nuiuy 
years and clerk of the State Senate two terms, about l«47-48; was one of the 
founders of the Western Union Telegraph Company and its secretary and treasurer 
at the time of his death in 18C3. The family is of German origin, erne branch 
settling in England many generations ago. To this branch belonged Tliomas 
Ellwood, a Quaker, and a friend of and for a time a reader to the blind poet, Milton. 
Mr. Elwood's paternal great-grandfather, a mason by trade, came to America in 
1748 and settled in the Mohawk valley. His old stone house near St. Johnsville, 
N.Y., still stands to attest his handiwork. The spelling of the family name under- 
went the variations of Ellwoode, Ellwood, and Elwood. The history of John K. 
Elwood's maternal ancestors in America is tragic. In 1728, during the "Old French 
War," the commandant of Fort Herkimer issued a call to the settlers to gather at 
the fort. Mrs. Bell, his grandmother, was accidentally left unwarned. Her family 
was surprised by the Indians and her husband and three children killed, one, an 
infant, having its brains dashed out in her presence. She was struck down, scalped, 
her nose nearly cut off, and left for dead. She was encietite, and for many weeks 
lay at the point of death. Her then unborn child was in process of time a mother, 
and her child was Mr. Elwood's mother. F. W. Elwood was educated in private 
schools. At the age of fourteen he went abroad and spent two years in studying 
Italian, French, and German. Returning to America he continued his studies under 
various eminent teachers, entered Hobart College at the age of nineteen, and left at 
the end of his sophomore year to enter Harvard College, from which he was graduated 
as A.B. in 1874. During his student life he was a member of a number of college 
societies. He received the degree of LL. B. from Columbia College in 1877, was ad- 
mitted to the bar the same year, and practiced law in the office of Judge Danforth in 
Rochester till 1879, when he erected the Elwood Memorial building as a memorial to 
his father. He was engaged in the stock brokerage business under the firm name of 
Frank W. Elwood & Co. from 1881 to 1884, inclusive, when he resumed the practice 
of his profession and the care of his real estate, which he has since continued. Mr. * 
Elwood was formerly president of the Rochester Club, and is now vice-president of 
the Rochester Historical Society, a member of the board of managers of the Genesee 
Valley Cluli, vestryman of St. Paul's Episcopal church, trustee of the Riverside 
Cemetery Association and of the Chamber of Commerce, and member of the Board 
of Park Commi.ssioners. In 1835 he married Frederica H., daughter of Frederick 
Pumpelly, of Owego, Tioga county, and they have one daughter, Dorothy. 

Graham, Merritt E., M. D., son of Gilbert, was born in Italy, Yates county, N. Y., 
September 21, 1855, was graduated from the Seminary at Lima, N.Y., in 1874, and 
entered the medical department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, grad- 
uating as the head of his class in 1878. He began the practice of his profession at 
Clifton, Monroe county, but soon located in Brockport, where he remained twelve 
years. Desiring a larger and more congenial field of labor he removed to Rochester 
in 1890, where for the past five years he has been surgeon to the Hahnemann Hos- 
pital. He has been eminently successful both as surgeon and physician. For si.x 
years he has served as coroner of Monroe county. He is also a member of many of 
Rochester's more prominent social and fraternal organizations and examiner for 
several insurance companies. In 1877 he was married to Miss Fannie Carden, of 
Ann Arbor, Mich. 



176 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY 

(iraiil, RollaC, M. D., wa:^ Ijorn in isr)4 in Ri)me, N. Y., wIiltc lie received liis 
early education. At the age of nine he removed with his parents to Auburn, N. Y., 
where he attended the High School, and where he studied medicine in the oflice of 
Dr. Charles E. Swift. He was graduated from the New York HonKcopathic College 
and Hospital in 1879, took a post-graduate course at the medical department of the 
Univer-sity of Boston, and commenced the practice of his profession in Portsmouth, 
N. H. After four years of active work there he removed to Rochester, where he has 
practiced successfully. In 1881 Dr. Grant married Miss Isabel Roberts, of Ports- 
mouth. He is a member of the International Hahnemann Association, the Central 
New York HonKtopathic Society, of which he was president one year (1893-4) and 
vice-president two years, the Rochester Hahnemann vSociety, and of the staff of the 
Rochester Hahnemann Hospital, and has been physician to Windsor Lodge, Sons of 
St. George, since its organization in 1886. 

Eastman, George, was born at Waterville. Oneida county, N.Y., July 12, 1854, and 
moved with his parents to Rochester in 1861. He attended the public schools until 
fourteen years of age, w-hen he entered the insurance office of Cornelius Waydell. 
He was afterwards employed in the insurance office of Messrs. Buell & Brewster and 
later Buell & Hayden and in 1877 entered the Rochester Savings Bank as book- 
keeper, where he remained until 1881. While in the banking business Mr. Eastman 
spent all his leisure experimenting in photographic processes and finally began the 
manufacture of dry plates in the Martin block on State street. This was in 1880. 
Since then the business has extended to a general line of photographic goods and 
has steadily grown until it is probably the largest of its kind in the world. It is now 
carried on by the Eastman Kodak Company, a corporation of which Mr. Eastman is 
treasurer and general manager. The general ofifices are located at the corner of 
Voght and State streets in this city and the works at Kodak Park, in the town of 
Greece. Mr. Eastman is the pioneer of the photographic business in this .section ; 
he is the originator of the phrase, "You press the button, we do the rest," and in- 
ventor of the kodak and other photographic apparatus and processes. 

Padiera, Dr. George W., was born in Prussia, September 28, 1837, and, after pass- 
ing successfully through all the branches of the common schools of his native coun- 
try he became a student in the medical department of the University of Breslau, 
from which institution he was graduated with the degree of M.D. in 1863. After 
passing the State examinations he began the practice of his jirofession in Germany. 
Later he entered the Prussian army and acted as surgeon in the Austrian and 
Prussian war, where he remained until the close of that conflict in 1866. He then 
practiced in Breslau until 1870, when he came to America and took up his residence 
in Rochester, where he has since resided. He is a member of the Monroe County 
Medical Society, and one of the leading physicians of the city. 

Allen, Frederic P., was born in Rochester, N. Y., and has been identified with the 
banking interests of this city for twenty-five years. He held the position of teller in 
the Traders National Bank for more than ten years, and since 1888 has been cashier 
of the German American Bank. He is also treasurer of the Rochester Railroad 
Company, the Rochester and Irondequoit Railroad Company, the Rochester Savings 
and Loan Association, and the Rochester State Hospital, commissioner of the Sink- 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 177 

ing Fund of the city of Rochester, and one of the managers of the Genesee Valley 
and Country clubs. In 1874 he married Miss Caroline Clarke, daughter of the late 
Hon. Freeman Clarke, of Rochester. 

Everest, Charles Marvin, was born in Wisconsin, December 2."), 1852, and received 
his first schooling in .South Cleveland, Ohio. He removed with his father to Roch- 
ester in May, 1865, where he attended No. 13 school and Free Academy, also re- 
ceiving a partial course in the University of Rochester. In 1868 he first entered the 
employ of the Vacuum Oil Company and has been vice-president and treasurer since 
1879. His father, Hiram B., was born in Wyoming county, N. Y., in 1830, and was 
graduated from Middlebury Academy. He then went to Wisconsin, where he en- 
gaged in the nur.sery business, remainirg until 1856, when he removed to Cleveland, 
Ohio. There he purcha.sed a tract of woodland, built a saw mill, and engaged in the 
luml:(er business. In 1865 he came to Rochester, his father, Joseph Everest, coming 
from Wyoming county about the same time; he became interested in the expermients 
of Mr. Ewing, which led to the organization of the Vacuum Oil Company in 1866. 
In 1878 Mr. Everest, sr. , leased a large tract of land in Wyoming county, which in- 
cluded the farm and birthplace of his father, and drilled for oil. Instead of oil he 
discovered salt, the large salt industry of Western New York resulting. He retired 
from active business in 1879, and removed to Denver, Col., afterwards removing to 
Riverside, Cal , at which place he planted and is now cultivating the largest grove 
of navel oranges in the world, known as the "Everest Ranch," consisting of 100 
acres. In 1894 he picked 27,000 boxes, or ninety car-loads, of fruit. His father, 
Joseph Everest, was born at Salisbury, Conn., emigrated to this State when quite 
young, and was one of the early settlers of Western New York. Mr. Everest is a 
descendant of Andrew Everest, of York, Maine, about 1650. 

Paine, L. C. — The Paine Drug Company, the oldest drug house in Rochester, was 
founded in 1820 by William Pitkin, who was succeeded by L. B. Swan. Messrs. 
Lane & Paine became the proprietors in 1852, and in 1878 the style of the firm waai 
changed to C. F. Paine & Co. In 1878 the concern removed to its present location, 
24 and 36 East Main street, and early in 1895 the Paine Drug Company was organ- 
ized, being composed of Messrs. L. C. Paine, C. D. Van Zandt, and W. R. Barnum. 
The premises occupied bv this leading establishment are worthy of its fame, compris- 
ing the spacious four-story and basement brick and stone building, with stone front, 
30 by 100 feet. The establishment is thoroughly stocked on every floor with a com- 
plete line of goods pertainihg to the drug trade. 

Ludolph, Andrew, was born in Rochester, N. Y., May 16, 1864. When a few 
months old his father died and Mr. Ludolph was adopted by the late Colonel Klinck, 
with whom and with other members of the family he lived until seventeen years of 
age. He attended No. 15 school, and in 1887 began the study of law in the office of 
Satterlee & Yeoman. He was admitted to the bar at the Rochester General Term in 
October, 1891. In the spring of that year he was appointed managing clerk in the 
city attorney's office and filled that position for two years, when he entered into 
partnership with Arthur Warren, under the firm name of Ludolph & Warren, for 
the general practice of law, with offices in the Granite building. He is a member of 
Yonondio Lodge, No. 163. F. & A. IM., and for several years was prominently con- 
nected with the Rochester Athletic Club. 



178 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Allen, Charles M., was born in Rochester, N. Y., October 9, 1845, and was gradu- 
ated from the Rochester High School in 1863, at which time he entered the Univers- 
ity of Rochester, from which he was graduated with high honors in 1867. He then 
attended the Law School of Philadelphia for one year, when he commenced the 
study of law io the office of Hon. William Farrer, of Rochester. He was admitted 
to the bar at the "Rochester General Term in December, 1868, and immediately be- 
gan the practice of his profession. He has since been in constant and successful 
]M-actice in this city, and has been attorney for the Genesee National Savings and 
Loan Association since March, 1893. This association was incorporated in March, 
1891, and considering its age has develojjed into one of the most exten.sive and suc- 
cessful fiduciary organizations in the State, representing a subscribed capital stock 
of §2,000,000. Mr. Allen has passed all the chairs in the L (). O. F., is a member of 
the Rochester Whist Club and the Bar Association, and has been treasurer of Ideal 
Union, No. 592, E. A. U., since its inception in 1887. He is the son of the late Newel 
Allen, D. D. S., the oldest dentist, at the time of his death in 1878, in Western New 
York. 

Forsyth, Daniel W., was born in Caledonia, September 22, 1856. He received his 
early education in his native town and later became a student at the Genesee Normal 
School, after which he entered the Bennett Medical College, where, in 1880, he re- 
ceived the degree of M. D. He practiced medicine at Hammond, Indiana, where he 
was coroner of Lake county in 1878-9, and afterwards at Dowagiac, Mich., where he 
was elected city treasurer. He then began the study of law. was in 1884 admitted 
to the bar in Michigan, and two years afterwards, upon examination, became an at- 
torney and counselor-at-law in New York State, located in Rochester, where he has 
since practiced his profession. He is a member of the law firm of Forsyth Brothers, 
who have a wide reputation as attorneys. In 1887 he was appointed assistant dis- 
trict attorney of Monroe county, under George A. Benton, district attorney; in 1891 
he was nominated and elected school commissioner of the Eighth ward, which ofifice 
he held until the passage of the Twentieth Ward Bill by the Legislature in 1892, 
which terminated his service as school commissioner. In the spring of that year he 
was elected alderman* of the Nineteenth ward and served one term. Owing to the 
inability of his brother, George D. Forsyth, district attorney, he was appointed 
special district attorney, and acted from January to July, 1895. During that period 
lie had charge of two noted murder trials, that of Gavin, who was charged with the 
murder of young Abbott at Charlotte, and that of Gallo, the Italian murderer, who 
was convicted and afterwards sentenced to death. 

Atwood, H. Franklin, was born in 1850 in Boston, where he attended the public 
schools for a number of years. He then went to Chicago and entered the insurance 
business and was rapidly promoted until in 1879 he became general agent in the 
West for the German Fire Insurance Company, of Rochester, and later was advanced 
to general adjuster. In 1883 he was elected secretary, which position he still retains. 
Mr. Atwood is a member of the Monroe Commandery and Hamilton Chapter, Fel- 
low of the Royal Microscopical Society of London, England, was two terms president 
of the Rochester Academy of Science, is vice-jiresident of the Rochester Club, and a 
nicmber of various other organizations of this city. In 1873 he married Nellie Rob- 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 179 

erts, of North Wales, and they have three children: Grace F., Isabel, and Edward 
S., the latter a student at Rochester University. 

Cornell, Mrs. Walter.— Walter Cornell was born in Cayuga county, N. Y., in 1842. 
He came with his parents to Rochester when a boy and later came to Permtou, 
where he lived with an uncle and worked by the month until 1868, when he enlisted 
in Co. A, 140th N. Y. Vols. He was wounded in both arms at the battle of the Wil- 
derness, after which he returned to Fairport. In 18G9 he bought the farm in Pen- 
field, where he has since been engaged in gardening. Mr. Cornell married Emeline, 
daughter of Joseph and granddaughter of Patrick Butler, of Fairport. They have 
one daughter, Louisa M., now Mrs. C. B. Rogers. 

Caley, Mrs. Mary G.— The late Thomas Caley was born in the Isle of Man in 1821, 
and was the son of a clergyman of the Church of England. He was carefully edu- 
cated with special attention devoted to bookkeeping, but evinced a strong preference 
for a mechanical trade, and, consequently, took up blacksmithing. When twenty- 
two years of age he came to Rochester and established a repair shop at Brighton, 
and acquired some local fame as an expert artificer in metal. He was the founder 
of the large business now conducted by Caley & Nash. In 1843 he was married to 
Mary G. Hickok, the daughter of an old Vermont family, and whose father was one 
of the first settlers of Irondequoit. Their four children are dead. Francis Herschel, 
the elder, was a member of the 21st New- York Cavalry, and was unable to endure 
the horrors of prison life at Andersonville. He was a young man of especial promise. 
Thomas Irving, Charles Howard, and an infant daughter, did not survive childhood. 
Mr. Caley's death occurred October 18, 1884; it was widely mourned and felt to be a 
personal loss. Upright, honorable, always guided by conscience, stooping to do no 
wrong— would that there were more men like him. 

Charlton, John, was born in Wilkshire, England, November 19, 188o. His father, 
Aaron Charlton, was a carpenter and joiner. John was, when a youth, apprenticed 
to a landscape gardener at one of the great country houses, a premium being paid* 
and no salary drawn. Alternating between " Langhath House" and the village 
school, he became master of a fine education and of his business at the same time. 
He came to America when twenty-one years old. He passed the winter of 185G at 
Toronto with some fellow voyagers, and the ensuing spring advertised for a situa- 
tion and received a reply from George J. Whitney, of Rochester, which resulted in 
Mr. Charlton being employed by him. Then for four years he was gardener for Jo- 
seph Hall, at the expiration of which term, he returned to the land of his birth for a 
brief visit, spending in that locality the winter of 1861. After returning, he took 
charge of Mr. Hall's gardens and greenhouses until 1865, at which date he estab- 
lished the " University Avenue Nurseries," where he has built up and maintains an 
enormous business, strictly wholesale in its character. Mr. Charlton came to America 
with little or no available capital, and his present position is the result and the re- 
ward of his own industry and genius. In 1854 he married Sarah McAskae, of Roch- 
ester. Their children are: John, Joseph, Fanny, and Margaret. Both sons are now 
associated wath the home business. 

Crippin, Mrs. Sarah, is the daughter of John Turner and the widow of Norton R. 
Crippin, who died July 8. 1890, leaving one son, Norton B., and one daughter, Mary 



180 LANDMARKS OP MONROE COUNTY. 

A. Mrs. Crippin's fathei' was among the «arly settlers in the uortheastern part of 
Penfield, where he lived some years before movinj? to Michigan, where he died. 
Since the death of her hLisband, Mrs. Crippin has carried on the farm whicii Mr. 
Crippin settled in 18 5. 

Craib, James, is of Scottish birth, having been born in Banffshire, in 1833. He 
was early apprenticed to a gardener at Edinburgh, his father, Charles Craib, having 
l)een a seed grower. When twenty-three years of age he sailed for America, having 
no capital save a few pounds, after paying jjas.sage, but the possessor of an indom- 
itable will and a master of the art of landscape gardening. Mr. Craib became a valued 
employee and associate of the late James Vick, and was for eight years his foreman. 
He was soon enabled to purchase a small place of his own, and in 1869 came to his 
present location in Bright(jn township, but practically within the suburbs of Rf)ch- 
ester. Here he has fifteen acres devoted to seed growing and horticulture, contract- 
ing largely with Ferry of Detroit and other firms of national renown. Surrounded 
by the fruits of his own toil and skill, he may indeed be called the architect of his 
own fortune. 

Clark, George \V., was born in Penfield in 1831, son of Alpheus, and grandson of 
Calvin Clark, who settled in Penfield in 1800. Mr. Clark's mother was Rhoda, daugh- 
ter of Libeus Ross, also an early settler. The Clark family have been am!)ng the 
prominent families of the town for nearly a century, the men being noted for their 
integrity and public spirit. Mr. Clark was the first assessor of the town and was 
supervisor for several years, and in 1893 was a member of the Conslilulional Con- 
vention. He has always been engaged in farming. 

Carpenter, Lewis B., was born in Chili, December 8, 1850, son of John H., who 
was a native of Vermont and came to Monroe county in 1830, settling at Pittsfcird. 
He afterwards came to Chili and engaged in farming, purchasing 150 acres on the 
banks of the Genesee River. John H. held numerous town offices, justice of the 
peace, town clerk, etc. He married, first, Mary Knapp, by whom he had one son, 
Lewis. Lewis Carpenter is among the prominent farmers of Chili. He was super- 
visor from 1888 to 1891. He was also a.ssessor for a number of years. He is a mem- 
ber of the County Democratic Conmiittee and chairman of the town Democratic 
Comtnittee He is also a member of the F. & A. M. Yonondio Lodge 103 of Roch- 
ester, and a Knight Templar. Mr. Carpenter married, fii>t, Emily Worcester, by 
whdiii he had two children : Jojin H. and Mary E. lie afterwards married Libbie 
Trolt, by whom he has one son, Lewis B. 

Curtis, James. — Philander Curtis, son of Zacharia Curtis, was born March 14, 1790, 
and died March 21, 1800. He was born in Vermont, but at an early date came to 
Camillus, N. Y., from which town Philander came to Parma. He became a suc- 
cessful farmer and accumulated a large property, having 325 acres of land. He 
furnished means to build one-half of the M. E. Church at North Parma and his 
, house was the customary home of all itinerant preachers. In Camillus Mr. Curtis 
married Laura Goodrich, by whom he had these children: Harriet, who mar- 
ried William Foster; Charles, who lived and died in Parnia; Nancy, who married 
Elias Curtis; and Caroline, who married Jacob Riker. His first wife died May 1, 
1825, and August 14, 1825, Mr, Curtis married Catherine Scofield, by whom he had 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 181 

four children Philander, Benjamin, Laura, and James. James was born September 
3, 184H, and has always lived on the same farm, which is one of the best in Parma. 
He began raising high grade stock ten years ago. July 14, 1864, James Curtis mar- 
ried Emily L., daughter of J. Milton Webster of the Ridge. They have four chil- 
dren: Milton, Fred W., Albert B., and one other who died in infancy. Jf)hn Milton 
Webster was a native of Connecticut, born in March, 1810, and coming to Parma 
at the age of twent^^-one. In Onondaga county he married Rebecca Mead, bv whom 
he had these children: Amelia, Jane, Charles M., Emily L., Mary, Ida J., John M., 
and Edmund D. Mr. Webster died August 30, 188"), and his wife, April 22, 1S80. 

Chase, James Darwin, son of James Chase, was born where he now lives, August 
1, 1843, and with the exception of about two years spent in Iowa, he has always 
lived in Parma. His whole life and effort has been devoted to farm work and sub- 
stantial success has been its result. Mr. Chase has been excise commissioner. He 
is a member and one of the deacons of the Christian Church. Mr. Chase has been 
twice married, his first wife being Rosetta, daughter of Henry Miller, of Greece, by 
whom he had one son, Frank E., now in the West. His wife died in 1872, and on 
March 25, 1874, Mr. Chase married Eunice Gallup of Maine, Broome county. Six 
children have been born of this union, three of whom are now living. 

Collins, J. Byron. — Calvin Collins was one of the pioneers of the Ridge in Parma 
and was for many years one of the leading men of the town. He came from Litch- 
field, Conn., in 1814 and settled where his grandson, J. Byron Collins, now lives. He 
cleared and owned some 600 acres. His wife, whom he married in 1814, was Clarissa 
Guild, and their children were: John H., April 19, 1817, died October 4, 1894; Eliza, 
married William Stebbins; Cicero, was in the south and con.scripted into the Confed- 
erate service, escaped into Mexico, then went to Wisconsin where he now lives; Lo- 
vinia, married Darius Kendall, lives in Colorado; Tyranus died in Holley; and By- 
ron, now in California. John H. always lived in Parma and became a successful 
farmer and extensive produce dealer. He was unfortunate in business and his for- « 
tune was wrecked. However, assisted by his sons, he recovered much of his lost 
ground, but he never lost his standing or good name in all his long career. His wife 
was Sarah M. Talmadge, whom he married February 18, 1843. Their children were: 
Irving, now in Minnesota; Samuel B., in Jackson, Mich. ; William A., and Mary J., 
both of whom died young; Gertrude, wife of O. B. Wood, of Ogden ; Franklin T., 
in Minnesota; James Byron, of Parma; and Charles H., of Parma Corners. James 
B., who lives on the old farm, married Mary E. Davis by whom he has one child, 
Gertrude. Levi Talmadge came from Connecticut previous to 1812 and kept a log 
hotel at the Corners and owned the four corners. Alva Talmadge was also from 
Connecticut and was a carpenter. He died in 1876 and his wife in 1891. She was 
Mary Whitcomb, and their children were Sarah, who married John M. Collins; and 
Ferdinand, n(nv in Battle Creek, Mich 

Clark, Francis, was born on the Clark homestead, September 21, 1830, a son of 
John, a native of Vermont, who came from Madison county to Monroe in 1802, and 
settled on the farm where his son now resides. This property has been in the pos- 
session of the family for eighty-two years. John Clark married Rhoda Church, and 

his death occurred in IS.K; in jiis sevcntv-si.\lh vcar. Francis Clark was educated in 



182 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

the public schools and in 1852 married Mary, dau.c;hter f>f Joseph Parker, by whom 
he has two children: Frederick, and Mrs. Julia Fowler. Our subject is a practical 
and successful atjriculturist. 

Cook, R. J., was born in Sweden, July 21, 1H29, a son of Justus Cook, a native of 
Madison county, who came from there in 1815 with an ox team, making the journey 
in a week. He married Elizabeth Bryant, and became a prosperous farmer. He 
took an active interest in the development of his town, and his death occurred in 
1878 in his seventy-ninth year. R. J. Cook was educated at Brockport, after which 
he t(X)k up farming. In 1876 he married Imogene Capen, who died in 1879, and for 
his second wife he married Laura Burritt, daughter of Benjamin Sheldon. Our sub- 
ject has taken an active interest in all local affairs for the development of his town. 

Crary, Eli, was born in Sweden, this county, December 29, 1823, a son of Ephraim 
Crary, who was born in Albany and came to Monroe county in 18.9. He married 
Margaret Wetzel, and always ff)llowed agriculture. Eli Crary was educated in the 
common schools, to which he has added by reading and observation, and like his 
father has engaged in farming. In 1854 he married Susan W. , daughter of Isaac 
Houston, and they have these children: John H., Jay, and Henry. Mf. Crary occu- 
pies a prominent position among the farmers of this locality. 

Castle, Isaac, was born in Roxbm-y, Conn., in 1787, and came with his brothers, 
Samuel and Abram, to Parma in 1810, in which town all were pioneers. Isaac 
served in the War of 1812, and was in all respects a worthy and loyal citizen. In 
1833 he built the cobble house, now occupied by his son. Isaac married Laura Will- 
iams, and had ten children: Darwin S., John W. , Orsamus A., Andrew J., Isaac M., 
Francis A., Laura L., Esther J., Rebecca, and Louisa M. In early life Isaac taught 
school in Parma, but chieflj^ followed agriculture. He died in 1875 and his wife in 
1871. Darwin S. was born in Parma July 7, 1818, and is now among the oldest men 
in the town, perhaps the very oldest native here. He has accumulated a comforta- 
ble fortune, and enjoys the respect and esteem of his fellow citizens. In 1842 he 
married Emily R. Foster, by whom he had three children : Henry C. and Althea A. , 
both of whom died in infancy; and Charles Edson, who lives on the homestead with 
his father. Mrs. Castle died October 16, 1891. Mr. Castle has been for many years 
a member of the M. E. church, and also its trustee for several j'ears. Charles E. 
Castle was born January 18, 1863, and in 1887 married Ella E. Williams of Parma. 
They have one child. 

Cromwell, James, was born in New York city, October 11, 1789, where he lived till 
1823, doing a successful grocery business. On account of his large family of sons, 
however, he determined to take up farm life, and accordingly bought the David 
Corser farm in Ogden, comprising 207 acres of good land, to which he brought his 
family, and in 1825 erected the large brick house now owned and occupied b\- his son 
Gilbert. Mr. Cromwell died on the old place Mtirch 8, 1870, and his wife January 2, 
1868. Their children were Oliver, William, Mary A., Bogart, Sally, George, Matilda, 
Margaret, James, Henry, John, Sally 2d, and Elizabeth. Gilbert was born October 
24, 1834, on the farm he now owns, and with the exception of about five years has 
always lived there. He has led a quiet life, taking no part in the more active 
politics of his town. In 1869 he married Sarah Bradley, and has had two children, 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 183 

Frank and Maude. Samuel B. Bradley was born in Westmoreland, Oneida county, 
and settled in Parma in 1830. He was a graduate of Union College, and read medi- 
cine with Dr. Seth Hastings of Clinton. N. Y., then came to Parma, two years later, 
however, going to Canada, where he became a famous scholar, being conversant 
with Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and many of the modern languages. He was also a 
prominent botanist, and an authority on many of the leading questions of the day. 
He was elected to the Assembly in 1828. He finally settled in West Greece, from 
which po nt he practiced medicine many years, dying October 3, 18S(). His first wife 
was Cornelia Bradley, and his second was Sarah Bartlett Crane, who bore him three 
children: Cornelia, William, and Sarah. 

Cox, Francis E., was born in the town of Rush, June 6, 1838, a son of Darius Cox, 
a native of Wheatland, born in 1809, whose father was Isaac Cox, of Dutchess 
county, who was born in 1786. The latter was a .son of Samuel Cox. The family 
traces its ancestry back to 1640, when three brothers of the name came from Ireland. 
These were unusually stahvart men, over six feet tall, and well fitted to cope with 
the new country. Isaac, grandfather of our subject, came to this county in 1800, 
and followed farming and milling in Scottsville, where he owned considerable real 
estate. He donated the properly used and known as the Cox Cemetery in Wheat- 
land. His wife was Anna Shadbolt, a native of Westchester county, born in May, 
1788 a daughter of Darius and Martha Shadbolt, who came to Monroe county in 
1805. The father of our subject was a farmer, and spent most of his life in Livings- 
ton county. He married Sarah Mitchell, of Pennsylvania, and their children were 
Helen, Francis, George, Angeline, Cortez, and Isaac. He died in 1884, and his 
widow, now aged ninety, resides with her daughter, Mr.s. Isaac Budlongof this town. 
Francis E. remained at home until the age of twenty-eight, when he removed to his 
present farm of 125 acres, and has since been activelj' engaged in general farming. 
In 1864 he married Henrietta Harris, of Putnam county, and their children are 
Lewis M., Walter S., and Robert B. 

Conster, Bladwin, was born in Germany, and came to .America in 1833. He re- 
sided in Rochester until 1865, then removed to Webster and bought the farm where 
he has since lived, engaged in general farming. He is the father of these children: 
Joseph H., Jacob H., Lewis B. , Caroline M., wife of Peter Klein, who lives on the 

farm with her father. 

Cowles, J. B., M. D., of Fairport, was born at Windham, Greene county. His 
father, Norman Cowles, was a furniture dealer of Rochester, where his son. the sub- 
ject, was educated at the old Rochester High School. His medical studies began 
with Dr. Hoyt of Palmyra, with whom he remained three years then took a course 
of lectures at Ann Arbor. Mich. After some practice he took a postgraduate cour.se 
at Long Island Hospital College in 1878, since which he has practiced at Fairport, 
making a specialty to some extent of the diseases of women and children. Dr. 
Cowles is a staunch Republican, an Odd Fellow and a Mason. 

Crocker, A. J., born at Sardinia, Erie county, May 2, 1839, son of Philander C. 
Crocker, received his education at Marion Collegiate Institute, and his first business 
venture was as a traveling confectioner, in which he continued ten years. In 1884 
he located on the Bostworth farm and has developed a talent for successful farming. 



184 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

the more noteworthy bcL-ause of the widespread depression that industry has siilTered. 
December 27, 18GG, he married Emily L. Atwood of Marion. 

Colby, Ephraim, and Mary, his wife, were among the pioneers of Ogden. the 
former born in 1747 and the latter in 174.'). Their children were Ephraim, Mary, 
Zacheus, Mary 2d, Abraham, Isaac, Timothj , Eastman and Merrill. C(j1. Eastman 
Colby, frequently mentioned in Ogden town history, was one of the foremost men of 
the town, and received his title from service in the State militia during 1812. He 
married Hannah Niles, and their children were Harriet, Eastman, jr., Amos N., 
Hannah M., Edward H., Charles, Abram and Sarah. Of these Harriet, Eastman 
and Charles are deceased. Colonel Colby was born m New Hampshire in 1785 and 
died in 1859. His wife was born in 1794 and died in 18S0. The family Fettled on 
Colby street, north of where E. H. Colby now lives. The latter was born in his 
present home February 4, 1827, and has always lived in this immediate vicinity. He 
has followed agriculture, has always been interested in public affairs, and is a firm 
but conservative Republican. For thirty-five years he has been an active member 
and trustee of the Baptist church. In 1848 he married Sarah, daughter of William 
Webster, the latter a member of one of the pioneer families of this region, and they 
have had these children: Harriet, wife of Louis M. Millener; Frances, wife of A. D. 
Preston; George E., Ella, wife of Lewis W. Adams, and William W., all of Ogden. 

Buckland, Leonard, than whom no man living in the town of Brighton can claim 
a longer residence, was born at Phelps, N. Y., in 1811, his parents removing to 
Brighton three years later. His father was Abner Buckland, from Hebron, Conn., 
who settled at Phelps in 1804. Of six .sons and one daughter, Leonard is the sole 
survivor For forty years he was a brick manufacturer, besides having large farm- 
ing interests, and being a contracting builder in Rochester. Always a Republican, 
his life has been too busy for political affairs. Mr. Buckland was first married in 
18:34, and his three daughters, Almira, Edna, and Harriet, are married and residents 
of i^righton. He has also one son, Warren C. He has lived for si.xt}^ years on the 
same farm, and his personal reminiscences are naturally interesting. He distinctly 
recollects Sam Patch's acrobatic feats of 1825. 

Burritt, Isaac, a native of Connecticut, came to Cliili in JSlfi bringing with him his 
young wife, and took up land in the town. In 1852 he removed to Ogden, living for 
a time at Spencerport, but later returned to Chili, where he died. His children were 
John, born in 1815, who died in the West Indies in 1885; Augusta, who married Dr. 
Joseph Bangs; James, deceased; Leonard, of Ogden; Ann, who married H. D. 
Vroom ; Isaac, who died in Texas; Chauncey, also deceased. Leonard, was born in 
Chili, February 14, 1828, was educated in Riga Academy, and in Berkshire, Mass. 
He made his own way in life after reaching eighteen, and for a time resided in 
Michigan. In 1852 he returned to Ogden where his father lived, and here he has 
since resided He has served as assessor, collector of government taxes, in 1871-3 
was member of assembly; and from 1881 to 1889 was supervisor of this town. His 
has been an active political career, and a successful one. For forty years he has 
been a member of the Presbyterian church, as has also his wife. In 1856 Mr. Bur- 
ritt married Sophronia, daughter of Horatio Davis, of Riga, and they have three 
children: Chauncey, now of La Peer, Mich. ; William I., of Rochester, and Horatio, 
of this town. 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 185 

Burns. Capt. William II., was born in the town of Murray, May 29, 1842, a son of 
Walton Burns, who came to the town of Sweden in 1812 with his father, Robert 
Burns. Walton married Hannah, daughter of Isaac Smith, who was a pioneer of 
Orleans county. William H. was educated in the common schools, and is a self- 
made man. In 1864 he married Laura Page, who died in 180(5, and in 1807 he mar- 
ried Sophia Barrett, and they have seven children: Willard K., Henry A., Edw^ard 
C, Mrs, Laura L. Townsend, Grace L., Alice M., and Bessie C. In 18C9 he engaged 
in the hardware business at Leslie, Mich., then removed to Lansing, and sold musi- 
cal instruments. In 1878 he returned to Murray and engaged in the real estate busi- 
ness, coming to Brockport in 1888, where he engaged in the steamboat business, at 
present owning and controlling a number of boats plying from Rochester to Buffalo. 
Our subject is one of the enterprising men of his town. 

Bellinger. Charles H., was born in Clark.son, February 18, 18:39, a son of John F. 
Bellinger, who came from Herkimer county to Clarkson in 1825. The latter married 
Ann Marcellus, and took a prominent part in the affairs of his town, and was an 
elder in the Presbyterian church. He died in 1885, in his eighty-second year. 
Charles H. was educated at the academy at Clarkson, and in 1862 enlisted in Co. A, 
140th N. Y. Vols., participating in the battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellor.sviUe, 
Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, and many other engagements of lesser 
note, receiving an honorable discharge at the close of the war in 1865. In 1893 he 
established his present business of general merchandise and groceries. In 1874 he 
married Harriet E. Flint, and has had two children: Frederick A. and Willis A. He 
has served as assessor and was appointed postmaster in 189!}. 

Brownson, Isaac, was born in Genesee county in 1819, a son of Gideon Brownson. 
Mr. Brownson worked in Mendon for some years, and was later engaged in business 
there. In 1861 he came to Rochester and opened a grocery store on Main street, 
east of the river. In 1867 he removed to Penfield, and in 1868 opened a store there, 
and was postmaster for thirteen years, after which his daughter filled the office iof 
three years. He has one son, Lewis, and two daughters, 

Brailer, Leo, who is a native of Penfield, is one of four sons of Joseph Brailer, who 
came from Germany in 1857, and settled on a farm. Mr. Brailer is now engaged in 
the meat market business, having opened a store in 1886. He is also a butcher. He 
has one son, l^ouis. 

Barker, Albert N., was born in Augusta, Oneida county, January 2, 1839, a son of 
Milo and Esther Barker. His father, a veterinary surgeon, came to Parma in 1844. 
Albert resided on a farm until 1872, when he learned the blacksmith trade, which he 
thereafter followed until his retirement in 1891. In 1861 Mr. Barker enlisted in Co. 
M, 3d N.Y. Cavalry, and served three years. He was pre.sent at the first attack on 
Petersburg in 1864. While on the Wilson raid Mr. Barker was wounded in the hip, 
and confined to the hospital for a month. He was mustered out at Suffolk, Va.. in 
1865. Returning home he resumed farming.' but later spent three years in the oil 
regions. Since his retirement from blacksmithing he has dealt in agricultural im- 
plements. He has taken a prominent part in local politics, having served as justice 
of the peace and justice of sessions. October 17. 1893, he assumed the duties of post- 
master of Spencerport. He is a Mason, a member of the G .\.R . of the A.O.U. W.. 



180 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

and is serving his second term as village trustee. In 1801 Albert N. Barker married 
Mary J. Hinton, and of their five children two survive: George C. and Sarah E. 

Blackford, Samuel, who for twenty-five years was among Ogden's business men, 
was born in Worcestershire England, and came to this country at the age of twenty- 
five. He was a miller by trade, and for a time worked in Rochester, and later 
worked on the Chapman farm for a time. Still later he came to Spencerport and 
was employed in the mills there. In 1844 he bought the mill, which he conducted till 
18(il, when he sold the property and bought a farm, which he operated till 18G7, then 
removed to Greece. He died in Charlotte in 1875. His wife was Amy Jones, also 
born in England, by whom he had five children: Joseph, Sarah, Matilda, Susan and 
Jane (deceased). Mr. Blackford returned to England in 1850, having sold his mill, 
but repurchased it on his return to the town. Joseph Blackford was born August 18, 
1842, and has always resided in this county, having been for several years an active 
central figure m business circles. He began business at Town Pump, drilling wells, 
and his wife taught school there. In 1868 he went to the Genesee country, but re- 
turned to Ogden, and after working as a carpenter and well driller, he came to 
Adams Basin for six years and engaged in the grocery and produce business, when 
he dropped the grocery business and engaged only in produce, which has since been 
a leading interest in the town, and by far the most extensive in its locality. The 
warehouse was built about 1884, and Mr. Blackford became its proprietor iu 1894. 
He has served. as constable, collector, overseer of the poor, etc. His first wife was 
Mary L. Foower, by whom he had five children. She died in 1883, and in 1884 he 
married Myra A., daughter of Silas Dole, by whom he has one child. 

Bush, Conrad, came from Seneca county to Parma about 1828 with a large family 
of children, among them Heniy, Gilbert, Rachael, Polly, Christopher and Peter, 
and of these only Gilbert survives. He was born in Seneca county in 1805, and 
married Mary Holmes. Of their children three grew to maturity: Rebecca A., who 
married Lewis Ireland; Hannah, wife of Willard S. Peck, and Mary C, who mar- 
ried George D. Keiiyon, and resides in California. His first wife died about 1846, 
and Mr. Bush married, second, Charlotte Brewer, now deceased. Gilbert Bush is a 
self-educated and well informed man, who by frugality and industry has amassed a 
good property. He is still active, though ninety years old. Willard S. Peck was 
born in Levviston, Niagara county. May 7, 1828, and was a son of Alva and Lovica 
Peck and the seventh of their nine children. Both parents are now deceased, having 
died when Willard was but nine. Since that time he has been forced to make his 
own way in life, and his efforts have been plentifully rewarded. He resided in 
various towns of this county before settling permanently in Parma, his first farm 
having been in Clarkson. He now owns and occupies one of the best appointed 
places in the town. In 1855 he married Hannah Bush, and they have had one child, 
Fanny Adelia, who died aged nineteen. 

Berridge, William R., whose comfortable home and splendid farm are located just 
east of the village of North Parma, was born in Parma, September 28, 1843, a son of 
William Berridge, one of Parma's foremost men of his day. William R. was a 
farmer, and an active and energetic young man, whose career was suddenly cut 
.short in 187!), he having died October 26, of that year. January 1, 1868, he married 



l^AMILY SKETCflES. 187 

Bessie White Draffin, daughter of WiUiam Drafifin, of this town, and tiieir cliildren 
were Marietta, who married Philo P. Clapper, of Parma; Maggie I., and Mabel, who 
died in childhood. Mr. Berridge is remembered as one of the active young men of 
Parma, and a leader in the Democratic jiarty. He was a member of the Baptist 
church. 

Bulkeley, H. L., was born in the town of Sweden, January 27, 1848. His father, 
Guy R., was a native of Genesee county and came to Monroe in 1842. His wife was 
Elsie A., daughter of Peter Smith. His death occurred in 1889, in his seventy- 
second year. H. L. Bulkeley was educated in the Brockport Collegiate Institute, 
and in 1873 married Emeline, daughter of Seth Harris. Our subject is one of the 
prosperous and successful men of the town. 

Bass, Loring, who for many years was a carpenter and builder of Parma, was a 
native of Otsego county. He died in Parma Center in 1885, and his wife in 1887. 
They had five children who grew to maturity: Hanford, Adelbert, Amelia A.,Velora 
and Ella. Hanford Bass was born March 5, 1839, and followed farming until Octo- 
ber, 1861, when he enlisted in Co. C, 26th N.Y.Vols. , and was in the service twenty- 
one months, being mustered out July 2, 1863, at Utica, after which he was wardmaster 
in the General Hospital at David's Island two years, returning to Parma July 4, 1865. 
He then engaged with his father as carpenter and builder, which partnership con- 
tmued twelve years, after which he was engaged ten years for himself. In 1885 he 
opened a lumber yard at North Parma, and in 1890 added a coal yard. He has also 
dealt in other wares and carried on an extensive and successful business. He has 
also been active in political affairs in Parma, serving two j^ears as village president. 
In 1866 he married Adeline Castle, and their only child, Libbie, died aged twenty. 
Abram Castle, of the pioneer family of Castles in Parma, had several children, 
among them being Emeline, Polly, Nelson and Clark. Emeline went to Chicago; 
Polly, married Nelson Taber and removed to Tompkins county, and Clark died in 
Parma. Nelson married twice, his second wife being Emeline Hall and their chiM 
dren are as follows. Adeline, Amy, Frank, and one who died young. Nelson Castle 
died at the age of eighty-three. 

Barrett, T. E. — The Barretts are of an English family, and long of commercial im- 
portance at Portsmouth, England, where Robert BaiTett was born in 1817 and be- 
came in later life a skilled joiner and boat builder. In 1835 he came to America and 
settled in Rochester, first practicing his trade of calker, and later establishing an in- 
dependent business as builder, with a dry dock at Charlotte. In 1895 we find him 
retired from a successful business, making his home on a suburban farm near Pitts- 
ford, purchased in 1888, consisting of 150 acres of choice land. Of thirteen children 
born to Robert Barrett, but two sons survive: Thomas E. and Robert, jr., the latter 
now operating a lighter in the waters adjacent to New York city. Thomas Barrett 
still conducts a large boat-building business at Lock 66, the firm being Robert 
Barrett & Son. In 1874 he married Lydia Yeoman, of Rochester, by whom he had 
four children. She died in 1880. His present wife was Annie L. Cleary, of Roches- 
ter, by whom he has three children. 

Beedle, Ichabod, was born in Sweden, December 20, 1821, a son of James, one of 
the pioneers of the town, and bought a tract of woodland, which he cleared. lie 



188 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

married Abigail Beedle, and of their ten children four survive. His death occurred 
in 1827 in his fifty-fifth year. Ichabod Beedle was educated in the public s-x-hools, 
and in 1845 married Mary Wheelock, by whom he had one son, Rufus. He is a 
practical and successful farmer, taking an active interest in all local affairs. 

Bailey, David L., was born in Haddam, Conn., in 1817, ason of Jonathan R. Meigs 
Bailey, born there in 1779, whose father was Jacob, a native of England, who came 
to America, and was killed at the battle of Stony Point, July 16, 1779. Jonathan 
was reared on the homestead and for many years followed carpentry. He came to 
this town in 1837, and settled land now owned by our subject, where he followed 
farming and also plied his trade, being a mechanical genius. He manufactured many 
elagaut clock cabinets for the old-fashioned wall clocks, many of which are still stand- 
ing in the houses in this region. One of these old clocks still stands in the hall of 
our subject's home, which was made by Jonathan in 18)1. The wife of the latter 
was Hannah Shaler of his native place, born in 1781. Their children were Jonathan, 
Sallie N., Chauncey, Hezekiah, Meigs, David, Cynthia S. , Marvin S. and Harvey. 
They died ou the old homestead, cared for by their son, David. Mr. Bailey has al- 
was followed farming, and has taken some interest in i olitics, having served nine 
years as commissioner of highways. In 1844 he married Laura G. Brainard. of Had- 
dam, Conn., and their children are Brainard T., Charles H>, and Harriet A , wife of 
William King, of New York. Charles H. was elected justice in 1889, but resigned 
to accept the office of under-sheriff, having served five years in that capacity. He is 
a member of. the Masonic fraternity. His wife is l^ylizabeth A., daughter of John and 
Sarah A. Springer, of Henrietta. Mrs. Bailey is a daughter of Roswell and Laura 
Brainard, of Connecticut. Mr. Brainard was for many years an officer on Blackwell's 
island, and his father was Ansel, son of Josiah Brainard, who was a lieutenant in the 
Revolution. He came to America in the ^layflower. 

Doa-e, Dr. W. H., of Pittsford, was born in Springfield, Ontario, October 28, lcS6G, 
a son of the late well-known and eminent physician George H. Doane, M. D. The 
elder Dr. Doane was also of Canadian birth, and came here in 1877, after eight years 
practice at North Branch, Mich. His death occurred here in 1892 at the age of fifty- 
five years. W. H. Doane may be said to have begun his medical studies in childhood, 
under the tuition of his late father. In 1886 he entered the IIom<Eopathic Medical 
College at Chicago. Graduating in 1889, he at once began practice, opening an office 
ill I'ittsford, where he ranks high as a physician, and where he is highly esteemed 
not less as a man and citizen, than in his professional capacity. In 1889 he married 
Miss Ida May Seeley of Rochester, and their chikken are Ruth D. and Harold S. 
Dr. Doane is a member of several medical societies, among them the New York State 
Homoeopathic Society, thereby keeping abreast of current medical research. 

Drake, sr., Elihu, a Connecticut farrier, came as far west as Chautauqua county in 
1851, and remained there six years, engaged in agriculture. In 1857 he settled in 
Pittsford, reaching the advanced age of eighty-four. His wife was Susan Boughton, 
of East Windsor, Conn., and their only child was Elihu A., jr. The elder Mrs. 
Drake survives her husband, and is now an inmate of her son's home at Pittsford. 
Mr. Drake is a master of several trades, among them being that of cigar making, 
and of carpentry and building While a resident in Chautauqua county, he married 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 189 

Elizabeth O. Granger, and of their four children, but one is now living, F. 11. Drake, 
the well-known druggist at Monroe and Alexander streets, Rochester. The other 
children died in infancy. 

Dunn, W. S., was born in Brockport, February 6, 1861. His father was a native 
of Ireland, and came to America in 1845 and settled in Brockport. William S. was 
educated in the Normal School at Brockport and later learned the trade of carriage 
trimmer. In 1885 he went to Rochester, and learned the undertaker's business, in 
which he established himself in Brockport in 1891, and in which he has met with 
much success, employing only the latest and most improved methods. He also 
carries a full line of furniture. In 1887 he married Cora Cunningham, and their 
children are Leslie and Cecil. 

Doty Family, The, is almost inseparably connected with the early history of both 
Ogden and Sweden. David, the pioneer, came from Albany county in 1811, and 
settled on the Doty farm. Lazarus Doty, oldest son of David, had previously looked 
over the lands and found them good, and there were four of the family who came, 
two settling m Ogden and two in Sweden. David's children were Lazarus, who died 
in Michigan ; David, who died where George now lives; Asa, who died in Brockport; 
Anson, who resides in Sweden; Vina, who died in Sweden; Peggy and Polly, both 
deceased. David Doty, jr., married Mehetable Leonard, and their children were 
William, Henry, Lydia, George W., Harrison, Sarah, Nancy, Susan and Lottie. 
David and wife both died at the home of their son George W. The latter is one of 
Ogden's best informed and well-known citizens, born July 4, 1830. After graduating 
from Brockport Academy he taught school in this vicinity twenty-three years, a 
record only equalled by his long service as choir leader in the M. E. church, which 
covered a period of forty-five years. Mr. Doty is also prominent in temperance work, 
having joined the Good Templars in 1856, and has been a temperance lecturer many 
years. He has also been a member of Ogden Grange, P. of H., and has held all the 
ofifices. In 1861 he married Helen F. Allen of Parma, and of their three children 
onlj?^ one now sur\-ives, Clarence A. Mr. Doty has also served as justice of the peace 
and is a trustee of the M. E. church. 

Davison, Ezekiel, a resident of Fairport for more than half a century, was born in 
Monmouth county, N. J., in 1819. His father, Jame.s, was a farmer. When twenty- 
one years of age Ezekiel came to Fairport and learned carpentry, following it until 
1854, when he removed to Michigan, and the next year settled in Illinois, where he 
remained twenty years, engaged in farming, and at one time he and a brother oper- 
ated 700 acres. In 1876 Mr. Davison returned to Fairport, since which he has led a 
somewhat retired life. But his mature judgment and uncompromi.sing probity have 
made his services as assessor almost imperative, and he has for many years filled 
that position with great credit. In 1851 Mr. Davison married Katharine C. Ellsworth 
of Ontario, Wayne county. Her father, Michael Ellsworth, was a soldier of the war 
of 1812, receiving a pension for his services. He was by trade a blacksmith, and of 
English birth, as are also the Davison family. Mr. Davison is now enjoying a well- 
earned rest from his long and active career, having a pleasant home surrounded by 
every comfort. 

Freeman Bnjther.-,, James, and Patrick, are the leading dealers in agricultural im- 



190 I^ANDMAIIKS oF MUN'KOE CCtUXTY. 

plements, carriages and wagons, coal and wood, in connection with which they con- 
duct a genera] repair shop and a blacksmith shop. They were born in 18")2 and 1^(55 
respectively, sons of Michael, a native of Ireland, born in 1828, a son of James Free- 
man, also of Ireland, who reared three sons and one daughter. Michael the father, 
came to America in 1849, coming direct to Rochester, where he resided ten years. 
From 1859 to 1890 he was engaged in farming, and since 1873 he has resided in 
Wheatland. His wife was Catherine Kenedy, of his native place, and their children 
are James, Patrick, Michael, Mrs. Mary Skivington, Margaret, who died aged twenty- 
two, Jennie, deceased wife of James Kane of Rochester, Catharine, who died aged 
twenty-two, and Johanna E. James learned blacksmithing at Mumford in 1876, 
and in 1889 the brothers formed a partnership, and have built up an extensive trade. 
James has served three terms as collector in this town. His wife was Susan Kane 
of Riga, and they have one child by adoption, Harvey. Patrick has served as poor- 
master two terms, constable one term, and is now serving as highway commissioner. 
In 1884 he married Mary A., daughter of John and Elizabeth McFarland, and thev 
have one child, John L. , born January 9, 1885. The brothers are members of the 
Knights of Maccabees. 

Fehr, Jacob, was born in Switzerland, and canie to America in 1853, and to the 
farm where he now lives in 1854, where he is known as one of the thrifty farmers of 
the town. His wife was Elizabeth White, and they have two sons, Jacob S. and 
Franklin, who assist in conducting the homestead farm. 

Fox, George W., is a son c^f Martin, and a grandson of Martin, sr. , who came to 
this town m an early day and settled on the farm where George W. now resides. 
Mr. Fox is a farmer, and also does quite an extensive business in evaporating apples. 
He married Jennie, daughter of Ira Luunsbury, of Penfield, who died leaving one 
son, Claud M. His present wife is Nellie, a sister of his lirst wife. 

Filkins, George S., was born at Penfield, June 14, 1838, and for many years has 
been a prominent builder of Fairport. His father, Isaac, was a farmer. Starting in 
life without capital, save energy and integrity, Mr. Filkins has hewn his own way to 
success and to an honored place among his fellow men. He had barely reached 
man's estate when he became a soldier of the "Old Thirteenth," and during two 
years of active service was a participant in many of the great battles. Like most of 
the gallant veteran soldiers, he is a staunch Republican, and has long been a trustee 
of the village. In 1863 he married Ada Benedict, by whom he had two sons, Allen 
G. and Ernest, who are now among the active business men of Fairport, operating a 
market and grocery in the brick block at No. 30 Main street, erected by Mr. Filkins 
in 1888. Mrs. Ada Filkins died in 1879, and in 1883 he married, second, Mary White, 
of Montezuma. Her children are Anna, Clarence and Howard. Her death occurred 
July 4, 1892. 

Fishell, Henry, is a son of John, whose father, Henry, came from near Gettysburg, 
Pa., to Rush in 1808, when John was a child. The elder Fishell bought land and 
settled on Hoyeoye Creek, the home.stead being still in the family. Of their seven 
children, John married Sarah Bell, of Rush, and had seven children. She died in 
1845, and he married second Mary F'ishell, a second cousin, by whom he had fourteen 
children. Of the twenty-one, eighteen are living and in prosperous circumstances. 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 191 

Jolin Fishell died in 1879. Heury Fishell was the oldest son, and he married Corne- 
lia Elwanger, and lives on a farm near Five Points. • He hasone son, Arehie I)., and 
a daughter, Hattie M. John Fishell was a man of means, and the father of these 
children. Margaret (Mrs. William Bell), Henry, Lmdna (Mrs. Wheeler), Susan (Mrs. 
Bell), Maria (Mrs. Kellogg), P.enjamin, Sarah (Mrs. Burton), Celinda (Mrs Burgett), 
Lovira, who died young, Caroline (Mrs. John Burgett), deceased. Miles A., William 
R., Martin, who resides on the old homestead, John, who died in Michigan, Helen, 
a widow, who resides at home, Emma (Mrs. Benjamin Hovey), Ada (Mrs. William 
Henry), Delia (Mrs. Longtier), and Avery. 

French, M. D. — In the earlie, :t annals of Monroe county the name of Alvm S. 
French occupies an honored and prominent po.sition. He was of an old Connecticut 
family, and a pioneer settler here, where he first lived in a log cabin, the site for 
which he cleared with his own axe. M. D. French was born at Brighton, November 
1, 1889, and educated chiefly at East Henrietta Academy. He had but,fairly reached 
man's estate at the outbreak of the late war, and in 1862 enlisted in the 18th N. Y. 
Battery, participating in the battles and sieges with bravery and good fortune. Just 
prior to enlistment Mr. French married Arminda Brown, of Brighton. Since 1865 
they have resided on the farm near Pittsford, where their modern residence was 
erected in 1890. Mr. French has served as assessor, and is a valued member of the 
G.A.R., the Masons, and the order of Patrons of Husbandry. 

Fellows, William, was born in Penfield in 1832, a son of William, who came from 
Sheffield, Mass., in 1816 and died here in 1888, leaving three sons, William, John 
and George. His mother was May, daughter of Horace Bush, and her mother was a 
daughter of Gen. John Fellows, of Sheffield, Mass. Mr. Fellows resides on the old 
Bush homestead, is a farmer, and has for the past four years been a highway com- 
missioner. He married Sarah, daughter of Andrew Lincoln, who erected the Lincoln 
Mills in Pittsford. 

Fahrer, John, was born in Penfield in 1804, and is a .son of John and Anna (Wan- * 
deron) Fahrer, who came from Germany to Penfield about 1850. His father died in 
1888, leaving one son, John, jr., as above. John married, January 6, 1892, Carrie 
S., daughter of Michael Brahler, and they settled on their present farm. 

Frost, S. P., was born in Steuben county, November 13, 1833. His father, D. I). 
Frost, was born in Danbury, Conn., the family having been among the earliest 
settlers of that State. D. D. Frost married Mary Eggleston, and of their five chil- 
dren two survive. He learned the carriagemaker's trade, and was also identified as 
a farmer, and in the mercantile business at Attica, where his death occurred in 1879. 
S. P. Frost was educated in the common schools and the Genesee and Wyoming 
Seminary, after which he engaged in the hat business until April, 1861, when he en- 
listed in the 2r)th N.Y.S. Militia as sergeant on the non-commissioned staff, and re- 
enlisted September 10, 1861, as private in Co. B, 91st N. Y. Vols., was promoted 
first lieutenant and sent to Florida, remaining until September 18, 1862, when he re- 
ceived an honorable discharge, and returned to Attica, engaging in the men's 
furnishing business. In 1867 he came to Brockport and bought the clothing and 
men's furnishing business which he now conducts. In 1861 Mr. Frost married Tem- 
perance, daughter of Peter Van Zandt, of Albany. 



192 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

iMiiclicr, John Alexander, was born in Seneca, N.V., in 1799, ami died in ()i;ilcn in 
1870. Although not a native of this county, he was for many years a resident here, 
and one of Ogden's most respected men. He began his business life here in the 
employ of Isaac Colby. In 1825 he married Betsey, daughter of Ephraim and Lydia 
Colby, the first white female child born in the town. She was born in 1803 and died 
in 1871. Their children were Elvira P., of Michigan; John A., of Rochester; Maria 
B., of Michigan; Jesse E., of Dakota; Sarah C, of Micliigan ; and Martha E., who 
married Joseph Parker and resides on her father's old home. Mr. Fincher bought 
the old Tucker place after a varied residence in the town. He was a successful man 
and enjoyed the esteem and confidence of his fellow-townsmen. His death occurred 
in 1870. Joseph Parker was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1834, and at the age of 
eight came with his parents to this country, settling first at Medina, and later in 
Michigan. In that State Mr. Parker married, first, Lydia A. Eebb and had one 
child, Charles R., of Ogden. In 1893 Mr. Parker married, second, Martha E.. 
youngest child of John A. Fincher, and lives on the old farm in Ogden. 

Edmunds, James M. — Among the men who may be considered personal landmarks 
of Brighton, none occupies a more promment place than Mr. Edmunds, who has for 
more than sixty years occupied the same home in the central part of the town. He 
was born at Adams, Jefferson county, June 25, 1809. Eliphalet Edmunds, his father, 
came here with his father in 1824, and this was his home until his death seventeen 
years later. James is the sole survivor of a family of ten children, of whom he was 
the youngest. Since his maturity he has always occupied a prominent place in local 
affairs, and now in the ripeness of his declining years cimimands the regard and 
esteem of all who know him. Besides holding minor offices, he has been assessor, 
and commissioner of schools. His wife, now deceased, was Melvina Sperry, of 
Greece. Their children are Julia, Roxana, James P., and Omar. 

Adams, Franklin and Leon F. — Franklin Adams was born in Penfield, in 1824, a 
son of Silas and Clarice (Baker) Adams, and a grandson of Jesse Adams, who came 
from Massachusetts and settled in East Penfield in 1801, where he died. Jes.se 
Adams left two sons, Moses and Silas, who died in Missouri. Franklin Adams 
settled on the farm where he noAv lives in 1837 and has always been engaged in 
farming. He married Cynthia , who died leaving one .son, Leon F. He mar- 
ried Anna Kiley, by whom he has one son, Franklin. He lives on the farm with his 
father. 

Allen, Lucia, Miss. — The earliest permanent settlers in Monroe county east of the 
Genesee River were the Sheffer family. Peter Sheft'er, sr. . was a native of Germany 
and came to America with his family in 1771, settling in Pennsylvania. In July, 
1789, they came to Bloomlield, Ontario county, where he purchased 1,200 acres of 
land. This he apportioned between his three daughters, and in December of the 
same year, with his two sons, Peter and Jacob, he located on the west side of the 
Genesee River, where Peter vSheffer, jr., purchased a tract of 470 acres of Ebenezer 
Allen, known as Indian Allen. Here the ShefTers continued to live until 1797, when 
a frame dwelling was erected, being the first one beyond the river. In 1790 Peter 
jr., married Elizabeth Schoonover, whose father had settled south of Scottsville that 
same year. Jacob Sheffer died in 1795. To Peter and Elizabeth Sheffer were born 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 193 

eleven children. Peter and Jacob Sheffer brought apple seeds from Pennsylvania 
and planted the first orchard on that side of the river in 1799. Peter Sheffer, jr., 
built a grist mill on Allen's Creek in 1811. He was a man of thrift and enterprise 
and became one of the wealthiest men of his time. He served as justice of the peace 
and held other important offices. He died September 21, 1851. His children were 
Peter, Levi, Daniel, George, Loren, Jacob, Roswell, Elizabeth, Nancy, Esther and 
Maria. All but Jacob and Elizabeth reached maturity, and settled in the towns of 
Wheatland and Chili, where many of their descendants still reside. 

Aldridge, Erastus, was born in Victor, Ontario county, April 10, 1836, a son of 
Gilbert Aldridge, of Orange county. The family were of English descent, and early 
settlers of Massachusetts. Gilbert married Keziah Tooker, and made the journey 
from Orange county to Victor in an ox-cart. In 1855 he came to Sweden, this 
county, where he engaged in agriculture. He died in 1867, in his seventy-sixth year. 
Erastus was educated in the Brockport Collegiate Institute, and in 1860 married 
Frances A. Green, who died October 12, 1869. He married, second, in 1871, Mrs. 
JuHa H. Wiltsie, -daughter of Alpheus Vrazey. In 1868 he engaged in the grain, 
produce and wool business, which he still continues. Our subject is one of the 
leading business men of his town, taking an active interest in all local matters. 

Allen, Isaac, was born in Clarkson, October 15, 1822. His father was Isaac Allen, 
a native of Enfield, Conn., and the family were of Welsh descent, and trace their 
descent from John Allen, who was buried at Enfield in 1640. Isaac came to this 
county in 1815, and a year later returned to Connecticut, and married jNIary Terry, 
returning to Clarkson, where he was identified with the hat business for vears. He 
died in 1885, in his ninety-first year. In 1848 Isaac married Rebecca A., daughter of 
Allen Hobbie, and they have one son, Orel S. Capt. Henry Allen was born in 
Clark.son April 26, 1836, and in 1862 enlisted in Co. A, 140th N.Y.Vols., and partici- 
pated in the battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Cold Harbor, Gettysburg 
and Petersburg, holding the rank of captain before his honorable discharge in 18(i4. , 
Returning to the farm, he married, in 1865, Addie Henyon, who died in 1872. In 
1876 he married, second, Helen E. Perigo, daughter of Guy P. Perigo, and they have 
five children: Claude A., George R., Barton H., Mrs, Maud A. McClenithen, and 
Bertha Allen. Mr. Allen has served as assessor and supervisor, and has held a 
])rominent position in public afi^airs. 

Allen, Chauncey, was born in Clarkson, May 26, 1818, a son of Capt. Isaac Allen, 
a native of Enfield, Conn, who came to this county in 1816 and settled in Clarkson, 
where he carried on the hatter's trade. He also spent some time in Brockport. His 
wife, Polly Terry, was a daughter of Solomon Terry, and they were the parents of 
ten children. Our subject was one of the prominent men of his town, serving as 
road commissioner, when roads had to be laid through the unbroken forest, was 
supervisor, and took an active interest and part in all moves for the good of the 
town, being a man whose good judgment was well known. Chauncey Allen was 
educated in this town, and through life has been engaged in agriculture. His wife 
was Susan, daughter of Gideon Holmes, and their children are Mrs. Celia Steele and 
Mrs. Frances Vicars, 

Arnold, Aaron, son of I^aniel Arnold, was born August 15, 1787, and was one of 



191 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Ogdcn's prosperous farmers. He married Roxie Brown, and had these children : 
Esther, wife of Capt. J. W. Webster, James N., Aaron, Bradford, Henry, Maria, and 
Edwin. James N. Arnold was three times married. By his first wife, Sarah Ross, 
he had two children, John \V. and Sarah. By his seccmd wife, Susan Mershatt, he 
had one child, Aaron J., now one of Parma's most prosperous men. His third wife, 
Calista Mar.sh, bore him nine children: Alfred M., Susan C, Oscar M., Henry, Mar- 
ian and Theron (twins), Isabelle. Nettie, and Esther. James N. Arnold died in Og- 
den in 1892, having been for many years a deacon in the Presbyterian church. 
Aaron J. was born April 3, 1843, and lost his mother in e.xtreme infancy. He was 
tlien taken by the Clark family of Parma, and reared under the instruction of the 
Mi.sses Susan and Hannah Clark. January 31, 1866, he married Mary E., daughter of 
Alexander McGough, of Jackson, Washington county, and they have three children: 
Jennie C, wife of Eugene Hay, of Spencerport ; Abner W., who married Elsie Lapp, 
and Lewis A. , who married Sadis Nichols. Mr. Arnold has served as assessor six years. 
For nearly thirty years he and his wife have been active members of the Spencer- 
port Congregational church, and for twenty-tive years he has been a deacon. Elijah 
Clark came with his family to Ogden in 1840, driving from Salem, Washington 
county, with a team. They settled in Parma, where Mr. Clark died in 1858, and his 
wife in 1848. 

Abercrombie, John, was born in Orange county in 1815. He came to Rochester 
in IMO, where he was for fourteen years engaged in contracting and building. In 
1864 he came to Webster, and bought the farm where he now lives. He built most 
of the brick buildings in Webster, but since 1885 his time has been mainly devoted 
to farming. He is a son of John Abercrombie, who came from Ireland and was for 
many years a merchant in Newburgh, N. Y. 

Adams, Orlando C, was born at Pentield, August 4, 1859. His father, the late 
Jonn C. Adams, removed to Fairport in 1873, and engaged in the manufacture of 
pumps. He was a citizen of much moral character and worth, honest and upright. 
He was at various times constable, collector and overseer of the poor. His death 
occurred in 1892, at the age of sixty. Orlando is the only child living, another sou, 
William, having died when twenty. Orlando for a number of years conducted a re- 
tail market on West Avenue, and in 1892 erected storehouses for the preservation of 
ice, the distribution of which has become an important industry. Mr. Adams's per- 
sonal citizenship is of the highest character and he is justly esteemed among his fel- 
low men. A member of the Free Baptist church, of which he is a deacon, he has 
superintended its Sunday school since 1888. To his personal efforts as a director of 
the Y. M. C. A., that organization owes much of its success, and the cause of prohi- 
bition has his earnest sympathy. In 1882 he was deprived by death of his wife Inez, 
a daughter of Mrs. W. B. Bly of Fairport, after a married life of about one year. 
She left one son, Orlo H., born October 18, 1882. The present Mrs. Adams is Etta, 
daughter of Henry B. Hull of Penfield. She was born in 1870 in Albany, which was 
lier home until the age of sixteen. 

Ayrault, Allen. — If anyone familiar with local affairs were asked to name the rep- 
resentative farmers of Perinton, he would without doubt accord a high place to Allen 
Ayrault, of whom it may be said with absolute truth that he is the architect of his 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 195 

own fortune. Born at Caledonia, N. Y., December 27, 1827, he is one of seven chil- 
dren of the late John Ayrault. From a small beginning, but by unremitting toil 
and aided by a real genius for his vocation, Mr. Ayrault has achieved a success be- 
yond the average, and while yet in the prime of life, may enjoy its fruits. He now 
operates over 300 acres of land, and makes a specialty of breeding choice horses and 
cattle, among them many prize-winners. In 1873 he married Lf)villa Smith, daughter 
of Eleazer Smith, of White Pigeon, Michigan, and has three children living: Allen, 
jr., John W., and Edith. One son and one daughter died in early infancy. 

Brown, Cyrus E., a farmer and seed grower of Henrietta, was born in Chenango 
county in 1832, a son of Ephraim P. Brown, of Connecticut, born in 1799, whose 
father was Nathan Brown of that State, and who served in the Revolution. The 
latter removed to Chenango county in 1807, and there spent his remaining years, as 
did also his son, Ephraim, father of our subject. The latter served as supervisor 
etc., and was a prominent citizen. He married Orilla Hicks, by whom he had eight 
children, five now living. Cyrus E. began for himself as a farmer. Leaving home 
at the age of twenty-six in 1858 he went to Groton, Tompkins county, where he 
spent eight years in farming, and a year in the village. In 1867 he returned to Ca- 
yuga county, and two years later removed to Henrietta, and bought his present 
farm of fifty acres, where for a number of years he has made a specialty of raising 
a fine quality of sweet corn for seed purposes. He has taken some interest in poli- 
tics, having served as justice. In !858 he married Marian Weaver, who died two 
years later, leaving one child, Marian F. He married, second, in 1861 Adelia 
A. Allen, of Tompkins county, and their children are Nellie J., deceased, and 
Wesley E. 

Bradshaw, Isaac Leonard, was born in 1844 in Irondequoit, where his father, Lo- 
renzo C, lived. Mr. Bradshaw came to Webster in 1803 and purchased his present 
farm. In 1864 he enlisted in Co. M, 4th N. Y. Heavy Artillery, serving until the 
close of the war. when he returned to this town. Mr. Bradshaw has three sons. R. ' 
F., Charles, and George. 

Brown, Olivia, representing one of the leading families of the town of Penfield in 
the olden time, was born in that town, the elder daughter of the late Abner Brown. 
Abner N. Brown was himself born in Penfield, his father's people being residents of 
New Jersey. His principal business was farming, but he took a leading part in 
town affairs, and nearly all the official positions within the gift of his townsmen be- 
came his, trusts to which his fidelity was marked and uniform. He was an original 
Republican, dating from the formation of the party. In 1873 he retired from the 
activities of life, removing to the village of Fairport, where his death occurred at 
sixty-eight years of age, March 3, 1881. His children are Olivia, E. Alcesta, Lycur- 
gus W. , and Rollin. 

Butler, Preston W., was born m Penfield in 1832, a son of Elias Butler, who came 
from Massachusetts to East Penfield. Elias Butler married Caroline, daughter of 
Lyman Tripp, of Penfield, by whom he had six sons: James, Amasa, Preston W., 
Benjamin T., William and Samuel. Preston W. has for the last ten years been en- 
gaged in raising hot-house stock and now makes a specialty of Clematis plants. He 
was prior to this time engaged in the nursery business. He settled where he now 



19G LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

lives in 1807. His grandfather, John Butler, came from Ireland, settling in Massa- 
chusetts, where he died. 

Bellinger, Moses C, of Dutch ancestry, was born in Danube, Herkmier county, in 
1837. His grandfather, John C, was a promnient farmer in that locality, and in the 
stage-coach days kept a public house. Of his eight children. Christopher was the 
father of Moses C. The Bellingers are a numerous family along the Mohawk Valley, 
and are nearly all farmers. Christopher married Pauline Walrath of Danube, and 
they reared four sons and three daughters- Mary M., Hiram W., Moses C, Mrs. W. 
Bo.stwick, Ciertrude, Harriet, and Jorani, all of East Bloomfield, to which place he 
came in 186(5, and where his children attended the academy. Moses married Alice 
A., daughter of Oscar G. Cummings, a retired farmer of East Bloomfield. He 
bought a farm of 114 acres in Mendon in 1882, where he has since lived. There were 
three children: Ralph, born in 1882, Christopher in 1890, and a daughter Gertrude, 
who died in 1886 aged two years. Mrs. Bellinger's grandfather was Benjamin Cum- 
mings, an early settler of Bloomfield, coming from Massachusetts in 1794, and he 
helped erect the third building in Rochester. His son Oscar married Alice A. Beach 
of Bloomfield. She had one brother, Thomas, who died when a child. Her mother 
died in 1868. 

Baker, Nathan C, was born in Hoosick, N. Y., February 20, 1880, an elder son of 
Noah Baker, one of the early settlers, who came about 188."). Mr. Baker has been a 
farmer most of his life, located on the southern boundary of the county near Fishers, 
a locality noted for its e.Kcellent land and fine scenery. In 1851 he married Mary 
Aldrich of Victor, and they had two daughters and a son: Noah A., who manages 
the homestead farm, Mrs. Jane Pickering, and Mm. Belle Pickering, both of the 
daughters living almost adjacent to the homestead. In 1S.~)7 Mr. Baker went to Del 
aware, remaining two years. 

Baker, William, of Perintou, younger son of Noah Baker, was born December 21 
18:50, at Hoosick N. Y. Noah came here about 1887 clearing off his own land, and 
withstanding all the privations incident to life in an unsettled region. His wife, 
the mother of his two sons, was a real helpmeet, spinning and weaving their home- 
sjVLm clothing. William Baker inherits in a large degree the sterling, substantial 
qualities that distinguished his paternal ancestry. His wife is a daughter of Alex- 
ander N. Bumpus, and a sister of William Bumpus. They have no children. 

Birch, Benjamin, of B. Birch & Sons, Fairport, gardeners and florists, is of Eng- 
lish birth, and came to America at the age of eighteen. He was born at Bucking- 
hamshire, England, in 1889. His father, Joseph Birch, was a farmer in moderate 
circumstances, and unable to afford his children full educational advantages. Ben- 
jamin habitually spent his evenings in study and reading, while his days were en- 
grossed by hard work on the farm. Emigrating in 1857, he became a farm employee 
near Palmyra, Wayne county, and by unremitting industry and frugality acquired a 
competence, locating in Fairport in 1879. In 1800 he married Mary Hallenbeck of 
Palmyra, and their twelve children are living except one son, Linden, who died aged 
sixteen. Mr. Birch is a steward of the M. E. church and an earnest advocate of pro- 
hibition. 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 197 

Barnhart, Orrin B., late of Fairport, was Ijorn at Lansingburgh, N. Y., and set- 
tled in Perintcni at au early date, where the remainder of his life was spent, a man 
of rugged virtues and sterling character. For his second wife he married Mary A. 
Bolton, of Coburg, Ontario, now Mrs. William H. Pockett, whose kindly ministra- 
tions soothed his last years. Mr. Barnhart left two children. Lewis and Hannah. 

Bancroft, Ellis W.. is a son of Simeon Bancroft, who was long a resident of Wal- 
worth, Wavne county, later removing to Michigan, where he died. K. W. Bancroft 
came to this town in 1885, and after a period of five years engaged in the produce 
business; he went into partnership with J. H. Thatcher, now carrying on a hard- 
ware and furniture trade at Union Hill. Mr. Bancroft married Hattie, daughter of 
Rev. C. B. Hart, and they have one son, Glen. 

Howes, George E., only son of the late Ezra F. Howes, who was born at Leno.x, 
Mass., in 1811, came here when two years old where his life was spent. He died 
February 13, 1892. The only other child was a daughter who died in infancy. Judge 
Howes received his early education at the famous old Clover Street Seminary and 
has extended it by personal research and observation. Besides some minor official 
positions, he was for a number of years justice of the peace, and an associate judge 
for four 3^ears. He has been the recipient of the highest honors of the Masonic fra- 
ternity. In 1873 he married Belle Nash, daughter of the late John Nash of Brighton. 

Humphrey, W. S. — Prominent among the physicians of the past in the town of 
Chili was Dr. David Starkey, who was born in the town of Guilford, Chenango 
count}', N. Y., March 28, 1812, and was a son of John Starkey, who came from Eng- 
land. Dr. Starkey was educated at Fairfield College, New York, and the College of 
Physicians and Surgeons of Western New York, at Geneva, receiving his diploma 
in 1835. He first located in Stafford, N. Y., but in 1837 he settled in Clifton, where 
he had an extensive practice. A few years later he purchased a large farm in the 
southern part of the town, where he died in 1886. For over forty jj^ears he was act- 
ively engaged in the practice of his profession, enjoying an extensive and profitable 
practice. During the last years of his life he gave his attention to agricultural and 
horticultural pursuits. Dr. Starkey was a prominent member of the Clifton Baptist 
church and was also a member of. the Monroe County Medical Society. He served 
four years as supervisor of the town of Chili. Dr. Starkey was twice married, his 
first wife being Caroline Whiting. He afterward married Almira II. Humphrey, 
who survives him. 

Garrison, Elias, was born in Ulster county, June 17, 1830. His father, William, 
was a native of that county, where he was a prominent and much respected citizen. 
He was also a soldier in the War of 1812. In 1853 Elias came to this county, settling 
in Clarkson. In 1855 he married Nancy, daughter of Daniel B. Thorn, and they 
have one son, Richard E. Our subject is one of the practical and successful fanners 
of his town, .served as supervisor in 1861-62, and takes an active interest in all public 
enterprises for the good of the town. 

Gorton, Ezra, came from Chenango county in 1840, and settled on the farm in 
Parma now owned by his descendants. In his family were two children, William 
and Lovina, deceased wife of James Brockway. William was born August 18, 1823, 



198 LANDMARKS OF iMONROE COUNTY. 

and durinij his long residence in Parma became known as one of the successful and 
enterprising farmers of the town. He became possessed of the homestead farm 
after the death of Ezra, and in 1854 married Persis Davis, by whom he had five chil- 
dren Charles, of Rochester; Fred, of Parma; Waite, of New York ; Nellie, wife of 
Edward Smith; and John, of Parma. William Gorton died July 7, 18H9, and left to 
his heirs one of the best farms on the Ridge, it being now managed by his sons, 
Fred and John. John Gorton married Nettie Perrin. 

Hiscock, Rev James W., was born in IHIO in iJuanesburgh, a son of William, a 
pioneer of Ogden. James resided in Ogden until 1828 when he came to reside with 
his brother in Parma. He taught school for a time; and during his young manhood 
entered the Universalist ministry, having had in childhood a serious atfliction which 
prevented him from active manual labor. Mr. Hiscock is reputed to have a more 
thorough knowledge of the Bible than any other man in the county, as he can quote 
at will from any chapter. Mr. Hiscock preached his first sermon at Farwell's Mills, 
but his later charges were chiefly in Parma. Webster, Hamlin, and Clarkson. He 
owned a good farm in Parma, and his ministry was purely a matter of doing good, 
and not for gain, as he declined salary. In 183") he married Laura A. Wood, and 
they resided on the farm after December, 1830. Their children were James Duane, 
a soldier in the 13th N. Y. Vols., who died in 1867 from . disease contracted in the 
service; John A., of Parma, Frances H., who died in 1843, and George F. , who died 
in 18S3. Rev. James W. Hiscock died in December, 1892, and his wife April 18, 
1S!)3. John A. Hiscock was born in Parma June 7, 1838, and has lived here all his 
life, following farming and the practice of veterinary surgery, in which he has 
achieved much success. In 1861 he married Jane, daughter of John Goodell, of 
Parma, and they have one child, Frances E., wife of Edward McCabe. He has 
served about eight years as road commissioner, and is an active Republican. John 
Goodell was a son of William, who came with his parents from Cherry \'alley to this 
town. John married Emeline Everson, and they had three children. 

Huber, Clement, was born in Baden, Germany, November 22, 1830, son of Joseph 
Huber, who was a mason by trade, and his sons were brought up in the same occu- 
pation. The eldest of the boys, John, came to this country in 1846, settling in Parma. 
Clement followed in 1852, and Frank, still younger, came in 1860. Clement lived 
with John for two years, then began for himself. He carried on his trade of mason 
in connection with a small farm. In 1858 Mr. Huber married Mary Ann Snyder, 
by whom he had six children: Julia, wife of Peter Ring; Jessie, who married John 
J. Jones; Frank, who died in childhood; Charles, of Parma; George, of Ogden ; and 
Cora, who died young. Clement Huber began his career in Parma with but one 
dollar in his possession, but a life of toil has earned a comfortable property. He is 
a member of the Baptist church at Parma and a prominent member of the Parma 
Lodge of Odd Fellows. Jonathan A. Snyder came to Parma from Montgomery 
county and was a pump maker by trade, but became a farmer later in life. He 
married Nancy Mather, by whom he had three children: Mary Ann, who married 
Clement Huber ; Almira, who married William Worthington ; and Maria E. He 
was killed in a runaway on the Lisle road in 1866. After the death of his first wife, 
Mr. Snyder married Mary Watrous, by whom he had two children, Watrous and 
Susan. 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 199 

Gillett, John, of Connecticut, came to Ogden from Livingston county in 1S',\5, liav- 
ing been a pioneer in the Genesee country, although he had resided iu Sullivan and 
Cayuga counties. He was a soldier in the war of of 1812, where he contracted dis- 
ease from which he never fully recovered. In Ogden Mr. Gillett settled north of 
where his son Chauncey now lives, and in 1827 he bought of George W. Willey, as 
agent for the land com]jauy, the land, having l)ut five acres cleared. Both John 
Gillett and his wife died during the forties. Their children were Daniel, John, (iil- 
bert and Electa, all of whom removed to Michigan ; Ephraim, who died in Ogden; 
Chauncey, of Ogden; Franklin, who died in Michigan; and 1). Clinton, who lives in 
Michigan. Chauncey Gillett, who lives on the old farm, was born in ]82(», was edu- 
cated in Brockport and Clarkson, and has always followed agriculture. In 184r) he 
married Martha Whittier, and they have had three children: Julius E., of Ogden- 
Elwood C, of Gates; and Julia E., wife of Frank E. Lawson. 

Handy John D., was born on his present farm m 18:^;3, a son of pioneer Alpheus 
Handy, who came from Connecticut about 1820 and located here. His first wife died 
soon after his settlement here, and in 1824 he married Maria Dunham, who is now 
living. Their children were Pluma, Frances, John D., Charles, Sarah, Lucius, Car- 
rie, Frank and Alpheus. Lucius and Frank were soldiers in the late war, where 
both had an honorable record. Lucius was in the First Michigan Cavalry, and was 
killed in the battle of the Wilderness. Frank was in the 50th U. S. Engineers and 
died at City Point, Va., in August, 1864. Alpheus Handy, the pioneer, died in 1869. 
John D. owns and resides on the homestead farm, to which he devotes most of his 
time and attention, caring but little for politics. In 1865 he married Frances H. 
Hobbie, granddaughter of D. K. Hobbie of Rochester, and they have one child, 
Cora. They have also adopted four children from the Rochester Orphan Asylum, 
whom they reared and started in the right paths of life. They were Mattie Hunter, 
Frances Tefifle, Louis Neun, and Jacob A. Regg. 

Hoy, Patrick, was a native of Ireland, but came when a young man to this country, 
settling first at Albany, thence moved to Cherry Valley; thence he came to Roches- 
ter, about 1829. He was a blacksmith by trade and an earnest, hard-working man. 
He removed to Penfield and died in that town. He was twice married, his first wife 
dying in Cherry Valley. vShe bore him three children. His second wife was Loraine 
Smith, and they also had three children; Julia, Nicholas H. and Betsey. Nicholas 
H. Hoy was born October 10, 18:}2, and learned the trade of his father. He worked 
several years in Penfield Center, and in 1870 came to Ogden and bought a farm, 
still continuing his trade for ten years or more. In 1862 he enlisted in Co. L, 8th 
N. Y. Cavalry, and .served nearly three years, his duties being blacksmithing. He 
was mustered out of service in Avigust, 1865, returning home to his trade. In 1854 
he married Lydia A. Balcom, and their children are James E., of Spencerport, and 
Jennie A., wife of Joseph Rogers of Ogden. Mr. Hoy has served as overseer of the 
poor and assessor. 

Holley, Andrew M., is a son of William Holley, who settled in Webster about 1835, 
and died in 1888. Mr. Holley devoted most of his time to farming until 188:}, when 
he moved to Webster village, and has since been engaged in painting and paper 
hanging. In 1890 he erected the residence on South street, where he now lives. 
His two sons are Charles H. and Burton E. 



200 LANDMARKS OP' MONROE COUNTY. 

Hopkins, FrcciiKin A., was born in Wayne founty in 1852, u sou of Enos. and a 
i^randson of Freeman Hopkins, who was one of the early settlers of Wayne county. 
Mr. Hoi)kins was for some years a farmer after coming to Webster in 1874, but in 
188") he engaged in the produce businc-s with J. W. Grinndl until 18^:1 He then 
bought the hotel at Webster village, which he now conducts. He married Cora A., 
daughter of David P. Fosdick, and their two sons are Edward E. and Ulysses S. 

Hosenfele, Dionisius, was born in Germany, and came to America at the ais'c of 
twenty-one, and settled in Rochester, and in 18r)6 came to Webster, where he followed 
milling for one year. He ne.xt returned to Rochester and conducted a mill until 
1851), then came again to Webster and purchased the farm where he now lives. Ik- 
married Theresa Conrad and they have five sous; Joseph, (ieorge, Peter, Henry, 
and Frank, also five daughters. 

Jones, Edwin, is a son of Chester and Hannah Jones, and a grandson of Joseph, 
wlio came to this town in an early day, and conducted a tannery at I'nion Hill. Our 
subject has for most of his life been engaged in the manufacture of pumps, and m 
farming. He has taken a prominent part in local affairs, having served for eight 
years as justice, and for the past nine years as assessor. He married Harriet, daugh- 
ter of David Quinby, and they have one son, Frank F. 

Hodges, Charles H., was born in 1829, a son of James, who was a native of Ver- 
mont, born in 1796, a son of Emerson and Susan (McCormick) Hodges of that State, 
who later moved to Augusta, Oneida county, and spent their declining days. James 
came to Henrietta about 1818 where he bought a farm and settled, spending the last 
three years of his life, however, in the village of Henrietta. His wife was Mary 
Campbell, and their children, were Emerson, Charles H., James L., of G'enwood 
Springs, Colo., Elizabeth, wife of Judge John L. Bailey of Rochester, and George, a 
farmer of Genesee. The father died in 1880. Charles H. has devoted his life to 
farming, and began for himself while a young man in East Henrietta, but in 1869 
he removed to his present farm. For some years he was interested in the breeding 
of fine horses and cattle. A portion of his time has also been spent in Canada, where 
he bought and shipped cattle. During the war Mr. Hodges was enrolling officer. 
He has also been active in public affairs. In 1852 he married Lamyra A. Ryno, born 
in this town, a daughter of William and Minerva Ryno. They have had two chil- 
dren ; Carrie A., born in 1857, wife of A. C. Jackson of Rochester, and Frederick W. , 
born in 1868. Mrs. Hodges died February 19, 1898. Emerson, oldest brother of our 
suljject, was an attorney of Joliet, 111., who later went to Rochester, Minn., and was 
member of assembly. During the war he went to Washington, and became auditor 
in the Treasury Department, which position he held eighteen years. He died in 
18S:{. James L., another brother, went to Minnesota with his brother, and was col- 
onel in the late war, in command of the fort at Little Rock, Ark. He is now a res- 
ident of Glen wood Springs, Colo., where he has been county judge and filled many 
other offices. 

Hartshorn, John, was born in Orange county, August 25, 1819, a son of Joseph, 
also of Orange county. John was educated in the public schools and is a self-made 
man. In 1845 he married Sarah, daughter of Benjamin Ivins, by whom he has had 
four children ; Benjamin L. John S., Mrs. C. lillis and Mrs. W. Palmer. In 1850 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 201 

he came to Monroe county and bought a farm, vvhicli he has since conducted, and is 
esteemed one of the representatives citizens of the town. 

Hines, Daniel C, was born in Clarkson, now Hamhn, July 7, 1844. His father, 
Paul, was a native of Sand Lake, Rensselaer county, and the family is of Scotch 
descent. He married Keziah Crandall, and in 1840 removed to Clarkson from Berlin, 
Rensselaer county, and in 1850 came to Brockport and entered the employ of Sey- 
mour & Morgan. In 1853 he associated with A. B. Harmon in the marble trade, and 
in 1855 went to Medina and engaged in the same business, remaining until 1874, 
when he returned to Brockport. Daniel Hines was educated in Medina Academy, 
August 22, 18G2, enlisted in the 17th N. Y. Independent Battery Light Artillery, 
serving at Manassas, Chapin's Farm, Signal Hill, etc., and was present at Lee's sur- 
render, receiving an honorable discharge June 12, 1865. Returning to Medina, in 
i881 he removed to Brockport. In 1867 he married Hannah Barker, who died in 
1879, and his second wife w^as Mary A. Donovan, by whom he has two children, 
Clarence E. and Hamia B. 

Harrison, Edward, was born in Manchester, England, January 12, 1831, and came 
to this country in 1855. He settled in New York for a year, removed to Orleans 
county and remained three years, and in 1859 came to Brockport, and engaged in 
merchant tailoring, which trade he learned in England. In 1862 he married Mary 
Riley, and their children are E. C. of Montreal; Rev. John P., pastor of St. Mark's 
church of St. Paul. Minn.; Joseph, who is associated with his father in business; 
George C, principal of the Latin School at Plainfield, N. J. Our subject is a repre- 
.sentative man of his town, holding various positions of trust and responsibility, and 
has the esteem of all. 

Harris, Robert, was born in Penheki in 1826, and is the son of William and Sally 
(Schoolcraft) Harris. His father, William Harris, came from Scotland to Fulton 
county in 1802, and to Penfield in 1806. Mr. Harris is one of eleven children, and 
began working on a farm by the month, saving enough to buy, with his brother 
George, a farm which they carried on for some years, finally dividing in 1862, when 
Mr. Harris settled where he now lives, and is one of the leading farmers. In 1853 
he married Adelia, daughter of Isaac Crippen, who settled and died on the farm 
where Mr. Harris now lives. They have two sons, James and Fred, and one 
daughter. 

Humphrey, Nathan M., was born in Elmer, X. J., and came to Henrietta in 1S72, 
with his father, Rev. Jessie T. Humphrey. In 1889 he graduated from the Philadel- 
phia Medical College, and the same year began the practice of medicine in Penfield. 
In 1891 he married Edith Maxwell, by whom he has one son, Nathan. 

Hebbs, James, is a son of Thomas Hebbs, who came from England with his wife 
Elizabeth (Heath) Hebbs, to Brighton in 1849 and to Penfield in 1860. He was a 
farmer, and died in 1892, leaving his wife, who died one year later, and two sons, 
James and George; also two daughters, Mary E. and Emma J. 

Higbie, Myron R., was born in Penfield in 1845, and was the .son of Alanson and 
Lucy (Rundel) Higbie. His grandfather, William Higbie. was one of seven sons of 
Jacob, who settled here in an early day. William had four sons, Nathaniel, Silas, 



202 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Abijah, and Alansou. The latter had three sons, Myron, Oeorge and Frank. 
Myron married Mary, daughter of John G. Wheeler, and settled where he now lives. 
They have two daughters, Edith and Florence. 

Hopkins, Robert M. — In another part of this work may be found a sketch of Caleb 
and Marvin Hopkins, the latter the father of Robert, who was born in Pittsford, 
August 22, 1847, and has always been a resident either of this town or its immediate 
vicinity, except for a period of three years from 1804 to 1867, which he spent at 
(iranger, O., where at one time his brother James (the elder son of Marvin and Jane 
Phelps Hopkins) was operating a general store business. Upon the death of his 
father in 1867 he returned to Pittsford and subsequently engaged in farming. He is 
also largely interested in the breeding of choice horses. December 24, 1873, Mr. 
Hopkins married his present wife, Mrs. Emma E. Day. Their only son, Jared, was 
born July 0, 1887, Mr. Hopkins is and has been for many years an active member 
of the Northfield Lodge, F. & A. M. 

Johnson, Walter W^.. M. D., was born in 1859 at Naples. Ontario county. Having 
completed, in 1883, a course at the Normal School at Geneseo, he began in 1884 his 
medical studies at the New York Homoeopathic College and Hospital. Graduating 
with honors from this institution in 1887, he opened an office at Pittsford, where he 
is already recognized as a practitioner of great skill, especially in diseases of the 
nervous system Dr. Johnson's father was a mechanical engineer of great ability, 
and hereditary transmission of skill and inventive genius is evinced by Dr. Johnson's 
talent in this direction, much of his elaborate electrical and other medical apparatus 
being of his own construction. It is a curious fact that the records of Dr. Johnson's 
family for five generations mention no member devoted to a professional life. In 
1884 Dr. Johnson married Asenaih Woodworth, of Baraboo, Wi.s., and their children 
are Aldred, Walter and Isabelle. Dr. Johnson's mother is a niece of the celebrated 
Dr. Bullion, the noted savant and author. 

Johnson, H. N., was born in Niagara county, November 18, 1838, a son of John, a 
native of Seneca county, and grandson of Isaac, a native of Scotland, who came to 
this country in 1805, and participated in the war of 1812. He first settled in Orange 
county, and later in Seneca and died in Niagara county. John Johnson married 
Mehitable, daughter of Abner Bailey, and was a well known Congregational minister 
in Western New York, and Gerrit Smith's lieutenant and right-hand man in assisting 
the escape of negroes into Canada. H. N. Johnson was educated in Yates and Wil- 
son Colleges, and followed farming till 1868, when he came to Brockport with Samuel 
Johnson, his uncle (the inventor of the Johnson reaper and mowe^), and engaged in 
handling agricultural tools, wagons, harness, etc., which he still continues. In 185!) 
he married Theresa, daughter of Heman G. Goodspeed. 

Gordon, James, of Fairport, was born in Rushford, Allegany county. April 8, 1820 
His father was John Gordon, also the father of Mrs. George W. Green of this place. 
John was a farmer and brick manufacturer of Rushford. Our subject was a mer- 
chant in the latter town and at Brockport prior to 1880, when he removed to Fair- 
port. He has been an extensive operator in the manufacture and sale of lumber 
both here and elsewhere. Of Scotch ancestry, and he himself the third of the same 
name, his paternal ;;randfather came from Scotland and was taken prisoner of war 



Family sketcites. 203 

at Saratoga. In Rushford Mr. Gordon ran the whole gamut of official life, holding 
everything from supervisor down, and with credit to himself and satisfaction to his 
con.stituents. He married Polly Bresler, of Ru.shford, and has one daughter, Alice, 
now Mrs. A. C. Hooker, of Fairport. 

Howard, Major S. P., was born in Fairport in 184U. His father, the late Lorenzo 
T., came here from Bridgewater, Mass., in 18B8, and was for many years one of the 
foremost citizens of the village. He was the elder brother of the firm of L. T. & J. E. 
Howard, carriage builders. He was a trustee of the Congregational church for thirty 
years. Major Howard's war record is one to which he may justly point with pride. 
Early in 1862 he enli.sted as a private in Co. B, of the 108th N. Y. Vols. He partici- 
pated in many of the great battles, from Antietam to Lee's surrender, and was seven 
times wounded, but -owing to the iron constitution of the Howard family, he is to- 
day a hale citizen in active life. After the war he engaged in farming here, where 
he still lives, surrounded by material adjuncts which elevate and ennoble his chosen 
calling. His elegant home contains many a token of camp and field, and of the old 
war days. January 1, 1862, he married Mariette, daughter of David Hine of Fair- 
port, and their children are S. Irving, Myron L., and Charlotte M. Mr. Howard has 
tilled with credit many official positions in town government, and has served as 
assessor for nineteen successive years. 

Henry, Robert W., one of Fairport's leading citizens and for sixty years a resident 
here, was born at Chatham, N. Y. , January 28, 1814 During the next year his 
parents removed to Schoharie county, his father being a pioneer of the town of 
Sharon. Rober*" early learned the shoemaker's trade, which he followed from 1834 
to 1847 in the village of Egypt. He was then for seven years engaged in farming, 
but at this period suffered the loss of his faithful wife, who was Anna M. Snedeker, 
and the serious impairment of his own health, which necessitated retirement for 
several years from active life. In 1877 he became a resident of the village of Fair- 
port, where he has .served on the village board, and as an assessor. The death < 
of his wife in 1854 orphaned three small childi'en, none of whom is now living. 

Higbie, Nathan, late of Fairport, was born at Buriiham in 1806. His father was a 
farmer, and he himself made that his own occupation, leaving behind a substantial 
fortune and an honored name. He was for a long time a resident of Penfield, where 
he had large business intere.sts. About 1864 he retired from his active career, and 
ten years later removed to the village of Fairport. where he was highly esteemed for 
his nobility of character, and for the resignation with which he endured a protracted 
invalidism. In 1844 he married Marianne Wheeler, by whom he had three children: 
Jerome, since 1880 a resident of Dead wood. Dak. ; Ella, who resides at home, and 
Anna, who died aged thirteen. Jerome is engaged in mining and real estate. The Hrst 
wife of Mr. Higbie was Guelma Wing, and her children were Lucia, David, and 
Helen. Mr. Higbie died February 28, 1878, aged seventj^-eight. 

Klein, Bernard A., was born in Rochester in \S'M, and removed to Webster in 
1853, where he engaged in agriculture. His wife was Mary A. Greutzinger, who died 
in 189 5, leaving these children: John G., Peter G., Joseph T., Bernard, Albert H., 
Rosa and Julia. The father of our subject, Bernard, came from Germany to this 
countrv and settled in Rochester in 1817, dying there in 1880. 



•204 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Knickerbocker, Benjamin, was born in Saratoga county and came to Parma in 
1823. He was a cabinetmaker and painter, and started a chair factory at the Cor- 
ners many years ago. His wife was Lucy A. Leonard, born in Saratoga county in 
1808. Adam Knickerbocker was born in Dutchess county in 1808 and came to Parma 
in 1830. He was connected for many years with the old (iulf mill* being a miller by 
occupation. He died in Orleans county, August 4, 1S89. His wife was Caroline 
Leonard, and their children were Andrew, Judson, and William, of whom only Jud- 
son survives. Adam Knickerbocker was, like his brother, an energetic and home- 
loviug man, much respected by his townsmen. Judson Knickerbocker was born 
June 12, 1833. He was brought up to the mercantile business, and for thirty years 
was connected with a large dry goods hou.se in Rochester, and occupied a like posi- 
tion in New York city eighteen years. In 1891 Judson became a resident of Parma, 
and for the past two years has been in business at the Corners. He was also appointed 
postmaster in 1894. He married Helen M. Howes, by whom he had three children: 
James H., an artist of the American Press Association of New York city; Carrie, 
wife of T. H. Patterson, of Austin, Pa. ; and Frank, an employee of the Blue Line 
office in Rochester. Nathaniel Leonard was born in Newburgh, N. Y., in 1775, and 
his wife, Fanny, was born in Middletown, Conn., in 1784. They came to Parma in 
1828, and both died in the town, Mr. Leonard in 1857 and his wife in ISO!). Their 
children were Lucy Ann, Caroline, and William. 

Kelly, Charles E., is prominent among the men of affairs of Brighton, and the 
scion and representative of a family whose local residence antedates the city of Roch- 
ester. Edmund Kelly, his grandfather, took up the land upon which Charles Kelly's 
home now stands in 1813, purchasing 640 acres of the government. He was of Scot- 
tish birth. His eldest son, Edmund, now a resident of Penfield, retired from active 
life at seventy four years of age. He was for a long period of years a foremost figure 
in the arena of local politics, and held positions of trust and responsibility for the 
Republican party. Charles was born in 18 4 at Hamilton, Ont After completing 
his education at Rochester University, he settled on the old place, where his paternal 
giundfather once built a log house. In 1876 he married Miss Mary Salmon, of 
Brighton. Their children are George, William, Herbert, and Cora. Mr. Kclley has 
filled with credit many offices within the gift of his townsmen. 

Lord, Nathan, was born in this town in 1823. His father was John Lord, of New 
England, and his mother was a native of New Jersey. He was educated in the com. 
mon .schools, and worked on his father's farm. His wife was Frances Poppino, of 
West Bloomfield, and at the time of his marriage he bought a farm in the northern 
part of the town on the Pittsford road, which he afterwards .sold, and bought the John 
Smith place on the East Mendon road. In 1868 he purchased the farm on the Men- 
don Central road where he spent the rest of his life. His farm comprised eighty- 
seven acres, being one of the pleasantest in the town. The handsome home stands 
on an elevation which overlooks a broad expanse of beautiful country. There were 
these children ; Frank, who married Eva, daughter of Homer Kimball, of Mendon 
Center; Frederick E. and Louis B., who own the homestead where they live with 
their mother. Mr. Lord died in 1887. He held many town offices during his life, 
and was a prominent man. 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 205 

Landon, Daniel, was born in Ontario, Wayne county, X. Y., in is;5i). He is tlieson 
of John«Landon, who came from New Jersey to Ontario, and in 1854 to Webster, 
where he Hved until 1807, when he moved to Michigan, dymj^ there in 1877. Daniel 
Landon married first Sarah, daughter of Russell Mason, who died leaving two 
daughters. He then married Frank, daughter of Henry C. Lewis. Mr. Landon 
settled where he now lives in 18(il, and has always been engaged in farming. His 
father was a carpenter. 

Leisher, Jacob H., was born in Switzerland in 184:5, and in 18.5-5 came to Rochester 
with his father, Samuel Leisher, who died soon aft^ r reaching that place Jacob H. 
then came to Penfield where he worked'on a farm until 1862, when he enlisted in Co. 
L l<'8th N. Y. Vols., and served until the close of the war. He then returned to 
Penfield and engaged in farming, settling where he now lives in 188:5. Mr. Leisher 
is a member of the Thomas Fair Post, G.A.R., and was for three vears commander 
of the Post. 

Leighton, Mrs. Kate B.— Occupying an important place among the early manu- 
facturers and builders of Rochester, we lind the name of the late Thomas Leighton, 
who was the founder of the East Rochester Bridge and Iron Works, and to whose 
.skill and genius no fitter monument could be erected than the great bridges of which 
he was the creator. He w-as born at Mt. Vernon, Maine, in 1818, and educated in 
the public schools of Augusta. His intimate and exhaustive technical knowledge 
of engineering was largely self-acquired. 'He came to Rochester in 1855, retiring 
from active life in 1882, having been a resident of Brighton for seven years. In 
1856 he married Kate Breed, daughter of David Taylor, of Tioga. His death occurred 
February 2, 1886. 

Xash, J. Sidney, junior member of the firm of Caley & Nash, of Brighton, manu- 
facturers of fine carriages and cutters. These gentlemen did not purchase their busi- 
ness, but built it up themselves, and they fully deserve the success they have achieved. 
The plant was founded by Thomas Caley, an uncle of the senior member, but has 
been greatly extended by the present firm, who in their busy season employ eight- 
een men. They are located on East and South avenues. The Nash family is of 
English nativity, the first comer being Edward, who was one of the founders of the 
city of Norwalk, Conn. Sidney's father was the late John B. Nash, the nursery man 
of Allen Creek, and where his widow still lives. Sidney was born at Allen Creek, 
May 30, 1853, and was for some years engaged with his father, in the nursery, and 
later learning the wagon-making trade, his specialty being woodwork. Mr. Nash is 
a Democrat in politics, and one of the Masonic fraternity since 1880. In 1875 he mar- 
ried Lillie Adamson, of Fairport. Six children were born to them: George Henry. 
Lillian Beatrice, Wayland P., Pauline, May Belle, and J. Sidney, the latter two be- 
ing deceased. 

Norris, J. Frank. — Probably the oldest inhabitant of the village of Brighton is the 
venerable and well-preserved J. B. Norris, who was born at Hanover, N J., October 
17, 1808, and whose father, John Norris, purchased and settled upon a Penfield farm, 
as early as 1818. When sixteen years of age, J. B. Norris learned the blacksmithing 
trade and worked at it in Brighton village during the ten years succeeding 1824, 
then for two years traveled about the country selling clocks, the celebrated wooden 



200 I-ANDMAUK^^ OF MONROE COUNTY. 

article tlicii made a specialty of in Connecticut. In 1840 he became interested in 
growini;- small fruits, ann in pursuit of that industry has passed the balantfe of his 
active life, havinpf been identified with its wonderful growth during those years. 
Mr Norris is still hale and hearty, carrying lightly his more than fourscore years. 
His elder son, George E. Norris, is postmaster of Brighton, having been an incum- 
bent of that office since 1890. J. Frank Norris, the younger son, is very extensively 
engaged in the nursery industry, largely extending the business established by his 
father, undef the style of "'Brighton Central Nurseries." His specialties are fruits 
and ornamental trees, roses, and shrubs. Born here in 1848, his education wascom- 
l)leted at Rochester Academy, and upon attainment of his legal majority he took 
charge of the business, having spent three years at Macon, Missouri. He married, 
in 1865, Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Ambrose, the dorist. Their children are 
Emma, now Mrs. Abram De Potter, Frank, and Lotta. Mr. Norris takes an active 
jKirt in town affairs, being a trustee of the village, and prominent in Masonic circles. 

Le Clare, J. F., was born at Oswego, in 1849, and when about twenty two entered 
the employ of Chase Brothers at Rochester. Seven years later he began business im 
his own account, with offices and shipping facilities at Brighton. This has grown 
into a very extensive and important business, employing in the busy season about 
one hundred and fifty men besides traveling salesmen and office force. This is known 
as the " Le Clare Nurseries," producing fruit and ornamental trees, grape vines, 
roses, shrubbery, etc. The rapid extension of the concern made the association of 
Messrs. Freeman & Manning expedient, as special jxirtners, the former in 1SS4, and 
the latter in 1889. . 

McAmniond, Dr. John F., was born in Ottawa, Canada, in ISCfi, a son of Rev. 
Thomas McAmniond, whose father, John, was a native of Scotland, born in 1749, 
and who came to Canada in 1T96 with his parents, and settled at what is now Ottawa 
City. John married Jane A. Foster, and had nine children. Rev. Thomas McAm- 
mond was reared on the farm, and graduated from the Victoria University in Coburg, 
where he prepared himself for the ministry, his home being in Ottawa. His wife 
was Jane Ann Hare, by whom he had these children: John F. , Rev. Robert, Anna, 
Laura, and Luella. Our subject received his preliminary education in the public 
schools, and at the age of fourteen attended the Albert College in Belleville, Ontario, 
graduating to the Roj-al College of Physicians and Surgeons at Kingston, Ontario, 
from which he graduated in 1889. During 1888 he practiced medicine with his father- 
in-law. Dr. B. T. McGhie of Elgin, Ontario. In 1890 he removed to Scottsville, N. 
Y., where he has since practiced successfully, and established for himself a high pro- 
fessional and social reputation. In 1890 he married Margaret McGhie, and they have 
one daughter, Helen, born in 1893. 

Little, Elijah H., was born in 1844, a son of Horace W., also of Henrietta, who 
was born in 1815. The father of the latter was born in Northampton, Mass., in 1784, 
and in 1811 bought land in Henrietta, where he lived in a log cabin and endured all 
the privations of pioneer life. He served for a time in the war of 1812, and was also 
one of the first school teachers of the region, one of the early supervisors of Henrietta, 
and was active in the building of Monroe Academy. His wife was Mercy Webster, 
daughter of John Webster, a pioneer of Rush. Their children were Horace, Harvey, 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 207 

Thankful, John and Mary. He died in 18()(). Horace, father of our suljject, was a 
farmer, and spent the last thirty years of his hfe on the homestead. He married 
Susan H. Burirace, of Henrietta, and their children were William B., and Elijah H. 
He died in 1890. In November, 1861, when but a lad of eighteen, our subject enlisted 
in Co. I, 13th N. Y. Vols., but on account of ill health was discharged the following 
June. In 1868 he again enlisted, going out in the 1st Artillery, and was discharged 
in November, 1864. He participated in the battles of Hanover Court House, Gaines's 
Mills, and others. Returning to Rochester, he was for several years clerk in a mer- 
cantile establishment. He then spent some time in the oil regions of Pennsylvania, 
and was for thirteen years a farmer in Greece. He then followed carpentry and was 
in the axle works three years in Rochester, and in 1891 returned to Henrietta, and 
took possession of the homestead. In 1866 Mr. Little married Clara D., daughter of 
Judson E. Williams, and they had one child, Frank B. His wife died in 1887, and in 
1889 he married Anna M. Tyler, born in Boston, a daughter of Charles Tyler, now of 
Rochester. 

Nichols, Almond F., was born in Henrietta on the homestead .settled by his grand- 
father, m May, 1848, a son of Elijah E., a native of Herkimer county, born in 1812. 
His father.* Isaac F., came to Henrietta in 1816, and settled on the farm now owned 
by our subject, and his brother' Arthur. He was colonel in the State militia, was 
justice for many years, and died at the age of fifty-nine. His wife was Deborah 
Elwell, who died in 1856. Elijah, father of our subject, spent his life on the home 
farm, was deacon in the West Henrietta church, and married Lois C, daughter of a 
Mr. Boughtwell. Their children were Ellen F., Almond F., Mary A., Marian, Ar- 
thur, and Florence E. He died in 1874, and his wife in 1890. Our subject has spent 
his life on the home farm of 140 acres, devoting some time to dealing in horses and 
cattle. He has represented his town three terms as supervisor, has also served as 
collector, insj^ector, constable, etc., and is often chosen as county committeeman ; 
he is also a Mason. In 1879 he married Dolly A., daughter of H. M. Calkins of Hen- 
rietta, and they have one child, Lois M. 

Mason, Daniel G., M. D., was born in Walworth, Wayne county, in 18")."), a son of 
Horace G., a native of Verraofit, who came to Wayne county in an early day, and 
-i^tTTTCany years engaged in the manufacture of wagons and carriages in Walworth. 
He also held many offices of public trust. By his wife, Phoebe Knapp, he had two 
children, Henry R., a farmer of ]\Iarion, Wayne county, and Dr. Daniel G. The 
parents died in 1877 and 1884 respectively. Our subject first attended the school of 
his native village, then Marion Collegiate Institute, and was for a time engaged in 
the drug business. In 1876 he entered the medical department of the University of 
the City of New York, graduating in 1879. He then formed a partnership with his 
preceptor. Dr. Samuel Ingraham of Palmyra, and in 1881 removed to Henrietta, 
where he has establi-shed an extensive practice. He is a member of the Rochester 
Pathological Society, and the Monroe County Medical Society. He is also connected 
with the Central New York Medical Association, and is a Mason. In 1879 he mar- 
ried Ida M., daughter of Deacon Harkness of Marion, and they have two children, 
Be.ssie, and F^loyd. Mrs. Mason is an active worker in the Congregational church of 
Henrietta, 



208 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Morley, Ji>hii, was born in England in 1S41 and came to America when but a bov. 
After residing in Pentield for some years he went to Rochester, where he worked for 
a period of fourteen years for one man, and then came to Webster and bought the 
farm where he now lives, and is engaged in general farming. His wife was Mary 
Hridgeman, whose father, John, came from England in 18r)l and settled in Penfield, 
where he died in 1894. They have one daughter, Emily. 

Middleton, George H., was born in 1847, a son of George Middleton, of Wayne 
county. He married Margaret, daughter of James W., and granddaughter of Robert 
Kennedy, and they reside on a part of the old homestead which Robert Kennedv 
settled. They have three sons, Kirtland, George Maurice, and Ellis G. Their two 
daughters are Harriet E. and Margaret M. 

Middleton, Harriet, is a daughter of James W. Kennedy, who was born in 1802 
and died in 1850, and a granddaughter of Robert Kennedy, who came from Scotland 
to America in 1785, and settled in Webster on the farm where Mrs. Middleton now 
lives. The latter is the widow of John Middleton, who died in .883, leaving three 
children, Arthur R., W. Howard, and Martha G. 

Mo.seley, L. P., was born at Lebanon, Madison county, October 10, 18U0, a son of 
Araunah Moseley, of Massachusetts, who came to Madison county when twenty- 
seven, and was among its earliest settlers. The mother was of the old Hyde family, 
famous in the annals of the protracted litigation for the original estate. Araunah 
Moseley lived to be ninety-two, and the family is noted for the longevity of its male 
members. Leander acquired his education without the facilities now so universal, 
and recollects distmctly the "pine-not" period of his researches in the realm of 
literature. Now a genial gentleman whom eighty-five years have not withered men- 
tally, his personal resemblance to the late poet Holmes is quite striking. When he 
settled here in 1837 there were few but log houses in the region, and the forest yet 
awaited the settler's axe. In 1842 Mr. Moseley married Elizabeth Dewey, and their 
children are Anna, wife of C. C. Moore, of Fairport; Carrie, wife of Prof. M. E. 
Cooley, of Ann Arbor University, and Jedediah, a farmer at home. 

Merritt, F. G., was Ijorii in the town of Parma, May 8, 1848, a son of Timothy 
Merritt, of Dutchess county. The family is of English descent, and the first of the 
name in this country came about 1700. Timothy married Abbie Carhart, and settled 
in Monroe county in 1840, in Parma, where he was identified with agriculture. He 
died in 1886, in his eighty-sixth year. F. G. Merritt was educated in the Brockport 
Collegiate Institute, taught school for three years, and then engaged at railroad 
work for four years. In 1876 he was connected with the Normal School as steward, 
and later as head engineer, resigning in 1894. In 1872 he married Mary E., daugh- 
ter of Elijah T. Watkins, of Prattsburg, Steuben county, a merchant of that town 
forty years, and one of the prominent men. Mr. and Mrs. Merritt have had three 
children, Herbert W., Maud, and Blanche. 

Lester, Julius, was born in Brockport, March S), 18(il, a son of John, a native of 
Frankfort, Germany, who came to America in 1843, and settled in Brockport, where 
he was a well known manufacturer of shoes. He married Catherine Kimpal, and 
they had ten children. Julius was educated in the Brockport Normal School, and 
then entered the emj)loy of R. W. Reed. In 1883 he established himself in business. 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 209 

and at present is the largest dealer in his line of fine dry goods, cloaks, etc., in the 
village. In 1886 he married Emma T., daughter of John Owen.s. They have had 
four children: Joseph, Frederick, Nathaniel, and Louise. Our .subject is one of the 
leading business men of his town. 

Lord, Mrs. Huldah, widow of the late Anson Lord, of Pittsford, was born at Hen- 
rietta, Monroe county. Her family came from Vermont in an early day in the his- 
tory of the county, and settled at Henrietta. Her father was Jonah D. Simonds. a 
well known physician of the regular school, who had a large and successful practice. 
December 10, 1832, she married Anson Lord, who was born at Ballston, Saratoga 
county, September 9, 1810. His father, Daniel Lord, was a hotel-keeper at Ballston, 
and it was because of his death in 1820 that Anson Lord came here to reside with his 
aunt, who had already settled here. For seven years he followed the trade of car- 
penter, later engaging in farming. The children of Anson and Huldah Lord are now 
widely scattered, and two daughters, Clara and Louise, are deceased. Mary J., the 
elder daughter, married Ichabod Benson, of Fisher's, N.Y. William is in Mendon, 
engaged in farming; James, a resident of Rochester, where Mathias, next younger. 
is a physician ; and Daniel the youngest son, is on a ranch in Nebraska. 

Merkel, Henry, one of the substantial farmers of Pittsford, and a citizen universally 
respected, came to America in 1857, being then twenty-four years of age. He was 
born October 11, 1833, in Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, and had learned and prac- 
ticed the weaver's trade before emigration. Twelve years after his settlement in 
Perinton he purchased in 1869 a farm of 100 acres, located in southern Pittsford, and 
there he now resides, surrounded by the tangible proofs of his owm toil and frugality. 
In 1860 Mr. Merkel married Lizzie Christ, of his native town, and their children are 
Fred, Clara, Annie and Louis. The oldest son is a stationary engineer at Roches- 
ter, and the youngest son is at home. Both daughters are married and live in Pitts- 
ford. Mr. Merkel has also adopted a nephew, now eleven years of age, George 
Merkel. 

Marsh, Jonathan E., a well known and prominent citizen of Pittsford, was born 
where he now resides. May 9, 1837. His father, of the same name, settled here in 
1835, having come from Connecticut. The elder Marsh was a man of much enter- 
prise and public .spirit, an adherent of the Whig party, and a pillar of the Presby- 
terian church. In 1849 he caught the infection of the gold hunters, butw-as attacked 
by a fatal illness before reaching California, and died soon after reaching San Fran- 
cisco. Of his six children but two survive: Mrs. Almira D. Wallace, of Coldwater, 
Mich., and Jonathan E.,M'ho, since his student days at Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, 
has lived on the old homestead, being extensively engaged in farming. In 1872 he 
married Mary Pringle, of Perinton, by whom he had two children, William J. and 
Mary L. She died after six years. The son is now at Ann Arbor. Mich., pursuing a 
course in electrical engineering, and the daughter is a student at Fairport. The 
present Mrs. Marsh was, before her marriage, Jean Shaw, of Rochester, a lady of 
much culture, haviag been for several years a successful and popular teacher of 
that city. 

Osbon, William, was born in Penfield in 1836, and was the son of Abner and Mary 
K. Mines Osbon, and grandson of Abner, who was among the early settlers of Pen- 



210 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

field Center. Mr. OsVxm's father, Abner, came from Connecticut to Penfield in 180U, 
and settled at Higbie's Corners, and in 1849 moved to Penfield Center, where he 
was for some years highway commissioner, also overseer of the poor, and for twenty 
years justice of the peace. He had four sons, two of whom, William and John, were 
in the 8th New York Cavalry from 18(52 to 1865, both entering as privates and being 
discharged, John as second lieutenant, and William as first lieutenant. In 18(58 
William married Frances Brownell, and now lives near where his grandfather settled 
and where he died in 1815. 

Odell, Hiram, was born in Wayne county where his father settled in early life. 
He was a farmer for some years before coming to this town, and on his arrival here 
kept a market for one year, then in 1882 opened a wagon .shop, which was burned in 
1887. He rebuilt on the old site, where he now conducts a sash and blind factory, 
in partnership with his brother John, the firm being known as Odell Brothers. This 
firm were held in such esteem by their townspeople that .several hundred dollars 
were raised to assist them after their loss. 

Rogers, Mrs. Charles W., was before her marriage Dorothy, daughter of Marvin 
and Jane (Phelps) Hopkms. In 1866 she married Charles W. Rogers, a son of the 
well-known contractor of Rochester, Henry T. Rogers. Mr. Rogers was for a time 
engaged in business with his father, but a preference for country life led him to pur- 
chase in 1863 a farm in the town of Pittsford. Mr. and Mrs. Rogers have had four 
daughters: Jennie E., Carrie L., Mary L., and Anna Belle. The artistic tastes of 
these young ladies find expression in charmingly executed oil paintings with which 
their home is embellished, and which arc well worthy of exhibition to a larger 
public. 

Richards, Gurdon, was born in New I ondon. Conn., January, 9, 1817, a .son of 
Robert, a native of the same State. The family trace their descent from five broth- 
ers who came from Holland in 1750. Robert married Lucretia Chadwick, and was a 
farmer in New London. Gurdon Richards came to Genesee county in 1839, and in 
1844 married Lucy F. Field, daughter of Harvey Field, and they have one son, Maro 
A. In 1860 Mr. Richards came to Bockport and engaged in the grain and produce 
business, then spent a short time in the oil fields, and later engaged in the flour and 
feed business. He is a representative business man of the town, and served as 
assessor five years. He is a prominent member of the Odd Fellows fraternity. 

Root, Seymour H., was born in Sweden November 22, 1842. His father was An- 
drew, brother of F. P. Root, was a pioneer of this town, and married Almira How- 
ard the daughter of Sampson Howard. The family traces its descent from Henry 
Root, who died at Westham, England, in 1580. Andrew was a prominent and suc- 
cessful farmer, and a man whose judgment was sought by many. He died in 1860 
in his forty-fourth year. Seymour W. was educated in Brockport, and in 1867 mar- 
ried Lucy, daughter of J. B. Reed, and their children are Mary A. and Ada B. 

Rockwell, Washington L., was born in Ohio, June 18, 1818. His father, Levi, a 
native of Massacliu.setts, went West and bought a large tract of land. He married 
Polly Thompson. W. L. Rockwell was educated in the common schools, and is a 
.self-made and self-educated man. In 1846 he married Agnes J., daughter of Thomas 



FAMILY SKETCHiiS. 2ll 

Talcott. Mr. Rockwell has served his town as supervisor three terms, and in 1870-77 
was elected to the State Legislature. He has also served as justice of the peace for 
twenty years, and has had a long and honorable record of public life. 

Reed, John J., was born in Brockport, March 3, 1839. His father was Resolved 
Reed, of Lebanon, Mass., who came to this county in 1825 and married Nancy M. 
Wright. He was for years a manufacturer of boots and shoes, and also a carpenter. 
His death occurred m 1883, aged eighty-three. Our subject married Rhoda J., 
daughter of Charles Bates, and their children are Morton G. and Mrs. Evalyn Boyd. 
Mr. Reed has always been recognized as a man ot conservative character and of 
strict integrity. 

Robinson, Aaron, came to Ogden from Canterbury, N. H., in 1816, at the age of 
sixteen, driving an ox team the whole way. He became a successful farmer, and 
died in this town in 1889. By his wife, Rebecca A. Willard, he had two children: 
Willard, who resides in Minnesota, and Catharine, who married De Witt C. Brower. 
Rebecca Robinson d'ed in 1871. Johu Brower came to Ogden from New Jersey and 
was an early settler in the town. He was twice married and reared a family of chil- 
dren. The late De Witt C. Brower, who dieti December 39, 1890, was a son of the 
second marriage, and was known as one of Ogden's enterprising and successful 
farmers. He married Catharine Robinson, and after a j-ear located on the old Rob- 
inson homestead in the southeast part of the town. The children of this marriage 
were Caroline, wife of H. W. Sperry ; F. Willard, of Ogden; Edgar A., of Church- 
ville; Ellsworth A., of Ogden; Charles E., of Rochester; and Henry G., of Ogden. 
Catharine R. Brower, died April 16, 1886. Ellsworth A. Brower, who now lives on 
the old farm, married Catharine, daughter of Henry S. and Helen Flagg. They 
have two children. 

Rich, James M., a son of pioneer Josiah Rich (elsewhere mentioned), was born in 
Spencerport, March 16, 1827, and has always lived in Ogden. At the age of twenty 
seven (18.'34), he married Elizabeth, daughter of Ephraim Brownell, and widow of 
William Rich, and settled on a part of the home farm. They have had two children : 
James F., who lives on the farm with his father; and Louisa, who died aged eight- 
een. Mr. Rich has been an energetic and economical farmer, and a man much re- 
spected in Ogden. Ephraim Brownell came to Rochester in 1822, to Ogden in 1830, 
and removed to Michigan in 1840, where he engaged in lumbering. Of his nine 
children, all except ElizabeUi and Sophronia went to Michigan. The former married 
William Rich in 1840. Mr. Rich die^ in 1852, after which she married James M. Rich 
as above. 

Rafferty, William and Thomas, well-known business men in Scottsville, were born 
there in 1843 and 1844 respectively, sons of Patrick Rafferty, a native of Ireland, 
born in 1810, whose father was William. Patrick was a carriagcmaker, and came to 
this country in 1837, settling in Scottsville, where he obtained employment at his 
trade until 1841, then started a shop for himself, and established a large trade. In 
1871 he retired and was succeeded in business by his sons. He was one of the found- 
ers of the Catholic church in Scottsville. His wife was Catharine Barnes, born in 
County Kilkenny, Ireland, in 1813. She died in 1887 and he in 1888. The brothers 
have remained in partnership till the present time. They have added to their pos- 



212 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

sessions two large farms of 210 and 212 acres each, which are supervised by William, 
who also acts as bookkeeper for the firm. In 1^94 the latter was nominated super- 
visor of the town, but declined to accept. Refills the position of trustee of the village 
.school. Thomas married Ann Cassidy, and their children are Catharine M., and 
William J. 

Reeve, Thomas, is a well-known and successful farmer, born where he now resides 
in Henrietta in 1827. William, his father, was a native of England born in 1794, 
who came to America in 1816, and to^ Utica, where he organized a company of 
eight young Engli.shmen for the purpose of taking contracts in excavating on the 
Erie canal. During the following seven years they made seven miles of canal, and 
he also assisted in cutting stone for the Brighton Locks. With the money made by 
his canal work he came to Henrietta, and bought fifty acres, which comprised a por- 
tion of the farm of Thomas Reeve. He died in 1856, being the owner of 296 acres, 
and a large amount of personal property. His wife was Ann Taylor, born in Eng- 
land in 1803, who came to this country at the age of sixteen with her mother and 
brother, landing in New York. A few months later she and her brother started from 
New York city and walked to Pittsford, much of the way through the forest, requir- 
ing three weeks for the journey. Of her eleven children, five survive: William, 
Thomas, John, Frederick, and Mrs. Sarah H. Mellows of this town. She died Jan- 
uary 24, 1894, aged ninety years. Thomas has remained on the homestead, where 
he has been very successful, doing a large loaning busines in connection with real 
estate. He has over 50(1 acres of land. 

Randolph, Joseph, was burn in 1828, a son of Benjamin H., and a grandson of 
Joseph Randolph, who lived in Wayne county, aud was the father of four sons. 
Benjamin Randolph came to Webster in 1834 and settled on the farm where Josejih 
now lives, dying in 1888. Joseph has one son, J. W., who now carries on the farm, 
and one daughter, Mrs. George Wizer. 

Rightmire, N. A., of Fairport, dealer in harness and horse furnishing goods, was 
born at Berkshire, Tioga county, his father being Squire Rightmire of New Jersey 
birth, at one time a clerk in the custom house at New York. The latter removed to 
Berkshire, where he spent the rest of his life as a contractor. Mr. Rightmire is a 
practical mechanic, and is really master of several trades, having learned carpentry 
and blacksmithing. In 1874 he removed to Fairport, and for fifteen years was cu.s- 
todian of the premises of H. A. De Land. In 1890 he established the harne.ss busi- 
ness at No. 17 South Main street. He is a citizen of upright character, and has been 
trustee of the village and of the Congregational church. In 1867 he married Anna 
Burns of Ovid, Seneca county, and they have four children: William G., Frederick 
R., Alice B., and Harry A. William, the elder son, is clerk at S. Morey & Sons'; 
Frederick is studying law, and both are high school graduates. One son, Francis 
L., died in 1872, aged one year, and in 1893 Mrs. Rightmire died. 

Pease, Levi J., was born in Clarkson, Jantiary 21, 1823, a son of George Pease, a 
native of Hartford, Conn., and the family trace their lineage to the Puritans who 
landed in the Mayflower. George married Betsey Greene, and they came to this 
county in 1806, making the journey by wagon, and having to ford the Genesee River. 
They were twenty-four miles from the nearest mill at Rochester, and carried their 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 213 

grain through the woods on horseback. George Pease died in IS'jIi, in the prime of 
manhood. Levi J. was educated in the common schools, and learned shoemaking. 
In 1840 he came to Brockport and engaged with Mason Davis, and in 1863 established 
the grocery business, with which he has been identified through his active business 
life. In 1845 he married Miranda Orcutt, daughter of Edward Orcutt. 

Peterson, Axel, was born in Germany and came to America in 1875. He lived in 

Utica until 1884, when he came to Penfield and collected and shipped material for 

fertilizers until 1894, when he started a phosphate factory for himself. His business 
office is in Rochester. 

Parker, Clark, was born in Bristol m 1855, and was the son of Walter D. and Helen 
(Carpenter) Parker. He married Catharine Timmons, who died leaving two daugh- 
ters. His second marriage was with Helen Barnes. Mr. Parker has lived in Can- 
andaigua and various other places, and now resides on the old Higbie homestead, 
where his father, mother, and two brothers, Charles H. and Frank, live with him. 

Peckham, Frank 1., was born in Pembroke, Genesee county, November 13, 1859, 
a son of William S., of the same town, who was born May 21, 1824. The family 
came to Genesee county from Connecticut in 1823. William S. married Sarah C, 
daughter of Russell Munger, and their children are Frank I. and Charles N. In 1888 
he came to Brockport, where he now resides. Frank I. was educated in the public 
schools, after which he engaged in farming for four years. In 1882 he built an apple 
evaporator in the town of Byron, and in 1885 came to Brockport and in connection 
with H. H. Hibbard engaged in the same business. Mr. Hibbard retired in 1891, 
after which our subject continued the trade alone. The plant has a capacity of 1,50(1 
bushels per day, and in addition to this Mr. Peckham has put in a complete appara- 
tus for making vinegar. In 1881 he married Sadie E., daughter of John Wilson, and 
they have one child, Clara E. 

Perry, Alfonso, M. D., came from Stephentown, Rensselaer county, where his early 
years were -spent. In 183U he married Marietta Piatt, and settled in the town of 
Clarkson, where for years he was activel}^ engaged in the practice of medicine. He 
was also prominently connected with town and county affairs, holding various posi- 
tions of trust and responsibility, being twice elected to the Assembly. His death 
occurred in 1870, in his sixty-fifth year. His hand was ever extended in aid of the 
cause of education and religion. His widow followed him in 1892, in her eighty- 
second year, having spent the latter portion of her life with Mrs. Augusta Bates. 
She was an example of true Christian womanhood, whose life was devoted to her 
family and the service of her Master. 

Pitt, Thomas, is a son of William Pitt, who came from England in 1854 and 
settled in Brighton, where his .son Thomas was born, and there the family resided for 
a number of years. They finally came to Webster in 1886, and settled on a farm, 
which our subject now conducts for his father, the place being opposite that of 
William Pitt. 

Peets, Lemuel H., is a prominent life resident of Monroe county, born in Pittsford, 
June 24, 1825, a son of Hiram, who was a native of Massachusetts, born in 1798, who 
came to Pittsford with an uncle, with whom he lived. Most of his life was sjicnt in 



214 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Pittsford, and his last days were spent in Michigan with a daughter. He died in 
l.ST"). Mis wife was Roxie Sackett, daughter of Lemuel Sackett, who came to Pitts- 
ford in 1818. The line for the Erie Canal being surveyed across his farm, he took 
the contract of digging the canal for that distance, 180 rods. Their children were 
Frances, Lemeul H., Levantia, James, Mary, Martha and George. The motherdied 
in 1858. Our subject began for himself as a farmer in Pitt.sford, on the home farm, 
where he remained several years. In 1859 he removed to Henrietta, and bought the 
farm where he now lives. He was an extensive dealer in cattle and hogs in his 
earlier life. He has served in various positions of trust and responsibility, among 
them being assessor, commissioner of highways, etc. In 1849 he married Adelia, 
daughter of F.lijah and Lucy M. (Allen) Webster, of Connecticut, and their children 
are Helen E., wife of Willett E. Chase, of this town; Addie L., wife of Frank B. 
Lusk, of Pittsford; Henry F., and Charles W. 

Patter.son, W. H., of Fairport, dealer in cigars and tobacco, confections and fruit. 
Mr. Patterson was educated in Schenectady Lyceum and began his business life as a 
clerk in a dry goods store in that town. In 1857 he married Gertrude Wiley, of 
Florida, N. Y. (now deceased), and soon after engaged in the grocery trade near 
Schenectady. He had two children by his first wife: Harriet and Seely, the former 
deceased. His present wife \vg,s Gertrude Dickmson, of Oswego, and her children 
are Freeman N., who died young, and Lois M., born in 1887. Mr. Patterson was 
born at Florida, N. Y. , July 29, 1886. His late father, Seely Patterson, a widelv 
known and influential politician and speculator, was postmaster for twenty-five years 
at Pattersonville. the station having been originally named for him, and during a 
portion of this term William was his deputy. Seely Patterson died in 1882. and four 
years later our subject located in the Taylor block in Fairport as a grocer, then in 
1887 established his present line of trade in the Chadwick block, where he was 
located three years, occupying since 1890 his present location in the Ives block. Mr. 
Patterson is one of the most genial of men, and is now trustee of the village. 

Peters. Isaac E., was born in Macedon, September 30, 1846, a son of the late Xury 
Peters, of that place. Mr. Peters has been a railroad man all his life, entering the 
employ of the New York Central Company in 1866 as a brakeman between Roches- 
ter and Syracuse. During his twenty-eight years of service he has seen many 
changes in railway equipment and management. November 8, 1872, he married 
Mercy A. Peters, of Macedon, and soon after removed to Fairport. They hav^e had 
one son, Walter, born November 17, 1880; and two daughters. Bertha and Edith, the 
former dying in infancy and the latter at the age of nine years. Mr. Peters was first 
in I'airport to supply his home with the new water service. 

Parmele, Jame*^, came from Pompey and settled first in Mendon, when he was 
drafted in the war of 1812. In 1881 lie removed with his family to Ogden, and 
located where James, his grandson, now lives. His children were Betsey, George 
W., Amos and Charles. James, the pioneer, was a justice of the peace, a man of 
much good sense, and it is said that during his twenty-four years of service not one 
of his judgments was ever reversed. George W. was born in Mendon in 1808, and 
died in Ogden January 24, 1889. His wife, Susan Burlingame, was born in 1811, 
and died March 24, 1881. Their children were Nancy J., who married Asa M. Baird, 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 215 

and James, a farmer of Ogden, now on the homestead. The latter was l)orn A])ril 
11, 1835, and his occupations have been varied. He was clerk in Raymond's store 
at the Basin two years, and in 1855 went to Virginia and engaged in the public 
works, later going to North Carolina, and coming North just before the war. He 
has been on the old farm since 1361. In 1864 he married Martha W. True, and they 
have had three children : Susie, Nellie, and Ransom T. Ransom B. True was born 
in New Jersey in 1805, a son of Moses True, who settled in Riga. Ransom married, 
first, Martha Whittier, by whom he had two children, and second, Harriet IVIorse, 
and they had six children. 

Price, George S., M.D., of Fairport, was born April 11, 1868. His father, George 
Price, was born here and spent most of his life in Rush. Of his paternal grand- 
father the same statement is true, an interesting instance of love of place. After 
four years at Gene.see Wesleyan Seminary Dr. Price spent some time in the office of 
Dr. Kellogg, of Rush. His subsequent medical training was of a most thorough 
character, graduating in 1891 from the University of the City of New York, and later 
from the Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati, O. Prior to his settlement in Fair- 
port, in 1894, Dr. Price passed a year in hospital practice at St. Louis. Mo. In the 
village of his adoption he" is already highly esteemed both as a man and a physician. 
He holds the position of coroner and health officer. 

Reddick, Robert, was born in Canada and there learned his trade of blacksmith. 
He came to Penfield in 1879, and in 1880 opened a blacksmith and carriage repairing 
shop, and also builds and sells carriages and wagons. He built the shop where he 
now works. He has one son, William. B. 

McGonegal, George E., was born in Hillsdale, Columbia countj% N. Y., April 8, 
1828, and came with his parents to Monroe county in 1834. He was educated in the 
public schools and in the Rochester High School. He was a farmer bv occupation, 
and married Louisa E Loder, of Rochester. N. Y., by whom he has two children: 
John B. , who married Frances Michaelson of Rochester, and Bertha L., who resides * 
at home. Mr. McGonegal was supervisor of the town of Irondequoit in 1860 and 
1861, and in the fall of 1861 was elected> member of assembly for the First Assembly 
District of Moni-oe county, and was re-elected to the same position in the fall of 1862. 
He was elected county superintendent of the j^oor of Monroe county in 1870, and 
held that position for twentj'-four consecutive years, having been elected every third 
year during that time. John McGonegal, father of George E.. was born in Columbia 
county, N. Y., in 1790, and was educated in the schools of that early day. He mar- 
ried Margery Hoyt of his native place, by whom he had three sons: William R., 
Henry B. , and George E. He removed with his family to Monroe county in 1834, 
and settled on a farm in Irondequoit. He was twice elected supervisor of Ironde- 
quoit. and served as member of assembly from Monroe county in 1846. John Mc- 
Gonegal died in 1858, and his wife in 1863. His oldest son, William R. McGonegal, 
married Sarah Knapp of Hillsdale, Columbia county, and resided after his marriage 
in Brighton, Monroe county. They had no children, and he died in 1852. The sec- 
ond son, Henry B. McGonegal, was twice married ; his first wife was Lydia A. Love- 
lace of Irondequoit, by whom he had one daughter, Frances A. His wife died in 
1863, and for his second wife he married Mary E., daughter of Dr. John Smyles, of 



2K) LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Irondequoit, by whom he had six children, of whom three are living; Henry S., 
Grace E., and George A Henry B. McGonegal was three times elected supervisor 
of the sixteenth ward of the city of Rochester. (This ward was composed of terri- 
tory formerly belonging to Irondequoit.) He died July 0, 188H and his wife died 
December 12, 1894. 

Smith, Charles, was born in Ireland, of English parents, in 1850, and at the age of 
fourteen years came to London, Canada, and then to Kingston, where he learned 
the stove moulder's trade. Later he moved to Rochester, and for the past twenty- 
two years has been connected with the Co-operative Foundry Company. He has 
been general foreman of the Lincoln Park branch for the past eight yr.ars. 

Brayer, Frank N., was born in Rochester, where he learned the moulding and 
plating trades. He worked for John M. French until the starting of the Co-operative 
Foundry Company, when he became identified with that company, and for the last 
fifteen years has been general foreman of the foundry on Hill street. In 1887 he 
purchased a residence in Gates, where he now resides. 

Storms, W. S,, for nearly sixty years a leading merchant tailor at Fairport, was 
born in Palatine, N. Y., in 1812. His father, Gilbert, was by trade a shoemaker, 
was also a botanic doctor of some note. When twenty-three years of age Mr. Storms 
came to Fairport, and is to day without doubt the pionoer business man living here, 
and owing to a fine constitution and simple life carries his four-.score years lightly. 
In 1880 he married Mary Shults of Palermo, sister of his business partner, and of 
their si.\ children four survive: Mrs. Helen Burlingame, of Rochester; Mrs. Amelia 
Williams, Mrs. Charlotte Wheeler of Fairport, and W. Emerson Storms, o*" Rochester. 

Shaw, L. M., one of the prominent business men of Fairport, was born here June 
1, 1837. His father, the late Edward Shaw, was also a prominent figure here, and 
for many years a leading undertaker, which business was continued by his son, who 
has conducted it since. In 1885 Edward Shaw married Melissa, daughter of Gardner 
Hall, who survives him. Mr. Hall died at his home in New Berlin, Chenango 
county, before her birth, and she came here with her mother and five brothers. 
Salem Mallett, the maternal grandfather of Mrs. Shaw, was one of the founders of 
Fairport, and the first to be interred in the cemetery, his burial being attended with 
high Masonic honors. Owing to her long residence here, and to her benevolent 
character and intimate conversance with the past history of local affairs, Mrs. Shaw 
is often alluded to as one of the "mothers of Fairport." L. M. Shaw married, in 
IS67 Josephine E. Pearse of Columbus, Pa. Besides his business as funeral director, 
he is proprietor of the Shaw Opera House, and conducts also a farm, in the products 
of which he takes no little pride. 

Sperry, Burton E., was born in Batavia and came to Parma with his parents at the 
age of seven, and in 1877 moved to Pen field, where he operated a flouring mill until 
1884, when he came to Webster and has since conducted a mill, being now engaged 
in putting in the latest improved roller system. He has served as poormaster for 
two years, and in 1890 represented his town on the Board of Supervisors. He has 
two sons, Howard E. and Herbert. 

Sudbury, Mark, was born in England, and came to America and settled at Avon. 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 217 

At the outbreak of the war he enlisted in Co. B, 104th N. Y. Vols., enlisted again 
later, so that he was in active service until the close of the Rebellion in 1865. In 
1877 he married Martha, daughter of Amos, and granddaughter of Amos Knapp, sr. , 
who settled in Webster in 1809, and there died. Our subject removed to West Web- 
ster in 1878, where his death occurred May 15, 1884. He left one son, Robert A. 
Sudbury. 

Shirts, William A., was born in Wheatland, February 8, 1817, a son of William of 
Newark, N. J., born in 1784, who came to Cayuga county, and to Wheatland in 1811. 
He erected a tannery in Celcord about 1813, which business he conducted till 1842, 
then engaged in farming. He married Clarissa Morley, and their children were 
Angeline, Caroline, William A., and Adelaide. The grandfather was Daniel, of 
New Jersey, a soldier in the Revolution. Our subject began for himself as a farmer, 
which business he followed successfully. In 1881 he retired and moved to Mumford. 
where he has since resided. In 184(5 he married Sybil Hayden, born in Cayuga 
county, and of their seven children five died when young, the others being Clarissa 
Calhoun, of Chicago, and Henry E., traveling for the Buffalo Scale Company. Mrs. 
Shirts died in December, 1893. 

Sweeting, John M., was born in Rotterdam, Holland, August 8, 1843, a son of 
Henry Sweeting, who came with his family to the United States in 1851, living for a 
time at Albany, and later moving to Rochester, where he built the second house on 
St. Joseph street. He kept a grocery there for a time, removed to a farm on the 
Ridge, where he lived many years, and finally returned to Rochester. Of his five 
sons, only John M. remained in Parma. In August, 1862, the latter enlisted in Co. 
F, 108th N. Y. York Vols., was promoted sergeant, and detailed orderly at the 
quarters of Captain Porter. In 1865 Mr. Sweeting was mustered out with his regi- 
ment, and afterwards spent two years in the Pennsylvania oil regions. Still later 
he returned to Parma, and for two years worked a farm on shares. In 1868 he came 
to his present farm, and in the same 3'ear married Ellen, daughter of John Eady, ofc 
Greece. Of their nine children, eight survive. About 1884 Mr. Sweeting became 
associated with George Widle in conducting a fruit distillery on the Sweeting farm, 
in Parma. After two years Mr. Widle died, since which Mr. Sweeting has con- 
ducted the business alone. It is entirely successful, and in his special manufacture 
of apple brandy Mr. Sweeting is the largest revenue tax payer of this county. He 
is aLso an extensive manufacturer of cider and vinegar. He is a member of Martin- 
dale Post, G. A. R. 

Smith, Dr. John B., who for more than forty years was an active and successful 
physician of Ogden, and whose residence in the town began in 1832, was born in 
Washington county, a son of Calvin Smith, attorney. In 1832 Dr. Smith drove a 
horse and cutter from Albany to Ogden, took up his abode near the Center, and at 
once began practice. His medical education had been acquired in Cambridge, 
Washington county, and also in New York city. Dr. Smith ranked well as a physi- 
cian, and commanded the confidence and respect of his wide circle of patients and 
friends. He was a successful physician, though he would never collect half of his 
earnings, and part of his fortune was swept away by lending his nane and credit for 
the accommodation of others. He married, first, Elizabeth Gilbert, and had five 



218 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

children; Joseph G., Charles C., Edward P., George W., and Piatt G. His second 
wife was Jane A. Alexander, and their children were: Hugh A., Guy F., Philip, 
Jennie E., and Alexander C. Charles C. Smith was born in Ogden January 28, 1838, 
and has always been a farmer in the town. He worked on the home farm until the 
age of twenty-seven, when he began for himself. He married in 18G0 Sarah K., 
daughter of Henry S. Flagg, and they have three children: Flagg G., Catharine M., 
and Charlotte M. Mr. Smith has filled some of the principal town offices. 

Slayton, William C, who for nearly half a century was one of the successful 
physicians of this county, and identified with the best interests of Spencerport for 
many j-ears, was a native of New Hampshire, whei'e his young life was passed. He 
came to Brockport when a young man, and taught school, later reading medicine 
with Dr. Carpenter, and in 184G was graduated at the Castleton Medical College. 
He Viegan practice at North Parma, and soon afterward came to vSpencerport. His 
practice during the succeeding years was successful and extensive, his ride was long 
and hard, but his iron constitution enabled him to pursue it without detriment to his 
health. He earned a fortune, but never attempted to collect half his dues. His 
death occurred in 1891. He had been president of the village, was a member of the 
vState Medical Society and the first master of Etolian Lodge, F. & A. M. His wife 
was Diana Brown, by whom he had five children: Oscar, of Buffalo; Frances, wife 
of C. B. McKibbon. of Chicago; Mary, wife of Dr. P. G. Udell; Fred H., who died 
aged twenty-two, at West Point; and Louis E., of Spencerport. The latter was born 
October 21, 1862, and read medicine under the direction of his father and Dr. Udell, 
his brother-in-law. He later took a three years' course at the University of Burling- 
ton (Vt.), graduating in June, 1884, and during 1883 he had hospital practice in 
Rochester. In 1884 he began practice in Spencerport with his father, which was only 
severed by the death of the latter, since which Louis E. has continued alone with 
great success, his specialty being surgery ca.ses. In 1886 Dr. Slayton married Emma 
E. Hawkins, of Spencerport, and they have two children. 

Sigler, James, was born in New Jersey, March 16, 1804, and came to Ontario 
county in 1820, from there to Parma in 1823, and two years later came to Clarkson, 
where he has since engaged in farming. He married Betsey Taylor, and they have 
had four children: George N., William H., Guy, and Polly, wife of Mr. Knapj). Mr. 
Sigler is a practical and successful farmer, of sterling integrity, and holding various 
positions of trust in the town. 

Shafer, Jonas, was a native of Montgomery county, and came to Clarkson in 1824 
with his father, Frederick, who was one of the best known landlords in the western 
part of the county. Jonas Shafer married, first, Mary Jennings, and second, Clara 
Hoyt, daughter of Isaac E. Hoyt. Their children are Charles E., Manley A., 
Frederick H., Mrs. Helen M. La Due, and Mrs. Emma A. Gay. Mr. Shafer was a 
practical and successful farmer, and held various positions of trust in the town. He 
was justice of the peace eight years, and his aid and influence were ever given to 
advance the best interests of the town. He died in 1892, in his seventy-sixth year. 

Steel, John W., was born in Lima, Livingston county, Deceml)er 1, 1S48, .son of 
Thcron Steel, of East Bloomfield, who came to this county in 1872, settling in Clark- 
son. He married Mary, daughter of Nathaniel Clark, and has had four children: 



Family sketches. 2id 

William H., John W., Daniel B., and Mrs. Lucy B. Cotter. John W. wa.'^ educated 
at the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, and in 1871 married Mary E , daughter of James 
K. Vosburgh. Mr. Steel takes an active interest in all town affairs. 

Smith, Orrin C, was born in the town of Parma, March :], 1841. a son of Peter, of 
New Jersey, who came to this county in 1825, and settled in Parma. He married 
Maria Van Orden, and died in 1844. Orrin C. was educated in the common schools, 
and in 1861 married Adelaide Fossmire, and they had three children; Albert E., 
Ethel I., and Edith M. Our subject is a prominent man in his town, and ta1<es an 
active interest in all town affairs. 

Smith, George W., was born in Kendall, November 6, 1858, a son of Orrin J., who 
was among the pioneers of Orleans county, where he died in 1873, in his sixtieth 
year. Charles W. was graduated from the Brockport Normal School in 1874, and in 
1877 entered the University of Rochester, graduating in 1881, after which he at once 
began teaching. He was appointed principal of the Lyle Academy, and also taught 
in Canandaigua Academy. From 1884 to 1890 he was school commissioner of 
Orleans county, and in 1891 was appointed teacher of mathematics in the Normal 
School of Brockport. In 1887 he married Laura, daughter of Oscar Munn. and they 
have one son, Orrin M. Our subject takes an active interest in the M. E. church, in 
which he has served as chorister for many years. 

Schlosser, Fred, was born in Brockport, June 4, 1854. His father, Fred Schlosser, 
was born in Rhiiiefeldt, Germany, and came to this country in 1849, and engaged in 
the meat business on a large scale. Our subject was educated in the Brockport 
Normal School, and finished at the age of sixteen, when he engaged in active busi- 
ness. He is interested in advancing the best interests of the town. He served as 
county committeeman for .seven years, and was active in the organization of the fire 
department, of which he has been assistant chief engineer for twelve years. He has 
ever been ready to advance any enterprise intended to advance his town. 

Secor, C. O. , was born in the town of Chili, July 1, 1817. His father, Daniel, 
came to this county in 1812, and was recognized as one of the most practical and suc- 
cessful farmers of the county. He married Ame Edgett, and died in his eighty-ninth 
year, respected by all who knew him. C. O. Secor was educated in the public 
schools, and in :841 married Eliza Osborn, daughter of Nathan Osborn, and they 
have had four children: W. Haskell Secor, Mrs. Amelia Rogers, Mrs. Arabel 
Merrill, and Mrs. Minnie Callow. The oldest son, Orlando, enlisted in Co. A, 140th 
N.Y.Vols., and lost his life in the service of his country. Our subject has held the 
commission of captain in the State militia, under General Scott. 

Shay, James, was born in the town of Kendall, May 4, 1840, a son of John Shay, 
who came from Ireland in 1886 and settled in Kendall. In 1850 he removed to 
Clarkson, where he engaged in agriculture, and in 1880 removed to Brockport, and 
died in 1892, in his eighty-eighth year. James Shay was educated at Holley 
Academy, and in 1868 married Addie F. Hoag, and their only son is Lewis B., who 
is a naval cadet at Annapolis. James Shay is a prominent man in the town of 
Sweden, taking an active interest in all that tends to the growth of the town. 

Stickney, Edwin I., was born in the town of Sweden, October 19, 1848. His father, 



220 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Israel, was a native of Oneida county, who came to the town f)f Sweden with his 
father, Reuben, in 180B. Israel married Fannie, daughter of James Hort, and was 
always a farmer, and anuprightman in his dealings, who gave freely to the support of 
educational and religious works. He died in 18TG in his seventy-fourth year. Ed- 
win I. -was educated in the Brockport schools, and in 18T8 married Emma, daughter 
of Jerome Richmond by whom he has one son, Edwin I., jr., and one daughter, 
Fannie. Our subject has served as highway commissioner, and takes a prominent 
]:)art in all local affairs. 

Smith, John, deceased, was born at Rutland, Vt., May 26, 1817, and in 1841 came 
to Brockport and engaged in the furniture business. He married Rebecca E., 
daughter of Jacob Ingalls, of Lynn, Mass., and their children are: Mrs. John C. 
Collins, of New Haven, Conn., and Sarah L. Smith. Our subject served as trustee 
of the Brockport Collegiate Institute, was a deacon in the Baptist church for thirty 
years, and was a man of conservative, upright character, esteemed by all who knew 
him. He died in March, 1887, in his seventieth j-car. 

Smith, Henry, was born in Phelps, Ontario county, December 18, 1810, and came 
to the town of Sweden in 1834, being pre-eminently a self-made man. In 1834 he 
married Lucretia Burnett, who was his able help-meet and associate. She died in 
18b2, a Christian woman, whose death was a loss to the community. Our subject is 
one of the practical and successful men of the town, whose hand has ever been ex- 
tended to aid the needy, and to further all enterprises for the good of the town. 

Stanley, William, was born in Devonshire, England, and came to this country in 
1844. After spending a short time in Canada he came to Brockport and entered the 
employ of Thomas Coomes in the live stock business In 1802, in company with 
(ieorge C(Jomes, he purchased the business and at the death of Thomas Coomes 
bcjught the real estate, which he now owns. In 1857 he married Mrs: Anna Peck, 
and they have one daughter, Mrs. Emma Lawton. Mr. Stanley is one of the .solid 
men of his town, and active in advancing its be.st interests. 

Spiegel, Thomas, has built up an important and lucrative business in Pittsford 
since 1860, in the manufacture and repair of wagons and sleigh.s. He was born at 
Wurtemburg, Germany, December 29, 1836. His father was a mason. Our subject 
came to America in 1854, locating first at Staten Island, and adopting the trade of 
blacksmith in connection wnth wagon and carriage work. Prior to his settling 
in Pittsford in 1860 Mr. Spiegel traveled in the West, working at his trade in Missouri 
and Michigan. His shop has since 1865 been located in Main street, corner of Mon- 
roe. He has filled various positions of trust, among them being that of supervisor 
(1866-67). He is now president of the village board of trustees, of which he has been 
a member several years. In 1863 he married Mary Walbeck, also of German birth, 
and they have two sons and three daughters. 

Stone, H(m. Samuel H., a son of Eber Stone, who was born in Pittsford in 1807, 
where he always resided. He was a prominent Republican from the organization 
of the party, and was postmaster here during Lincoln's administration, and until his 
death in 18G4. Samuel Stone was born -August 22, 1843, during a temporary residence 
of the family in Henrietta, and his early home was in Pittsford on the farm. He 
studied with the intention of adopting the legal profession, but was interrupted by 



FAMILY SKETCHEf!. 221 

delicate health Mr. Stone resides upon a suburban farm, where a modern house 
and its accessories make a comfortable home. Like his late father, he is an uncom- 
promising Republican, and has run the whole gamut of official life, holding every 
office of importance within the gift of his townsmen, justice of the peace, assessor, 
and during his term as supervi.sor was chairman of the jail-building committee. He 
represented the First Assembly District of the county at Albany. He holds a high 
position in Masonic circles, and enjoys in every way the esteem and confidence of 
his constituents. In 1865 Mr. Stone married married Isabelle A. Clark, of Henrietta. 

Schoen, Charles ofSchoen Brothers, Pittsford, dealers in coal, produce, lumber and 
farm implements, was born in that town February 5, 1864, of German ancestry, a 
son of the late John Schoen, born in Wurtemburg, Germany, in 1824. At ihe age of 
thirty five the latter came to America, settling first in the town of Henrietta, but 
removing to Pittsford in 1863, and there engaged in farming till 1894, when he died, 
aged seventy years. Mr. Schoen was a member of the Lutheran church and a citi- 
zen of much character. He left four sons. Charles married in 1889 Anna Smith, 
daughter of the well-knowm James Smith, of Pittsford. 

Schueler, John A., was born in Brighton in 1862, son of Jacob, who was a farmer 
of Penfield. Mr. vSchueler learned the blacksmith's and wagon makers trade when 
eighteen years old, and in 1880 came to Penfield and opened a shop, where he does 
a general blacksmith and repair business and also sells agricultural tools. He has 
five children; George B., Royal L, John F., Laura R. and Florence M. 

Spear, Richard W., is a son of Hiram and Eliza (Woolsej^ Spear and a grandson 
of. James Spear, who came from Farmington, Ontario county, in 1810. James Spear 
lived in Penfield for several years, then removed to Detroit, Mich., leaving Hiram on 
the homestead, opposite where Richard W. now lives. The latter was born in Pen ■ 
field m 1833. His father died in 1892, leaving three sons: James, who lives in Roch- 
ester; Jason, who lives on the Woolsey farm in Perinton ; and Richard W., who 
married in 1862, Saran Grey, who died in 1876, leaving two sons, Clark and Burr, 
and three daughters. 

Schlieman, C. and H. — Henry Schlieman was born in Germany, in 1843, and came 
to America in 1861, and in 1866 he settled on the farm where he now lives. He mar- 
ried Tina, daughter of Hoenas Bush. They have one son, Carl, who lives on the 
farm with his father, and two daughters, Libbie and Mattie. 

Sampson, Howard, was born in Penfield in 186."), son of Luther and grandson of 
, Henry, who came from England to Lyons in 1818 and to Penfield in 182.'), settling 
where he died in 1871, leaving one son, Luther. The latter died in 1878, leaving his 
son, Howard, and his wife, Rebecca (Courter) Sampson, on the old homestead. Mr. 
Sampson married Violet Barnes, by whom he has two children: Courter L. and Ad- 
aline R. 

Sheehan. Daniel F. — Mr. Sheelian is an enthusiastic Republican, and his great 
personal popularity was evinced by the circumstances attending his election to the 
office of town clerk in March, 1893, He is the eldest son of Michael and Mary Bar- 
rett Sheehan, of Brighton, and was born herein 1861. Acquiring a good business 
education at Vosburgh's Academy, he first entered the employ of T. F. Monks, of 



22'2 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COtJNTT. 

Brightdii village, remaining with him until 1S8;5, then forming a partnership with a 
younger iM-other, John S. Sheehan, as contractors and dealers in building materials. 
In 1S!»1 he purchased the old Monroe Avenue Hotel, which is quite a historic build- 
ing. Mr. Sheehan has a collection of antique coins exhumed about the premises, 
which evince the cosmopolitan character of the patrons of the hotel in bygone years- 
He now contemplates the erection of a modern hotel on the site. In 1891 Mr. 
Sheehan married Anna McMillan, of Montreal. Their children are Stanley and 
William E. 

Sperry, Henr\' H., an old and honoi-ed citizen, was born in Henrietta in 1819, a 
son of James Sperry. He was educated in Monroe Academy, and on account of his 
health failing, went to Cincinnati, O., where for a number of years he was engaged 
in the newspaper business. In 1850 he returned to this town, and six years later was 
elected first school commissioner under the law passed that year, providing for 
school commissioners for each A.ssembly district. He was a member of the first 
Republican convention of this county, and was one of a committee on rates and res- 
olutions. For some years before and after the war he held positions under govern- 
ment at Washington, and spent eight years in New York city as customs house offi- 
cial. He resided in Rochester ten years, then came to Henrietta (1892) where he 
has since resided in the village. In 1844 he married Elizabeth Snyder of this town, 
and had two children: James H., and Elizabeth S., who died in 18TU. His wife died 
in 1888. James, the father of Henry H., was the fourth sou of Deacon Moses Sperry, 
who came from Berkshire county, Mass., in 1796, and in 1810 came to Henrietta, 
bringing four of his sons with him. He died in Gates, at the home of his son 
Calvin in 1824. He purchased his time of his father, and came on foot, via an Indian 
trail to Fairfield, Herkimer county, where he educated himself, studying surveying 
and engineering. In 1812 he came to Henrietta, where he soon became a leading 
spirit in public enterprises and was widely known as a surveyor and engineer. He 
was a staunch abolitionist, and one of the projectors of the Monroe County Acad- 
emy. In 1811 he married Fannie Pixley, of Bloomfield, Herkimer county, by whom 
he had eight children. He died in 1868, and his wife in 1867. 

Skinner, Almond, was born in Lincoln, Canada, March 17, 1814, a son of Ebenezer, 
born in Orange county in 1775, whose father, Joseph, came to America about 1770, 
and later removed to Canada. Ebenezer, the father, grew to manhood there, and 
was a farmer. Part of the battle of Lundy's Lane was fought on his farm. His son 
(iideon, being forced to take part with the British in that battle, he became so indig- 
nant over the affairs of the country, that he declared he would not live under such a 
government, so he sold his farm and came to the United States in 1817 and settled in 
this town, where he spent his remaining days, and was a prominent citizen. His 
wife was Mary Cook, a native of Canada, by whom he had eight children, of whom 
our subject is the youngest. At his father's death Mr. Skinner came into possession 
of fifty acres of the homestead, to which he later added 104 acres. For years he de- 
voted much time to the breeding of Samson horses and Durham cattle. In 1839 he 
married Amanda, daughter of Ira Nimes of Washington county N. Y., and their 
children are Dr. Scotts W. Skinner of Le Roy, Dimmis M., wife of Dr. Adams, of 
Rochester; Dr. J. W. Skinner; Celia A., and Jesse. 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 223 

Fetzner, John, was born in the town of Greece, February 28, ]«.")!, was cdiicatcd in 
the public schools, and later learned carriage-making in all its branches, which trade 
he now carries on in the village of Greece. He is a natural inventor, and uses his 
talent in the invention of his own machinery for his business, in which he is very 
successful. In addition to the above he has a steam feed mill, which is an accommo- 
dation to this region of the country, and he also manufactures tanks. June 16, 188"), 
he married Louise Hutte, of Rochester, and they have two children, Lillian J., and 
A. Clarence. Francis, father of our subject, was born in Baden, Germany, in 1819, 
and came to the United States about 1835. He married Catharine Mura of this town, 
formerly of Alsace, and they have eight children: Mary, John, PVank, Catharine, 
Joseph P., Elizabeth, Agnes, and Wendel. Mrs. Frances Fetzner died in 1892. Mrs. 
Louise Fetzner's father, Charles Hutte, was born in Pru.ssia, July 4, 1829, and came 
to this country when a young man. He is a merchant custom boot and shoe maker 
of Rochester. He is the father of eight children, as follows: Mary, Louis, Louisa, 
Josephine, Jacob, William, and two who died in infancy. Both paients are residents 
of Roche.ster. The family are members of the Catholic church here. 

Avery, Edwin B., was born m Riga, in 1839, son of Joseph B. Averv, who came 
from Massachusetts and settled in Bergen in 1810, later coming to Riga where he 
engaged in farming and died in 1881. Mr. Avery began work for the N. Y. C. R. R. 
in 1857, and after filling several positions was made agent at Cold ^Yater in 1863, 
which office he still holds. He has also been postmaster since 1868. Mr. Avery has 
five sons: Albert E., who is an engineer; Myron P. ; Chauncy B., who is in a dis- 
patcher's office in Buffalo; Hiram J., and Fred M. 

Sperry, George B., was born in Gates in 1839, and is a son of Calvin Sperry, who 
came to Gates in 1826 from Bloomfield, N. Y. Calvin Sperry was a farmer by occu- 
pation. George B. started out by working on a farm by the month. In 1863 he en- 
listed in Co. B, 108th N. Y. Vols., and was in the battles of Antietam and Fredericks- 
burg, where he was wounded, being discharged as permanently disabled. He re- 
turned to Gates, where he has since lived. He has been town clerk for the past 
three years. He married Mary, daughter of Seth Hart, one of the pioneer settlers 
of the town of Gates. 

Todd, Stanley. — One of the most prominent and successful men of Brighton is Ira 
Todd, whose elegant home is located in the extreme southeastern part of the town. 
Mr. Todd was born at Peekskill in 1825, son of Orrin Todd, who was born in Con- 
necticut of an old Scotch family. About 1829 the family moved into the town of 
Pittsford, and in 1845 into Brighton. Ira married Zilpha Manchester, of Middleport, 
N. Y., whose children are Jerome, Marshall, Frank, and Stanley. Two daughters; 
Ella and Lillian, are deceased. The former was Mrs George Grossman, of Roches- 
ter, who died in 1887, leaving two children. Ira Todd, while achieving more than a 
competency and surrounding himself and family with those material accessories 
which go far toward making life worth living, has not forfeited the respect of his 
contemporaries, nor imperiled the good name which was his best heritage. He is a 
Democrat of the old school, and has always taken a foremost place in local govern- 
ment and political life, filling many minor positions of trust beside those of asses.sor 
and supervisor. Mr. Todd's four sons are all happily married, two being residents 



•224 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

of H(.'iirielta and the others, the elder and younger, remaining near the ])arental 
root-tree. At this writing the grandchildren are ten in number, so that the family 
name would seem to be in no danger of extinction. 

Tozier, Joseph A. was born in York, Livingston county, June 21, 18:56, a son of 
Joseph Tozier, who moved to Le Roy, and later settled in Clarkson. The family 
trace their descent from Lemuel Tozier, born in Maine in 1756, who had twelve chil- 
dren. Joseph A., was educated in the Brockport Collegiate Institute, later taught 
school, and was elected school commissioner for several terms, resigning to enter 
the drug business, with which he was identified at the time of his death. He mar- 
ried Alice Winslow, and their only child is George, who has taken up his father's 
business interests and successfully carried them on. Joseph A. died July 14, 1894. 

Truesdale, James T., was born in Greece, April 8, 1847, and was the eldest of live 
children born to William E. and Rachel C. (Martin) Truesdale. His father was a 
native of Ireland and came to this country when a young man. He is still living and 
is the possessor of a comfortable home and property. James T. was brought up to 
1 arm work and now owns a good farm in Parma, although he lives and does business 
in Spencerport. He was educated at the old Parma Institute and then taught school 
for eleven winters, chiefly in Parma and Greece. In 1872, in Parma, Mr. Truesdale 
married Mary A., daughter of William Hayner, by whom he had five children. 
After his marriage he began farming in Parma and continued until 1883, when he 
became agent for an eastern firm of capitalists and engaged in making loans through- 
out this section of the country. While in Parma Mr. Truesdale was twice elected 
sui)ervisor, being the only Democrat elected to that office in forty years. He served 
on the Board of Supervisors in 1883-84. In 1886 Mr. Truesdale moved to Spencer- 
port and has since been engaged in the produce, coal, and fertilizer busine.s.s. 

Truman, Lawrence, was born in Saratoga county, September 1, 1824. His father, 
Edward, married Ella Perry, and engaged in agriculture. The wife of our subject 
was Elizabeth Sawyer, and their children are Edward, Orlo S., Mrs. Olivia Amidon. 
In 1851 the family came to this county, where Mr. Lawrence is a representative man 
of his town. The father of Mrs. Lawrence was Joseph Sawyer. 

Underbill, Lucius T.. was born in Grafton county, Vt., March 16, 1831. His father, 
Ephraim, was a native of New Hampshire, and came to Rochester in 1833, settling on 
Coon Hill, where he conducted a saw mill and engaged in the lumber business. He 
married Betsey Beamas, of Littleton, N.H., and they had six children, five of whom 
survive. He died in 1851 in his fifty-.sixth year. Lucius T. was educated in the 
common schools, and in 1862 came to Brockport and engaged in t-be lumber business, 
manufacturing sash, doors and blinds. In 1890 he bought the Jenny Lind Furnace 
property, which he rebuilt into a roller tlour mill, with a capacity of seventy-five 
barrels of patent flour per day. In 1852 he married Martha E., daughter of Randall 
Keuyon. He has taken a prominent part in local politics, having served as super- 
visor and trustee of the village. 

Tracy, Allen D , was born in Scipio, Cayuga county, a son of Edmund Tracy. 
Allen came to Brockport in 1835, where his sister then rcsi.lcd. He married Mary 
Hotchkiss, and sooh after removed to Parma, living for a time at the Center. Ten 
years later he removed to Clarkson, where he farmed for sixteen years. In 1867 he 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 225 

bought the Thrall home farm, where lie died in 1892, having made a comfortable 
home and fortune. His children were Florence H., who married Rollin Wood; 
Leha E., who married P. J. Marsh; and J. Herbert, of Parma. The latter was born 
here May 19, 1845, was educated at Brockport, and now owns the homestead, on the 
Ridge. In 1869 he married Josephine A. Hillabrant, and they have five children. 
John Hotchkiss was born in Connecticut, but came to Parma from his former home, 
in Dover Plains, in 1883, locating west of the Center, where he died. His children 
were Ann, who married George Bentley, and died in Illinois, and Mary, as above 
Mr. Hotchkiss died in Parma about 1838. 

Wilcox, Chester E., representative of one of the oldest families in Perinton, was 
born here in 1850. His father was Homer Wilcox, a painter and decorator, and in 
earlier life a boatman, who was also a native of this town, and whose father was 
Larry Wilcox, well remembered in the early annals of the town. Chester was edu- 
cated at the Eastman Business College of Rochester, and first engaged in business in 
Fairport, opening billiard rooms in the Wilcox block on Main street. In 1870 he 
went to Ottawa, Kan., as clerk for the Ludington Hotel at that place. He has been 
an employee of the post-office both here and in Roche.ster, at various times. January 
5, 1875, he married Rosalie L. Furman, of Perinton. Mr. Wilcox is a Mason of high 
degree 

Wilcox, Mortimer R., a descendant and representative of one of the oldest families 
of the locality, was born at Fairport, May 8, 1837. He first learned the trade of 
tinner with J. L. G. Seely. His father, Larry Wilcox, held a captain's commission 
under Governor Tompkins, but saw no active service. In 1865 Mortimer Wilcox was 
appointed postmaster of Fairport, which office he held continuously until \88'i, a 
length of time almost without precedent, and due as much to his great personal 
popularity as to his business capacity. He has also served as village trustee, and in 
the Masonic fraternity Mr. Wilcox is of high standing. He has been five times mas- 
ter of the local lodge, and seven times represented it in the Grand Lodge. Since hi^ 
retirement from official life he has operated to some extent in life insurance. His 
wife is Elvia A. Northrop, of Fairport, and their children are May, wife of Charles 
Bancroft, of London, England; James H., who was for ten years deputy postmaster 
here; and Hiram P. W., now bookkeeper for the Monroe County Savings Banl:. 

Warren, Capt. James H. (deceased), was a native of Columbia county, N. Y., and 
came to Clarkson, in 1810 with his father, Lyman Warren. In 1843 Captain Warren 
married Olivia Crar\^ In 1863 he was elected sheriff of Monroe county, serving 
three years. In his early life he was engaged in the freight and passenger depart- 
ment of a line of packet boats between Rochester and Buffalo. An enterprising and 
energetic man, he took a prominent part in the development of his town, serving as 
supervisor for years. His hand was ever ready to aid any charitable enterprise, and 
his benevolence was well known. He died in 1888 in his seventy-third year, a loss 
to his family and to all who knew him. 

Woodmansee, C. N. — James Woodmansee came from Delaware county about IS'2'k 
settling with his parents in the northern part of Ogden. His father was Josepli 
Woodmansee. In the same locality some substantial representative of the family has 
ever since lived. James married Angeline Nichols, by whom he had five children: 



•220 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Betsey, of Parma; Clarinda, who married Charles Shimmons and moved to Michigan; 
Louisa, wife of Charles Lucas; Charles N., who lives in the vicinity of the old farm, 
though his present fine property is located on the Parma side; and Joseph P., of 
Rochester. Charles N. was born in Ogden, February 13, 1840, and has always lived 
on a farm. He began his career by working out by the month, saving his earnings 
and buying one-half acre of land. To this he added as he was able and has bought 
and sold various places. But in 1880 he purchased the farm where he now resides, 
comprising ninety acres and one of the best equipped properties in southern Parma. 
In 1868 Mr. Woodmansee married Julia Shourds, and their children are Irving J., 
engaged in railroading in Rochester, and Fred S., in like employment in Syracuse. 
Mr. Woodmansee was cr)llector in the town of Ogden for three years. 

Wilson, M. H., eldest son of Robert Wilspn, who came from Ayr, Scotland, and 
was one of the pioneers of Rochester. He died in 1865, aged seventy, and his widow, 
who was Jane Sloan, .survives him, and is a resident of the Cobbs Hill district. 
Matthew Wilson has always been a farmer, one of the class whose influence tends 
to elevate that calling. He is a member of the Grange and the Presbyterian church, 
as is also his wife, who was Angelica J., a daughter of the late James Hartley of 
Brighton. Mr. Wilson was engaged in farming in Irondequoit until 1874, at which 
date he settled at his present location. There are five children: M. Clifford, Robert 
J., William Earl, Ralph H., and Helen Agnes. 

Wilmarth, Louisa, representative of an old family, widely known among.thehardy 
pioneers of Monroe county, is the daughter of Orrin Wilmarth, who was of Vermont 
birth. He was but a small boy when his parents came to Victor, Ontario county, 
and later we learn of his marriage to Laura Stone of Victor. He kept hotel at vari- 
ous places, among them Evans, Erie county, and Irving, Chautauqua county. His 
children were: Emma, Sarah, Louisa and Abbie, all of whom except Louisa are now- 
deceased. Emma was Mrs. P. J. Kent, of Irving; Sarah died in infancy ; and Abbie 
married D. C. Guernsey of Pittsford. Louisa, sole surviving member of this family, 
has been a resident of Pittsford since 1872, and a valued member of its society. She 
is a member of the Presbyterian church, and of the Ladies' Missionary Society. Her 
father died April 10, 1864, and her mother ten years later. 

AVeeks, Benjamin B., was born in Webster in 1824, his father, Jesse, having set- 
tled here about 1820, coming from Orange county. Jesse died in this town in 1881. 
Benjamin B. entered a shop and learned wagonmaking, and at the age of twenty-one 
opened a shop for himself, and has since 1845 been actively engaged in that business, 
in which he has met with much success. 

Wager, Philetus, a son of Sylvanus, and a grandson of George Wager, who came 
to Webster in 1819, settling on a tract of land in the northern part of the town, where 
the Wagers have since resided. He had three sons, whose descendants renlain on 
the old homestead. The wife of Philetus was Calista Jones, and they are the parents 
of two children: Nina and Jennie. 

Wright, Hiram W.. is the son of O. E. Wright, whose father, Thomas, came from 
Pennsylvania and settled in Henrietta, Monroe county, where he died in 1890. Hi- 
ram W. married Mary Stroger, of this town, and has since 1888 conducted a summer 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 227 

pavifion at Nine Mile Point, Lake Ontario. He is also a farmer on the Stroicer home- 
stead, near there. His one son is Earl. 

Webster, Albert, was born on the homestead in Henrietta in May, 1848, a son of 
Henry Morgan Webster of New Lebanon, Columbia county, whose father, Samuel, 
came to Monroe county in 1808, andlocated in the town of Mendon. In 1817 he came 
to Henrietta, and settled. His wife was Mercy Green, who lived to be over seventy 
years of age. His father, Aaron, was a sergeant in the Revolutionary war, and died 
at the home of his son aged ninety-two years. Harry, father of Albert, was born in 
1811, and died on the home farm at the age of seventy-five years. His wife was 
Phoebe Nichols, born in Henrietta in 1812, and they had these children: Freelove A., 
Albert and Andrew. His wife died in 1885. Our subject began as a farmer on the 
home place, where he continued until 1888, when he erected a custom feed and cider 
mill near the Erie Railroad depot, which he has .successfully conducted since, leasing 
his farm of ninety-eight acres. He is a Mason of West Henrietta Lodge. In 1877 he 
married Mary, daughter of Daniel G. and Hulda (Edmunds) Perry of this town, and 
they have one child, Clara. This family dates back in America over 250 years, John 
Webster being the founder of the family in America. He was the fifth governor of 
Connecticut, and died in 1661. 

Young, Elijah W., was born in Cleveland, O., April 2:}, 1825, a son of Warren 
Young, a native of Connecticut, who removed to Ohio by ox team, the journey taking 
forty-two days. Elijah W. married, in 1846, Electa, daughter of James Stickney, 
and in 1852 settled in the town of Sweden. Their children are Cassius W., Arthur 
G., and Mrs. Helen Knowles. Our .subject is a representative farmer, and has served 
as assessor, commissioner of highways, and supervisor, taking a prominent part in 
all town interests. 

Wadsworth, John, was born in Sheffield. England, and came to America in 1S.")S. 
He first settled m Portland, Me., but in 1871 removed to Sweden with his father. 
John Wadsworth, who was a builder. John, jr., was educated in the common schoolsjt 
and learned his father's trade, both father and .son being well known in their business 
in Monroe county, as well as Wayne. They have also erected several churches and 
business blocks in the city of Rochester. In 1879 our subject married Belle H. 
Draper, and they have had two daughters; Alice and Ellen. Mr. Wadsworth takes 
a leading part in all local affairs and is a man of sterling integrity. 

Hinchey, Franklin, was born in Gates, on the farm he now owns, in 182S, son of 
William S. Hinchey, who came from Saratoga county, N. Y., to Gates in 1824 and 
settled on a farm and engaged in farming until 1855, when he sold the farm tf) Wn-. 
Jeffrey, for a nursery and went to Michigan where he died in 1873. Mr. Hinchey 
acted as foreman for Frost & Co., who rented the farm, until 1860, when he entered 
the employ of the N. Y. C. R. R., as tax agent and real estate agent, which office he 
has since filled. In 1861 he bought the homestead of Jeffrey, and since made it one 
of the most attractive farms in Gates. In 1873 he purchased the right of way for the 
third and fourth tracks between Buffalo and Albany. In 1S82 he i>urchased all tlie 
lands in Rochester for the elevated tracks. 

Barber, Charles Russell, M. D., son of Russell Barber, a prominent nierchaut, was 
born in Middlebury, Wyoming county, X. Y., December 30, 18,")3, and received his 



228 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

rudimentary education in the public schools of his native town. He spent two years 
in the medical department of the University of New York city and was graduated 
from the Buffalo Medical College in 1882. After graduating he came to Rochester, 
wliere he has since followed his profession. In 1883 he was appointed consulting 
physician for the poor, which position he held three years; in November, 1884, he 
received the appointment of coroner's phj^sician, which position he still holds. He 
is an ardent Republican and active iu the councils of his party. He organized the 
first Maccabee lodge in Rochester and is its medical examiner, a position he also fills 
for several insurance companies. He is a member of the Monroe County Medical 
and Rochester Pathological Societies, being president of the latter, and is also a mem- 
ber of the Central New York Medical Societj-, of Genesee Falls Lodge F. 6>: A. M., 
and of Orient Lodge I. (). O. F. 

Dann. Archibald, M. U., was born in Mendon, Monroe county, P'ebruary 3, 1845, 
and is a son of Selleck Dann, a native of that town, who died in Lima, N. Y., in 1"^89, 
aged sixty-three years. Nathaniel Dann, father of Selleck, came to Mendon from 
Nova Scotia at a very early day, and died there of cholera. Both were farmers. 
Dr. Dann, after passing through the district schools, was graduated from Middlebury 
Academy in 1859. He subsequently took chemistry under Prof. Lattimore of Gene- 
see College at Lima, and then read medicine for three j'ears in the office of Dr. Sol- 
omon Barrett,- of Le Roy, Genesee county. In March; 1866, he received the degree 
of M. D. from the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania and in June 
of the same year began the practice of his profession at Honeoye Falls, N. Y., where 
he remained six and one-half years. He then removed to Rochester, where he has 
since resided, and where he has successfully followed his chosen calling. Dr. Dann 
is an ex-president, an e.\-vice-president and a member of the Central New York Med- 
ical Association, and a permanent member of the New York State Medical Society. 
February 3, 1869, he married Miss Lydia J., daughter of William Rogers, of Honeoye 
Falls. 

Keith, Linus, was born in Canada, November 30, 1832. When a young man he 
learned the machinist's trade, and after working for some time in the Michigan Cen- 
tral Railroad shops he tjcgan running a locomotive on that road, and remained there 
fourteen years. In 1866 he moved to Penfield and was an engineer on the New York 
Central and Hudson River Railroad for twenty-four years. Since then he has de- 
voted his attention to farming. In December, 1861, he married Mrs. Mary R. St. 
John, daughter of Thomas Stevensou, of Penfield, and their children are Carrie J., 
of Syracuse; Walter Castle, an arti.st in Syracuse; Ida R. (Mrs. C. M. Rich), of Pen- 
tield; and Charles, who was an engineer at the time of his death in 1892. Mrs. 
Keith also has one daughter, Zitella K. (wife of Dr F. II. Butler, of Syracuse), by 
her lirst marriage. 

Sibley, Wallace, M.D., was born in the town of Cuba, Allegany county, N.Y. , June 
15, 1846. Educated in the common schools, he was graduated from the medical de- 
partment of the University of Buffalo in 1875, and has filled various positions of 
responsibility and trust, such as postmaster and town clerk in the town of Ischua, 
Cattaraugus county. He was president of the School Board of Portville, N.Y., was 
elected president of the Cattaraugus County Medical Society, is now president of the 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 229 

Monroe County Medical Society, and is the present health officer of the city of Roch- 
ester. His parents came from New England and settled in the western part of New 
York State at a comparatively early day. 

Howard. Eugene H., M.D., superintendent of the Rochester State Hospital, was 
born in Erie county in 1850, and secured his early education in the Genesee Wesleyan 
Seminary and College at Lima, N.Y., and the Buffalo Medical College, from which he 
was graduated in the class of 1873. He began practicing in Rochester the same 
year, and has made a special study of mental diseases from date of graduation. He 
has been'sur>eriutendent of the institution for the care of the insane in this district 
since 188.1. He is an active member of the Rochester Pathological Society, the 
Monroe County Medical Society, and the New York State Medical Society. The 
Rochester State Hospital is one of the ten institutions in New York State for the care 
of the insane which are supplied with a uniform allowance by the State Commission 
in Lunacy, and are conducted as hospitals for the curative treatment of persons of 
unsound mind. It was incorporated July 1, 1891, in accordance with the provisions 
of Chapter 335 of the Laws of 1891, which is entitled an Act for the conversion of 
Monroe County Insane Asylum into a State Ho.spital. 

Bissell, Dr. Elmer Jetferson, born in Vernon, X. Y., is a son of the Rev. S. J. 
Bissell, D.D., a graduate of Wesleyan University and a prominent minister of the 
Methodist denomination. After graduating from the Rochester Free Academy, Dr. 
Bissell entered Michigan University and pursued a course in general medicine, with 
special attention to eye and ear work, and was graduated from there in 1883. He 
remai'^ed one year as assistant professor of the eye and ear department, and then 
located in Rochester. He has perfected himself in his specialty by further study in 
the hospitals of this country and the old world. Dr. Bissell was one of the oculists 
chosen to present papers before the World's Medical Congress held at Chicago at the 
time of the World's Fair. He has alwaj^s been a regular contributor to the maga- 
zines of his own land, and some of the articles have been copied in foreign journals. 
He was one of the first to present papers an the relations between nose troubles and 
eye diseases, and is now one of the assistant editors of the Hom(X,>opathic Eye and 
Ear Journal of New York. Dr. Bissell has also taken a prominent part in the medi- 
cal societies; has been vice president of the State, and president of the Western New 
York and Monroe Count)'- Medical Societies; is a member of the American Institute 
of Homoeopathy, and also of the Rochester Academy of Science, and is oculist and 
aurist to the Rochester Homoeopathic Hospital and Rochester Free Dispensary. He 
has been very ingenious in inventing several new appliances for testing the vision, 
and has prepared a special batterj' for treating diseases of the eye and ear by elec- 
tricity. His vibrometer for the treatment of the deaf has had I'emarkable success in 
many cases, and a description of its novel mechanism has been freely given to 
ph^'sicians from Nova Scotia to Texas, for he does not believe in patenting a de- 
vice which relieves the sufferings of mankind. Dr. Bissell has been urged to accept 
a chair of his specialtj- in the college of another State, but he could not be per- 
suaded to give up his home and practice in our beautiful city. 

Remington, Harvey F. — Prominent among the younger members of the Monroe 
countv bar and well and favorablv known in Western New York is Harvev F. Rem- 



230 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

ington. His ancestors emigrated from Yorkshire, England, in 1837, settling in New- 
bury, Mass., and the descendants of John Remington, the first settler, are very 
numerous; one of the number, Jonathan, was for many j^ears a justice of the Su- 
preme Court of the State of Massachvtsetts. < )thers have held positions upon the 
bench and filled honorable places at the bar, in the pulpit, the press, the medical 
profession, in commercial pursuits, and in fact in all worthy avocations. Frederic 
Remington, the artist, a son of a former editor of the Albany E.xpress, is a cousin of 
the subject of this sketch. Mr. Remington was boru in Henrietta, Monroe county, 
June 28, 18(53, and is the son of the late William T. Remington, who was born in a 
log house in Henrietta that his father, Alvah Remington, erected when he emi- 
grated from Yermont in 1817. Harvey F. Remington was educated in the common 
schools, at the Genesee State Normal School, and at the Law Department of Union 
L^niversity, graduating in 1887. He was at once admitted to the bar and opened an 
office in the Elwood building in Rochester with the late Hon. Alfred Elj-, which office 
he still occupies. Having from boyhood had a taste for politics, Mr. Remington has 
frequently been a delegate to State and other party conventions, and often a pre- 
siding officer, and he has enjoyed the friendship and confidence of prominent offi- 
cials irrespective of party for years. In 1891, during a warm local contest in the 
Sixteenth ward, then containing nearly one-fourth of the population of Rochester, he 
was induced to make a canvass for the nomination for supervisor, and after the most 
exciting caucus ever held in Rochester, lasting an entire da^^ at which over 1,500 
votes were cast, he was nominated and later elected supervisor. He served one year, 
and was elected a member of the Board of Education, resigning this position to ac- 
cept the appointment of second assistant city attorney under Hon. C. D. Kiehel. He 
filled this position for two years, and upon the election of Hon. A. J. Rodenbeck as 
corporation counsel, he was made first assistant, succeeding Mr. Rodenbeck in that 
position. Mr. Remington is largely interested in suburban property, and is actively 
engaged in church and mission work. He is a member of the First Baptist church 
and a trustee of the West Brighton Chapel Society. He is also affiliated with the 
Masonic and other fraternal societies. He married Agnes, daughter of Tliomas 
Brodie, of Caledonia, N.Y., in 1889, and four children are the result of this union. 
He resides on Reservoir avenue, in a residence which overlooks the city from the 
Highland Park range of hills, and it is evident that here in a happy home he (inds 
the keenest enjoyment in life, for his is a home in its broadest sense. 

Terrill, Harmon, was born in Rutland county, Yt., in 1838, son of Thaddeus and 
Lydia (Loomis) Terrill. Thaddeus Terrill was born in 1803 and died in 1874. Har- 
mon Terrill came to Ogden in 1860, where he engaged in farming until 1882, when he 
removed to Gates, where he now resides. He married Althera A., daughter of 
Albert Goodridge, who came from Vermont to Ogden in 1830, where he died in 1882, 
aged seventy-.six. Harmon Terrill has two daughters, Ellen O. and Anna E., having 
lost one, Lydia A., who died in 1875, aged nine year.s. 

Cole, Josiah H., was born in the town of Mendon, Monroe county, N.Y., Novem- 
ber 20, 1832, came with his parents to the town of Irondequoit when he was thirteen 
years old, and was educated in the district schools, in the old High School and Peck's 
Commercial School of Rochester. He is a farmer and market gardener. November 
11. 1856, he married Mary Eaton, and they have four children ; Mason, Harriet L. . 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 231 

Aunette L., and Charles W. Mason married Lillie C. Hardison, of this town, and 
they have seven children: Harriet H., Clarice, Edward G., John H., June, Ruby and 
Sarah C. Harriet L; married Charles Griffin, of Bradford, Pa., and they have two 
children : Frank and xMary C. Annette L. married Frank Winchell, of Rose, Wayne 
county, N.Y.. and they have one son, Robert. Charles W. married May Rogers, of 
Fenville, Mich. Mr. Cole's father. Mason, was born in Otsego county. N.Y., Sep- 
tember 14, 1803, and came with his parents to Mendon in 1811. In 1831 he married 
Harriet M. Hand, formerly of Montauk Point, Long Island, and they had six chil- 
dren: Josiah H., Sarah C, Richard D., Jay M., John H., and Harriet L. Mr. Cole 
died January 27, 1887, and his wife in March, 1861. Mrs. Cole's father, Joel Eaton, 
was born in Arlington, Vt., February 3, 1800, and came to Rochester with his 
parents in 1812, w^as educated in the district schools in the town of Brighton, and was 
a farmer by occupation. He married twice, first to Permelia Colwell, and they had 
three children. Rhoda, Eunice and Alfred. For his second wife he married Sarah 
Sibley, of the town of Rush, and they were the parents of eleven children : Mary, 
Rice, Webster, Daniel, Orsamus, Julius and Julia L. (twins), Olive, and three who 
died in infancy. He died May 28, 1884, and his wife August 10, 1884. The ancestry 
of the famih^ is English and Dutch. 

Patten, E. S., was born in Gates in 1834, .son of Alexhnder Patten, who came from 
Washington county to Gates among the early settlers, and died in Chili in 1860. Mr. 
Patten settled on the farm, where he now lives, when he was married, and is one of 
the leading men of the town, being one of the assessors. In 1863 he began running 
a milk route to Rochester, which his son still continues. He has one son, Edward A., 
and one daughter, Kittie L. Smith. 

Simpson, Benjamin F., was born in Rochester, N. Y., April 15, 1828, was educated 
in the public .schools, a carpenter by occupation, and eventually a contractor with his 
father. He came to the old homestead on the Boulevard in 1877. Decembers, 184S, 
he married Margaret Barry, of his native city, and thej'^ have four children: Jane P., * 
William H., Mary A., James, who died February 12, 1858, and B. Frank. Mr. 
Simpson's father, William, was born in Countj' Austin, Ireland, in 1798, and came 
to the United States in 1816, locating in Rochester, N. Y. He was one of the first 
blacksmiths there, and carried on a general business, also carriage making, on Front 
street. 

Titus, Frank C, was born on the homestead, near Titus avenue, in the town of 
Irondequoit, August 10, 1859. He was educated in the pviblic schools, and is one of 
the foremost market gardeners of the town. He owns nine acres of garden on the 
Ridge Road, and is in partnership with his brother, under the firm name of Stephen 
B. Titus & Bro. March 28, 1883, he married Moneka Serth r-f this town, by whom 
he has two children : George W. and Cora N. Mrs. Titus's father, George Serth, 
was born in Hessendarmstadt, Germany, and came to the United States when a 
young man. He married Mary Sneck, of Rochester, formerly of his native place, by 
whom he had eight children: Barbara, John, Catherine. Moneka, William, George, 
Louis, and Tracy. Mr. Serth died about 1875, but his wife still survives. This 
family are of English and German extraction. 

Vanauken, George W., was born in the town of Phelps, Ontario county, X. Y , 



232 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

September 20, 1831, was educated in the district and select schools of the town, and 
has always followed the occupation of farming. He has married twice, first on May 
1, 1843, to Margaret Vannetten, of Lyons, N. Y., and three children were born to 
them: Horatio, Mary F., and Laura, all married. Mrs. Vanauken died May 30, 
1848. For his second wife he married Adeline Humphrey, of his native town, and 
they have six children: Imogene, Charles L., Flora, Grace, Henry, and Adaline. 
Imogene married James Tompkins, and they have two children : Henry L. and Jen- 
nie E. Charles L. married Minnie Pardee, and they have nine children: Ellery, 
George, Grace, Nellie, Lura, Minnie, Carl, Milton, and Maude. Flora married Ches- 
ter Bagley, and they were the parents of one son, Herschel. Mrs. Bagley died at 
the age of thirty-four years. Grace married Clarence Cri tendon, and they have three 
children: Alice, Earl, and Ross. Henry married Minnie Williams of Michigan, and 
two children were born to them: Charles M., and Hazel B. Mr. Vanauken's father, 
Daniel, was born at the old home in Phelps, in 1800, was educated in the schools of that 
early day, and was a farmer by occupation. He married Laura Barker, of his native 
town, and they had two sons: George W. and Hulbert. Mr. Vanauken died February 
6, 1875. Mrs. Laura Vanauken died in 1829. John Humphrey was born in the town 
of Phelps, in 1800, was educated in the district schools, and a farmer. He married 
Elizabeth Howell, who was born in the town of Junius, Seneca county, and they had 
six children: -Elizabeth, Charles, William, Adeline, Sophia, and Charlotte. He died 
in November 24, 1860, and his wife in May 21, 1859. Mr. Vanauken's grandfather, 
was a drummer boy in the Revolutionary war. The family of G. W. Vanauken 
came here to reside April 16, 1887. The ancestry of the family is Dutch, English, 
and Scotch. 

Roe, Thomas, was born in Portsmouth, England, in 1813, and came to America in 
1834, and lived for two years in Rochester. In 1836 he came to Gates and bought 
the farm where he now lives, and engaged in farming. In 1834 he married Lvdia 
Moore, also born in Portsmouth, who died in 18(55, leaving three sous: Henry, Edwin 
and George M., also two daughters. In 1881 he married for his present wife. Mrs. 
Henry Murch, of (iates. Mr. Roe has always taken an active interest in the affairs 
of the town, and for the last thirty years has been one of the assessors ; was also 
trustee and school clerk for twenty years. In 1845 the First Presbyterian church of 
Gates was built, and his interest in it has been constant and untiring, .serving it as 
trustee, treasurer, and secretary, and has been one of its elders about twenty years. 

Crane, John H., was born at Port Byron, Cayuga county, February 16, 1823, was 
educated in the common schools after his arrival in the town of Gates with his par- 
ents in 1827, and also in the Collegiate Institute at Rochester, and is one of the 
town's intelligent farmens. In 1845 he married Jane W. Speer of this town, who was 
born in Michigan, and they had two children: Abram E., who married first Mary 
Handee and had one son, Sherman ; his wife died in 1877 and he married second 
Eva Jcwett, and they have these childi-en, Mary J., Herbert J., Edgar A., and Wil- 
lis W. The second son of our subject is Daniel W., who married Jennie Wilkinson, 
and they have one son, Harry W. Nathaniel Crane, father of our subject, was born 
in Goshen, Orange county, in 1798, came to this county, and married Sophia Hopper, 
born in New Jersey in 1798. Their nine children were William, Sarah J., John H , 
Polly, Augustus, Susan, Nathaniel, De Forrest, and Gertrude. He died in 1874 and 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 233 

his wife in 1863. Mr. Crane's great-grandfather, Daniel Knapji. was a soldier in the 
Revolution. Mrs. Crane's father, Abraham Speer, was born in Speertown, N. J., in 
1787, married Sarah Moore in 1805, and came to this county in 1812, removing to 
Michigan three years later. Their nine children were Catherine, Madison, Charles. 
Ferrin, John, Maria, Eliza, the wife of David Todd, Jane W. and Sarah A. Mr. 
Speer died in 1857 and his wife m 1867. He was a soldier in the war of 1812. He 
was one of Michigan's pioneers, he drew the first seine for white fish in Detroit 
River that white man ever drew ; he picked up the bones of the soldiers that were 
slaughtered at the River Raisin by the British and Indians and buried in a trench ; 
his team was a yoke of oxen ; he returned tf) the town of Greece in 1826. 

Barnum, William R., is a grandson of Richard Barnum, and an early settler of 
Danbury, Conn., and a son of George B. Barnum, who came from that place to 
Brighton, Monroe county, in 1850, and died in Rochester about 1870. He was born 
in Brighton, May 14, 1858, and received his education in the public schools of Roch- 
ester and the Rochester Free Academy. At an early age he became a clerk for Lane 
& Paine, druggists, with whom he remained until 1887, when he was admitted to 
partnership in the present Paine Drug Company, their successors. In 1887 Mr. 
Barnum married a daughter of the late Gen. William E. Lathrop, of Rochester. 

Miller, Ardean R., was born in Gates, in 1855, son of Ran.som, and grandson of 
Eli Miller, who came from Connecticut in 1812 and settled in Brighton. In 1880 Mr. 
Miller married Miss Sarah Love, and they have three children: Ardean, jr., Ora M., 
and Iva M. Mr. Miller settled on the farm where he now lives in 1890. and is one of 
the best farmers of the town. In 1891 he was elected highway commissioner, which 
office he now holds. 

Foster, Ozias, was born in Hammond, St. Lawrence county, March 6, 1819, and his 
parents came to Rochester when he was a child. His father died when Ozias was 
five years old, leaving a wife and five small children to shift for themselve.s. He was 
taken by strangers, and received but a limited education, which he has supplemented 
however, by reading and observation. May 18, IM'-), he married a daughter of 
Samuel Davison of this town, and they have had ten children: Charles, who enlisted 
in the 140th N. Y. Vols., and died of typhoid fever, at Alexandria, Va. , and two 
others who are also deceased ; Frank F., a minister of Pittsburgh, Pa.; Samuel D., 
a farmer of Michigan ; Glentsworth, of Greenfield, Ma.ss. ; Nellie, wife of Alden 
Budd, of Rochester; Emma, wife of William Elliott, of Rochester; Josephine, who 
resides at home; Eugene, also a farmer on the home place; Frank, who married Lil- 
lie Arnold. Glentsworth married first, Mary Turk, of this town, and second Lillian 
Crowell. Samuel D. married Jennie Easton. Mr. and Mrs. Foster have resided on 
their homestead forty-nine years, and their marriage dates back fifty-two years, 
when he erected a small house in the forest, his capital being but fifty dollars, and a 
good honest reputation. 

Schwartz, Peter M., was born in the town of Lancaster, Erie county, X. Y., March 
25, 1868, and his education was obtained in the common schools. He has been a 
trusted emyloyee with the New York Central & Hudson River Railway Company 
since 1883, first at Churchville, as telegraph operator, then at Batavia, Genesee 
county, next at Honeoye Falls, and from there to Charlotte, wlicre he has filled the 
dd 



234 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

office of ticket agent and telegraph operator for the past five years. November 27, 
1H94, he married Lizzie O'Conner, of Charlotte. Mr. Schwartz's father, Louis, was 
born in Alsace-Loraine, Germany, July 5. 1828, and came to the United States with 
his parents in 1883. They located on a farm near Lancaster. Louis was educated 
in the schools of that time, and is a farmer by occupation. He married Theresa 
Bachman, formerly of his native country, and they have five children: Mary, now 
Mrs. Dr. Hoffmeyer of Buffalo; Louis J., a passenger conductor on the N. Y. C. cV 
H. R. Railway; Theresa M., resides at home; Peter M., as above, and Jc^hn, a 
farmer at home. Both father and mother reside on the old homestead. Peter E. is 
a Democrat, and represents the town of Greece in the county committee. He has 
-served as clerk of the village board until last year, and was re-appointed to the same 
position in 1895. 

Haight, Jacobs., was born in Chili, in 1854, son of John Haight. who was a farmer 
of that town. Mr. Haight followed the occupation of farmer till 1880, at which time 
he began clerking for Mr. Benjamin in the coal busiue.ss at Lincoln Park. In 1888 he 
purchased the coal interest of Mr. Benjamin, where he has since engaged in the 
business. In politics Mr. Haight was alwaj-s a Democrat. In 1888 he was elected 
justice of the peace of the town of Gates; in 1889, 1890, 1891 and 1892, he represented 
the town of Gates in the Board of Supervisors of Monroe county; in 1898, he was 
nominated for .sheriff, but was defeated. In 1881 Mr. Haight married a daughter of 
Francis A. Muller, of the town of Ogden, and took up his residence in the town of 
Gates, where he has since resided. 

Woodworth, Clark, was born in Gates, in 1820, son of Spencer Woodworth, who 
came from Connecticut to Gates in 1819, and died in 1855, leaving five sons. Clark 
remained on the homestead until 1865, when he bought the farm where he now lives. 
Mr. Woodworth married Julia Annis, daughter of William R. Booth, and they have 
one son, William A. 

Croft, James, was born in Kent, England, March 21, 1841, and came to the United 
States with his mother when si.\ years of age. The family landed at Port Hope, 
Canada, when he was two years old, where his father was drowned the night of his 
.arrival. Mrs. Croft married a second time, and died when James was thirteen years 
old, and he came from Rochester (where they had lived f<;r about seven years) to 
(Greece and lived with a Mr. Yick. James is now a marine engineer. September 8, 
18(i4, he enlisted in Co B, 188th N. Y. Vols., and participated in nine general engage- 
ments. This regiment was in the grand review at the close of the war in Washing- 
ten. He was honorably discharged at the close of the war. April 25, 1866, he mar- 
ried Mary J. Morse, of Charlotte. Mr. Croft's father, William, was born in England 
in 1804. He married Serena Palmer, by whom he had eight children: Serena, Sarah. 
Mary, William, Eliza, Harriet, James, and David, who was born in Canada. Mrs. 
Croft's father, Charles Morse, was born in New Hampshire in 1807, and married 
Hannah Cone, who was born in Vermont, Their families came to Rochester in 1826, 
where the young people were married. They had three children: Charles H., Wat- 
son C, and Mary J. Mrs. Morse then married a second time, Mr. Howard, and had 
one daughter, Alice A. Howard, who died aged nineteen years. Mrs. Howard died 
June 19, 1S<I.\ aged eighty-one years. 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 235 

Whitlock, George L., was born in Chatham, Columbia county, July 26, 1885, and 
married Alary A. Lyon, and resided in Palmyra, Wayne county, until ISTl, when 
they came to this town where they have since resided Mrs. Whitlock's father, the 
late James L. Lyon, was born in Hillsdale, Columbia county, N. Y., in 1799. He 
was a graduate of Lenox Academy, and a farmer by occupation. He married Jane 
McGonegal, of this county, where he came in 1836, and five children were born to 
tnem: Mary A , deceased, William F., deceased. Celia A., Mary A., and William A. 
Celia married Alexander Wilson, and they had four children, two of whom survive: 
James L. and Jennie M. Mrs. Wilson died in 1888. William A. married Jennie 
Day, of Charlotte. Mr. Lyon died September 1, 1872, and his wife in 1879. Mr. 
Whitlock's father, David L. , was born in Vermont in 1802, and came to Columbia 
county, where he married Theresa Shepard, of Dutchess county, and they had four 
children: Henry R. , George L,, Augusta B., and Ophelia A. Mr. Whitlock died in 
I88i3 and his wife in 1886. The ancestry of the family is Scotch. 

Payne, Erwin C, was born in the town of Diana, Lewis county, N. Y., December 
16, 1838. His parents moved to Pitcairn, St. Lawrence county, N. Y. , from there to 
Russell, of that county, from there to Antwerp, and came to Rochester, Monroe 
county, when Erwin C. was eight years of age. They left Rochester, returning in 
1853, and soon after settled in the town of Irondequoit. Erwin C. was educated in 
the common schools of various places, in a private school taught by Sidney B. Grant 
and Albion Academy. He has always been a farmer, and February 24, 1863, he 
married Hannah B. Ewer of Irondequoit, by whom he had three children: George 
W. , Hattie E., and C. Jennie. George W. married Minnie A. Stilwell of Webster, 
N. Y., and they have two children: Alice Maud and Florence L. Hattie E. married 
Edward C. Spencer of Spencerport. C. Jennie is housekeeper for her father. Mrs. 
Payne died December 11, 1889. July 27, 1862, Mr. Payne enlisted in Company B, 
108th N. Y. Vols., was wounded in the battle of Antietam, and was honorably dis- 
charged on a surgeon's certificate of disability the same year. He had been assessor 
of the town one year, also justice <1f the peace for six years. His father, Alonzo'L. * 
Payne, was born in the town of Champion, Jefferson county, in 1810. He married 
Selecta Harris of his native place, by whom he had four children : Erwin C, Perley E., 
Hattie E., and Ruble A. He died in 1886, but his wife still survives. Three brothers 
on the maternal side of the name of Butler were in the Revolutionary war. Erwin 
C. Payne was a messenger for the Sub-Committee of the Whole in Albany in 1S77, 
and in January, 1890, was watchman in the State, War and Navy building at Wash- 
ington. 

McDonald, David, came from Attica to Adams Basin, and was foreman on the 
canal as early as 1825. He moved to Elba, but later returned to ( )gden, and finally 
engaged in farming. He died December 10, 18S9. His children were Lydia, who 
married Watson Bradley, Delia, who married John J. Jewett; John, who was killed 
in the Rebellion; George, of Byron; John McDonald enlisted at the age of twenty- 
four in the 8th N. Y. Heavy Artillery, and wais killed at Cold Harbor June 3. 1864. 
He left a widow and one son. John K. jr. John Jevvett was lx)rn in Parma, a son of 
Dr. Gideon Jewett. In 1850 he married Delia McDonald, and they had two cliil- 
dren: Frank G., of Ogden, and William, who died young. In April. 1861, Mr. Jewett 
enlisted under the first call for three months' men, and at the expiration of his time 



'23G LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

re-eulisted and served to the end of the year, his only wound b^ing a not serious 
injury to the right arm. Mr. Jewett died in 1880, survived by his widow and son, 
Frank G. The latter was born in Ogden, July 24, 1860, and in 1874 he married Kate, 
daughter of Michael Smith of Lowville, Lewis county, and they have three children, 
all living. Mr. Jewett is an active member of the Ogden Grange. 

Grant, Theodore W., was born on the homestead on the Boulevard, February '-ifi. 
1858, and educated in the Irondequoit schools, the Collegiate Institute, Free Academy, 
and the Commercial College of Rochester, N. V., and is a market gardener by occu- 
pation. February 26, 1884, he married Flora M. Tf)wn of Jackson, Mich., by whom 
he had four children: Frank L., Samuel W. , Flora I., and Dora .'., twins. Sidnev 
B. Grant, father of Theodore W., was born at Fort Edward, N. 'S., April 2, ]82(', 
and was educated in the schools of his day, after which he taught school at the old 
home, and after coming to Brighton, which took place when he was a young man. 
July 10, 1845, he married Adaliue L. Hayward, of Brighton, now Rochester, bv 
whom he had three children: Edward S.; Francis E., and Theodore W. Mr. Grant 
died June 12, 1881, and his wife September 2(5, 1895. The ancestors of the Hayward 
family came over on the ship " Mayflower," and located in Brighton in 1828. Mrs. 
Grant's father, Samuel P. Town, was born in Cana.stota, N. Y., April 28, 1822, and 
was educated in the public schools, and graduated as a physician from the HomtL- 
opathic Medical College of Cleveland, Ohio, and is a successful practicing physician 
in Jackson, Michigan. In 1846 he married Martha A. Barrett, who was born in Ma- 
son, New Hampshire, in 1823, by whom he had si.x. children: James B., who died in 
infancy; Dora A., Martha A., Frank E. , Flora M., and William A. IMr. Grant is a 
member of Flower City Lodge No. 555, I O. O. F., Rochester, N. Y. 

Howk, Loron Whitney, M.D. , son of John C. Howk, an extensive coal and lumber 
dealer, was born in Ontario, Wayne county, N. Y., October 1, 1860, and received his 
rudimentary education in the public schools of his native town. He was graduated 
from the Union Free School at Webster, Monroe^ county, in 1883, and from the Uni- 
versity of Rochester in 1887, where he was a leading member of the Alpha Delta 
Phi fraternity. He entered the Medical Department of the University of Michigan 
at Ann Arbor and received his degree of M. D. in 1891, since which time he has fol- 
lowed his profeijsion in Rochester. While a student in the last named institution he 
beld the post of assistant surgeon, and in Rochester is now city physician for the 
■county poor. He is a member of the Rochester Pathological Society, the Monroe 
County Medical Society, and the Central New York Medical Society. February 28, 
1894. Dr. Ilowk married Miss Ella Gertrude Hildreth, of San Francisco, California. 

Farnau. James, was born near Charlotte in the town of Greece, March 81, 1848, 
and his education was obtained in the common schools. He began learning to be 
an engineer when but fourteen years old in his father's steam saw mill at Charlotte, 
where his parents moved when he was seven years of age. For the past six years 
he has been chief engineer for the Rochester Electric Railway Company, in their 
power house at Charlotte. November 15, 1871, he married Margaret Keruan, of the 
town of Greece, and they have six children: Francis John, Charles E., Julia A., 
Leo K., P. Joseph, and Clyde. The eldest son is an electrician for the Manitou 
P>each Railway Comi)ain\ Mr. Faruan's father, John, was born in the citv of 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 237 

Dublin, Ireland, in 1811, and came to America with his parents when but five years 
old. They first located in Cayuga county, N. Y., and in 1828 moved to the town of 
Greece. Mr. Farnan was a farmer for many years. In 1856 he sold his farm and 
came to Charlotte and became a ship builder, and has built some very large ones, as 
well as smaller crafts. He had a steam saw mill where he prepared his own lumber 
for ship building. He married Mary Carroll, of Greece. She was born in County 
Cavan, Ireland, and came with her parents to Plattsburg. N. Y.. when she was three 
years old. They had nine children, six sons and three daughters. Mr. Farnan died 
in December, 1892. His wife was killed by an electric car, July 20, 1889. Mr. and 
Mrs James Farnan are members of the Holy Cross Catholic church of Charlotte. 

Tone, Joseph C, was born in Rochester, N. Y., and educated in the public schools 
and Saterlee's Institute. He was clerk in Powers's Bank for seven years, and after- 
wards was in partnership with Stittheimer, Tone & Co.,- as bankers, which firm con- 
tinued ten j-ears. He then became interested in real estate and railroads, and in 
1872 began to develop Summerville and Windsor Beach, and he also built the railway 
from Rochester to the lake, now known as the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg 
Railroad. In 1874 he purchased the Manning Ferry, which connected Summerville 
with Charlotte and he caused the lower ferry to be erected, and which is now run- 
ning in first-class order. In 1892 he began the erection of the Boulevard, from the 
city line to Summerville, and of the Electric Railway, and of the above ferry. Mr. 
Tone originated the idea of the construction of the above named enterprises, and 
unfolded his plans to the Rochester and Irondequoit Bay Railway Company, which 
was favorably received by the Company, and which have been thoroughly developed 
by them since to the convenience of the traveling public, and also being a profitable 
enterprise. Mr. Tone saj's regarding the inception and development of Summerville: 
"The original notion of making a summer village on the shore of Lake Ontario first 
presented itself to me in the year 1870, before anything of the kind was talked of. 
Two years later the summer village plot, now called Summerville and Windsor Beach 
was purchased by me, and property prepared for such purposes, since which tim# 
it has steadily increased in numbers and value, and is to-day a thriving and valuable 
community, and bids fair to outstrip its larger and better equipped neighbor, Char- 
lotte, if it cannot already be said to have reached that point." He ownr a farm of 
two hundred acres, which he is constantly improving, and which was the birth-place 
of Ex-Governor Haighte, of California. 

Stace, ^Irs. Stephen. — The late Alamander Wilder was born in Wilmington, Vt., 
December 14, 1805. His parents moved to Churchville, Monroe county, in ISll, 
where he was educated m the common schools. He was engaged in farming until he 
came to Charlotte in 1854. He went to Parma at the age of sixteen years. June fi, 
1839, he married Jerusha Goodell, by whom he had nine children: Josephine W., 
who married Stephen Stace, a fruit grower, of Greece; William R., who married 
Caroline Lockwood, of Greece, and has one child, Ida F. ; Mary E., who died at the 
age of forty ; Henry C, a soldier of the late war, starved to death in Salisbury prison ; 
Eugenia, who married Isaac Wick wire, of Akron, Erie county; Sarah E., who mar- 
ried Alexander Ferguson; Emogine, who married John M. Allen; Nancy L. , who 
married Frederick G. Miller, of Waterport, Orleans county, and had five children. 
Hattie J., Cora, George, Ward W., and Beulah. and died October 25, 1888; and Fan- 



238 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

nie S., who married Harry M. Pierson, of Philadelphia, Pa., and has three children: 
Harry W., Eugene S. , and Morley H. Mr. Wilder was one of the town's foremost 
citizens for years. He served as president of the village of Charlotte. He died April 
14, 1875, and Mrs. Wilder died March 12, 1862. 

Loomis, George W., was born in Wilmington, Del., in 1851, son of Rev. George 
Loomis, D. D., late of Clifton Springs, N. Y., a well-known educator, who was prin- 
cipal of Lima Seminary, president of Allegheny College, Meadville, Pa., and at his 
death at the head of Foster School for Young Ladies, Clifton Springs, N. Y. Mr. 
Loomis was for .some years interested in banking, but is now not in active business. 
In 1887 he married Celeste M., only daughter of Judge Gardiner, and lives at the 
old Gardiner homestead on Gardiner avenue. 

Neuhart, Michael, was born in Alsace, France, September 6, 1820, where he was edu- 
cated in their .schools. In 1844 he married Elizabeth Fraushaar, of his native countr3\ 
He came to the United States in 1845, and she followed a year later. They were the 
parents of seven children: Michael, who died at sea coming over with his mother; 
Emil, who was well educated, and was town clerk of Irondequoit for three years, and 
died while on a visit to Switzerland, aged thirty-four years; and the others are dead 
with the exception of Emma, who married George Burger. Mr. and Mrs. Burger 
have six children: Flora, Hattie, Libbie, Charles, George, jr., and John. Mrs. 
Neuhart died September 7, 1891. Mr. Neuhart was a machinist by trade, which he 
followed for ten j'ears, and then kept a grocery and saloon until 1878, when he came 
to the town of Irondequoit and purchased the Forrest House, conducting it with 
success for seven years. In 1885 he sold it to Daniel Forman, and in 1879 purchased 
the farm opposite the hotel, on which he erected two houses and opened a gravel 
pit, which is a continual source of revenue. 

Conterman, Adam M., was born in Mendon, Montgomery county, N. V., January 10, 
1819. He was educated in the schools of his day, and moved with his parents to 
Oswego count}' when he was sixteen years of age, and is a farmer bj- occupation, and 
has been a resident of Western New York since 1879. He was twice married, first 
on January 21, 1841, to Nancy Ho\ t, of West Monroe, b\' whom he had four children: 
George H., Betsey, James S. (who was a soldier in the late war, and died April 12, 
1865, in hospital at Point of Rocks, Ya.), and Nancy. Mrs. Conterman died May 28, 
1858. January 14, 1860, he married Betsey A. Smith, of Chenango county, N. Y. 
They had two children : Ferma and John S. Mrs. Conterman died F^ebruary 10, 
1895. John S. is a farmer living at home. He married EllaGarlock, of Greece. The 
imcestry of the family is Dutch and Ciermau. 

Williams, Charles A., of Fairport, succeeded November 1, 1894, to the hardware 
business of H. H. Brydges, on North Main street. Besides general hardware and 
stoves, Mr. Williams has a department devoted to steamfitting and plumbing, roofing 
and repair work. He was born in Syracuse, August 28, 1847, where liis father, 
Russell C, was a cooper, and where Charles lived prior to 1871. In 1880 Mr. Will- 
iams married Delia Sherman, of Fairport, and their children are Winfield, Edward 
and Bella. 

Casburn, George, was born in Cambridge, England, Februarj' 12, 1845, and came 
U) the United States with his parents at the age of nine. They located in Penfield. 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 239 

He was educated in Watertown. Jefferson county, and is a fruit grocer, having an 
interest in four fruit evaporating establishments in the West, and is also proprietor 
of one in Kendall. Orleans county. He has been in partnership with George Burling, 
of Greece, in small fruit and evaporating business for about fifteen years, and now 
owns a fruit farm of sixty acres near West Greece. In 1880 he married Mary Xor- 
drum, of the town of Greece, formerly of Norway, and their children are Ellen E., 
Martha M., Alfred G. and Grace Ambrose. The father of our subject was born at 
the old home in 1824, married Mary Dyson, of his native place, by whom he had 
■eight children: George, Ann, Alfred, Rebecca, Sarah, Robert, Martha, and one who 
died in infancy. The family came to this country as above noted, and now reside in 
Illinois, with the exception of George, who has resided in Greece since 1874. Mrs. 
Casburu's father, Egbert Nordrum, was born in Norway in 1839 and married Mary 
Lusta, of his native place. Their two children were Mary, as above, and Ellen- 
They came to the United States in 1855 and located in this town. The father died 
in 1889 and his wife in 1862. The ancestry of the family is English and Norwegian. 

L(xsey, William, was a former resident of Seneca county, from whence he went to 
the war of 1812. He was a shoemaker and farmer, and pursued both avocations 
after coming to Parma in 1822. His children were James, Lydia, Jane, Wilsherand 
Luther. William Losey died at Albion, Mich., about 1861. James was born in 1818 
and is remembered as the cabinetmaker and undertaker of Parma for many years. 
He married Laura Meserve, by whom he had one son, George H., of Parma. He 
went to California in '850 and suffered hardships on the vovage, the vessel being 
short of provisions. Jamesdiedin Parma. April 30, 1889, and his wife Januarv 12, 18G3. 
George H. Losey was born January 10, 1843, and although a miller by trade, his chief 
occupation has been farming and market gardening. He also worked as clerk in a 
store several years. March lo, 1865, Mr. Losey enlisted in Co. L, 50th N. Y. En- 
gineers, and although in service only until June 13th, he witnessed a number of 
severe engagements. He returned to Parma, and in 1867 married Belle S., daughter 
of Henry Pullis, of Greece. They have one son, James Le Vere. Living for a 
time in Greece, Mr. Losej' was elected justice of the peace and overseer of the poor, 
and was postmaster under Cleveland's administration. 

Howell, Harvey H., has been a resident of Fairport since the age of sixteen, with 
the exception of nine years from 1859 to 1868 During this time he pursued the ad- 
venturous career of a quartz miner of California. He was born at Newark, Wayne 
county, in 1837, of an old New Jersey family, but of German ancestry, and is the 
only surviving son of Jacob W. Howell, who in 1853 came to Perinton and engaged 
in farming, and who reached the age of eighty-two years, his death occurring in 
1882. After returning from California in ;8()8 Mr. Howell was for several years en- 
gaged in farming, and for a time conducted a market on West avenue. Mr. Howell 
was for two years police officer of the village and several years deputy sheriff under 
Charles S. Camell and for twenty years been treasurer of Fairport Lodge No. 476, 
F. & A. M. At present he is a member of the Board of Education and is also 
a member of the Board of Water Commissioners. December 20, 1872. he mar- 
ried Carrie M. White. They have one daughter, Mabel, born September 17, 
1882. Their only son died in infancy. Mr. Howell had two brothers and three 
■sisters; one brother died at the age of thirteen years, and John H., a well 



240 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

known and highly esteemed resident of the town of Perinton, who in early days 
went to California and subsequently made four more trips to that country, going and 
returning by water each of the five trips. He was well known throughout California, 
being quite a noted quartz miner. He fell from an apple tree at his farm in 1891. 
injuring the base of his brain, from which he never regained consciousness. The 
three sisters are all living. 

Bacon, John B., was born in New York city, March 21, 1842, where his father, 
John P., at that time operated a ship chandlery business. The latter afterwards re- 
moved to Middletown, Conn., turning his attention to financiering, and is at present 
vice-president of the Middletown Savings Bank. Our subject was educated at 
Middletown High School and graduated from Daniel H. Chase's Preparatory School, 
and at an early age became salesman for a dry goods house in Worcester, Mass., 
when, after six months, an accident obliged him to return to Middletown. where he 
entered the post-otfice as clerk. For two j'ears he was employed as bookkeeper by a 
mercantile house at Middlt town, and at the age of nineteen embarked for Liverpool 
in a merchant ship, visiting many European ports. Just prior to the outbreak of the 
war Mr. Bacon was deputy postmaster at Columbus, Wis., where he enlisted in Co. M, 
4th Wis. Cavalry, and served nearly two years. He was at one time shot by an am- 
bushed enemy, and confined in a hospital at Vicksburg. Mr. Bacon has traveled 
largely, and is a true cosmopolite. A resident of Pittsford since 1884, he 
takes a leading place in all local affairs both in business and society. He has served 
on the village and health boards as trustee, and is a prominent figure in the Masonic 
lodge and the Episcopal church. During a residence of si.x years in Manistee. Mich., 
where he was engaged in the lumber business, he was elected supervisor twice. He 
is treasurer of the local lodge of Knights of Sobriety. Fidelitv and Integrity, is a 
verj- active member of the G.A.R., and was commander of E. J. Tyler Post No. 288 
for two years. 

Smith, Orril, was born in Enfield, Mass., and when a young man went to Sodus 
and engaged in tinsmithing. His wife was Caroline Prosser, who died in 1859. and 
in 1861 he married Laura, daughter of Orrin Parsons, who was a pioneer of Wayne 
county, and one of the progressive men of the town, energetic, and always ready to 
forward any enterprise for the good of his townspeople. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have 
two daughters: Mrs. Kittie Marsh, and Miss Emma Smith. Our subject has lived 
a useful and unostentatious life, and his hand has ever been extended to the needy 
and worthy. 

Ernst, Hon. Charles B., police justice of the city of Rochester, is a son of the late 
Col. Louis Ernst and was born here August 16, 1854. Receiving a liberal education 
in the schools of Rochester and graduating from Mount St. Mary's College of Mary- 
land in 1878, he was graduated from the Albany Law School in 1880, and entered 
the office of Judge Angle. After his admission to the bar he formed a partnershij) 
with Frank J. Hone, under the style of Hone & Ernst, which continued until 18 — . 
He has always taken an active interest in politics. For two terms he represented the 
old F"ourth ward on the Board of Supervisors, and in 1888 was appointed city attor- 
ney by the Common Council and reappointed in 1890. In March, 1893, he was 
elected by a large majority to the office of police justice, which he still holds In all 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 241 

these positions Judge Ernst has won the commendation and esteem of all classes and 
parties. He is zealous member of the C.M.B.A. and I.O.R.M., and one of the best 
known and most popular young attorneys of Rochester. 

Hill, William, was born in the town of Irondequoit. N.Y., May 20, 1859. He re- 
ceived a common school education, after which he engaged in market gardening, 
which business he has always followed, having twenty-five acres of land in a thor. 
ough state of cultivation. He has a wife and two children, Elvie Frances and Will- 
iam Avery. Mr. Hill is a member of Garden Tent. K.O.T.M. His father, William 
Hill, sr.. was born in Lincolnshire, England, in 1826, came to the United States in 
1852, and located in Irondequoit. He married Mary Kingsley, of Rochester, N. Y., 
by whom he had eight children, five of whom are still living: William as above, 
John, Martha, Mary and Sarah. Mr. Hill died April 16, 1889. Mrs. Hill, Lydia A.,' 
was the daughter of John and Frances Peacock. Mr. Peacock was born in Cam- 
bridgeshire, England, in 1814. He married Sarah Haredine, who died in 1841, 
leaving three children, Charles, William and James. Later he married Frances 
King, and in 1851 he, with his family, came to the United States and resided in Mon- 
roe county until the time of his death, which occurred in the town of Greece, Septem- 
ber 18, 18T7. His wife and eleven children, three above mentioned, also Kobert, 
vStephen, Daniel, Peter, George, Martha, Lydia as above, and John survive him. 

Rudman, William T., was born in the town of Irondequoit, N. Y., October 18, 1854. 
He was educated in the public schools, after whiih he engaged in market gardening, 
which business he has always followed with great success. He has been assessor of 
the town for the past three years,, and was re-elected in the spring of 1895. March 
18, 1877, he married Hattie L. Stanton of this town, by whom he has four children: 
Eva A., Willie C, Roy S. and Hattie L. David Rudman, father of William T., was 
born in Malmsbury, Eugland, March 20, 1818. He married Eliza Porter of his native 
place, and had ten children, four of whom were bora in England: Elizabeth, Alfred, 
George H., Lottie A., Fannie whodied in her eighteenth year, David C, Lillie, Will- 
iam T., as above, Frank E., and one who died in infancy. The family came to the 
United States in 1848, and located in the own of Irondequoit. He died March 1, 
1887, and his wife in 1881. Mrs. Rudman's father, Charles H. Stanton, was born in 
Cleveland, Ohio, May 17, 1824. April 27, 1852, he married Amelia J. Evershed, who 
was born in London, England, February 8, 1830, by whom he had four children: 
Clara E., Hattie L., Frank C. and Jay E. Mr. Rudman is half owner of the Stan- 
ton farm, and is one of the successful business men of the town. 

Sours, William H. — His father, Frederick Sours, was born in the town of Rush, 
Monroe county, N. Y., and alwas resided in this county. He married Mary J. Wal- 
zer, formerly of the town of Irondequoit, and seven children were born to them, six 
of whom survive; Sarah A., now Mrs. C. S. Bradstreet, of Rochester; Frederick J., 
a resident of this town; William H., as above; Mary J., who married W. S. Wood- 
ruff, of Rochester; Albert T., who married Mary Noonan, of Troy. N. Y. ; and Ella. 
William H. was born in this town, July 11, 1851, and was educated in the public 
schools. He is a Democrat, and served seven j-ears as supervisor, being chairman 
of the board one year. At the age of seventeen he entered the employ of his uncle, 
Henry Walzer, who was proprietor of the Newport House, and remained with him 



242 LANDMARKS OF. MONROE COUNTY. 

until his deiith in IHHO with the exception of four years. He then purchased the 
property from his aunt, and made many improvements on this celebrated summer 
resort, which is located on Irondequoit Bay. He has added to his original purchase 
a peninsula of ten acres, upon which the Rochester Canoe Club has erected fine 
buildings for its headquarters. The bay is five miles long, and about one mile wide, 
and steam vessels and smaller craft ply on this bay for the convenience and pleasure 
of his guests. The resort is a place of rare beauty, the lake, hills, and wooded dale, 
combined with the genial landlord make it one of the most attractive places as a 
summer resort. Mr. Sours's grandfather, Dennis Sours, was born in Germany, and 
came to Rush in 1818. The family were early settlers and have contributed to the 
growth and prosperity of the county. 

Southworth, Edwin M., was born in the town of Bergen, Genesee county, N. Y., 
August 8, 1828. At the death of his mother, when Edwin was seven years of age, 
he was bound out with his uncle and aunt in Henrietta, Monroe county, N. Y., where 
he was educated in the district schools, and became a farmer by occupation, and in 
1850 came to the town of Iroodequoit. December 20, 18o3, he married Ellen C. 
Wright of this town, and they were'parents of two daughters: Clara W. and Libbie B. 
Clara W. married James H. Luftwieler of Rochester, N. Y. Libbie B. presides over 
her father's household. Mrs. Southworth died March 3, 1862, mourned by a bereaved 
family. Mr. Southworth's father, Isaac, was born in Cayuga county, N. Y., in 1793, 
and was a farmer by occupation. He married Rachel Tone of that county, and they 
were the parents of eight children ; Emerett, Luranda, Andrew, Clara, Edwin M., 
Samuel, Irving and John, who died at the age of four years. He died in 1870, and 
his wife in 1835. Mrs. Southworth's father, George Wright, was born in Schoharie 
county, in February, 1804. He married Clarissa Holmes of Cayuga county, N. Y., 
and three children were born to them: Thaddeus, Ellen C, and Arietta. Mr. Wright 
was a justice of the peace for several years. He died in 1892, and his wife in lb91. 
Mr. Southworth's father was a soldier in the war of 1812. The ancestry of this fam- 
ily is Ivnglish and Gernian. 

Fleming, Joseph, was born in King's county, Ireland, March 19, 1812, and came 
to New York in 1837. The Fleming family in the old country had for several pre- 
ceding generations been skillful mechanics and builders, so that on his arrival in the 
United States, the subject of our sketch naturally gravitated towards the great 
public works which were then being projected or were already under way in this 
country. He had charge of the cutting and laying of the first Croton dam on the 
New York water works. On its completion, Mr. Fleming went to Canada in 1842, 
where he took charge of and superintended a large ship lock, also in the erection of 
an aqueduct, and later on had charge of gettmg out the cut stone for the first Sus- 
pension bridge over the Niagara River at the great Falls, completed in 1848. Later 
he returned to the United States, and took several contracts on the enlargement of 
the Gene-see Valley and Erie canals. In 1854 he purchased a farm of 140 acres in 
the town of Greece, which he enlarged by the purchase of adjoining farms until his 
present holding is about 300 acres. This he has gradually improved by the erection 
of substantial buildings, grading, draining and clearing of the land, as well as the 
formation of a trout and ice pond, until it has become one of the most modern farms 
of this section of the country. About fifty years ago, on November 18, 1845, he 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 243 

married Elizabeth Rigney. They have had six children reach maturity, Martin F. 
and Edward M., physicians in New York city, James, who died in 1889, Catherine, 
now Mrs. Feely, residing in Rochester, Margaret and Joseph, who reside with their 
parents on the farm. Mr. Fleming has been for years trustee of the Catholic church, 
the Mother of Sorrows, at Mt. Reed, and together with the late Peter Larkm had 
charge of its construction. 

Adams, Reuben A., M.D.— The Adams family of Massachusetts, most distin- 
guished for the statesmen it has given to the country, is ably represented in the 
medical profession of Rochester by Dr. R. A. Adams, who was born in Marion, 
Wayne county, N. Y., April 3, 1841, and passed his youth on his father's farm, but 
attended the common schools and the Marion Collegiate Institute. In August. 1862, 
he volunteered as a member of Company D, 160th Regiment New York Volunteers, 
and served to the close of the conflict. He served with General Banks in Louisiana 
and was with Sheridan in all his engagements in the Shenandoah Valley. He was 
wounded at Fort Bisland, La., and Cedar Creek, Va. Upon his discharge he was 
honored with a letter of special commendation signed by every surviving officer of 
his regiment. After the war he resumed his medical studies at the Homoeopathic 
College of Philadelphia and was graduated from the Hahnemann Medical College of 
Philadelphia March 4, 1868. In July, 1868, he located at Churchville, N. \., and 
practiced successfully until May, 1873, when he removed to Rochester and rapidly 
acquired a large practice and took rank among the prominent and respected physi- 
cians of the city. Dr. Adams was city physician in 1874. He is a member of 
George H. Thomas Post, No. 4, G. A. R., of Monroe Commandery Knights Templar, 
of Rochester Consistory, in which he has taken the 32d degree, of the Royal Arca- 
num, and of other societies. For ten years he was medical director of the Mutual 
Relief Society. He is also a member of the Monroe county. Central New York, and 
New York State Homoeopathic Medical Societies and the American Institute of Ho- 
moeopathy, and consulting physician to the Rochester Homoeopathic Hospital. Dnr- 
the last twenty-seven years he has taken an active interest in the progress and a i-* 
vancement of homoeopathy in Rochester and Western New York, and is recognized 
as one of the leading representatives of that school of practice in this section of the 
country. He has occupied his present office at No. 46 North Fitzhugh street for 
twenty-three consecutive years. 

Kleindienst, Henry, son of Jacob, was born in Rochester, N. Y., June 27, 1857, and 
was educated in the public schools and the Rochester Free Academy, from which he 
was graduated in 1870. About this time he received the appointment of weighmas- 
ter atthe Erie canal, and was afterward appointed inspector of customs at Charlotte. 
N. Y., which office he filled for three years, when he was elected coroner of Monroe 
county, which position he has now filled for nine years. In 1883 he was married to 
Cora, daughter of Frederick Meyers, of Rochester, and they have four children; 
Edward J., Cora J., Estella E., and Marguerite. Mr. Kleindienst is a member of the 
A. O. U. W., the K. O. T. M., the I. O. O. F., and the I. O. of R. M. He was als) 
school commissioner from 1883 to the spring of 18S7, and resigned to accept his nrc^;. 
ent position as county coroner. 

Smith, Frederick W., was born in South Granville, Washington county, X. V.. 



244 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

September 13, 1856, and was graduated from the High School of Ithaca. N. Y., in 
1876. In the fall of that year he entered Cornell University and was graduated in 
1880, receiving the degree of B. A. and being president of his class. He then came 
to Rochester and engaged in newspaper work. He was connected with the Evening 
PZxpress in 1880, the Morning Herald in 1881-82, and the Union and Advertiser in 
1882-84. He was clerk of the Supreme Court from 1885 to 1890, and was admitted 
to the bar in 1887. From 1891 to 1892 he was managing clerk for Bacon, Briggs, 
Beckley & Bissell. Since 1892 he has been engaged in general practice of the law, 
with an office in the German Insurance building. In the fall of 1894 he was chosen 
Democratic State Committeeman from the Monroe County District. 

Patten, E. S., was born in Gates in 1884, son of Alexander Patten, who came from 
Washington county to Gates among the early settlers, and died in Chili in 1860. Mr. 
Patten settled on the farm, where he now lives, when he was married, and is one of 
the leading men of the town, being one of the assessors. In 1S63 he began running 
a milk route to Rochester, which his son still continues. He lias one son, Edward A. 
and one daughter, Kittie L. Smith. 

Markel, John, was born in Baden, German5% March 17. 1839. He was educated in 
his native land and came to the United States with his parents when he was twelve 
years of age, and first located in Rochester, N. Y. On account of the death of his 
father, the same year the family moved to various towns in the county until Mr. 
Markel located in Irondequoit in 1862. January 24, 1864, Mr. Markel married Cath- 
erine T. Vogt, of this town, by whom he had five children: John V., Joseph J., 
Mary, Edward O., and Catherine. Mr. Markel has been a milk dealer in the city of 
Rochester for nineteen years and for the last five j^ears a market gardener. His 
father, Vincent, was born at the old home in Germany and married Althea Hintzler, 
of his native place. They had seven children: John, Ignatius, Benedict, Theresa, 
who died young, and three who died in infancy. Mrs. Markel s father, Martin Vogt, 
was born in Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, March 25, 1811, and came to the United 
States when a young man. He married Sophia Miller of this town, formerly of 
Germany, by whom he had ten children: Joseph, John P., Adam, George J , Cath- 
erine, Catherine T., Mary A., Elizabeth, Barbara, and Frances. Mrs. Vogt died 
October 4, 1887. Mr. Markel and family are members of the Catholic church in 
Rochester. 

Snyder, Myron T.. was born in Rensselaer county, N. Y., October 28, 1824, and 
came to Rochester with his parents in 1834, where his education was obtained in the 
public schools. He has been an active business man through life, and was in the 
lumber business for many years. They resided in Springwater, Livingston county, 
for seven years, and on this dairy farm, near the Float Bridge, for thirty years. 
April 7, 1858, he married Margaret E. Smith, formerly of Syracuse, and five children 
were born to them, two of whom died in infancy: Myron C, Charles B., and Edith 
M., all of whom reside at home. Mr. Snyder's father, Lodwick G., was born in Sara- 
toga county, N. Y., September 14, 1784. He was married twice; first to Christina 
Files in 1805, and they had six children. She died in 1821. For his second wife he 
married, in 1822, Edith Mattison, and four children were born to them: Myron T., 
Eron, Clementine, and Julia. Mr. Snyder died July 19, 1873, and his wife, Novem- 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 245 

ber 10, 1863. Mrs. Snyder's father, Nuobury Smith, was born near Syracuse, N. Y. 
He married Tammie HolTman of that vicinity, and they were the parents of eight 
children. He died in 1891, and his wife in 1887. The ancestry of the family is Ger- 
man on the father's side. 

Fritz, Martin, was born in'Baden, Germany, November 6, 1841, and came to the 
United States with his father when he was fourteen years old. His father had loaned 
money to a supposed friend, and one child and the father came on to Rochester 
leavmg the others in New York, expecting to secure his money and -send for ihem, 
but he did not succeed. The children finally came to Syracuse ; two of the boys, 
John and Martin, walked from Syracuse to Rochester without overcoats, and en- 
dured many privations and hard.ships. They were caught on a long trestle near 
Allen's bridge by a freight train, and with great presence of mind the boys hung on 
the ties below with their hands and no doubt saved their lives. The first year was 
full of hardships. Martin worked for twenty-five cents a day and boarded himself, 
and at the end of one year had saved twelve dollars, which he put out at interest at 
seven percent., which money was saved. He then for three years hauled ship tim- 
ber to the mouth of the river for Hosea Rogers. He worked by the month and fol- 
lowed a threshing machine until 1872. April 29, 1872. he married Louisa Smith of 
Steuben county, N. Y., and four children were born to them: Florence, Orlo, Albie, 
and De Loss. In 1874 he purchased a farm on the Ridge Road, since when he has 
been a milk dealer. In 1891 he erected a fine residence, which together with the 
improvements makes one of the best farms on the said road. He has been one of 
the assessors of the town for the past four years. His father, Phillip, was born at 
the old home in Germany in 1810. He had seven children : Lee, Lawrence. John, 
Martin, and Henry; the daughters died in infancy. Mr. Fritz's mother died when 
he was three years of age, and his father in 1872. 

Wood, Thomas, was born in Rutland, Yt., in 1783, and married Lucretia Miner 
and removed to West Bloomfield, and in 1810 removed to Greece, and was a soldier, 
in the war of 1812. His family had to return to West Bloomfield on account of hos- 
tile Indians. They had four children: Hiram, Charlotte, Francis L., and Betsey. 
In the winter of 1814-15 they returned to Greece, his father, Jeremiah, and Rhoda, 
his mother, returning with him. Francis L., the only remaining child, still lives on 
the old homestead. He married Fanny J. Jacox in 1836, by whom he had four chil- 
dren, one dying in infancy, Mary at the age of twenty-four, Lucretia at eleven, and 
Hiram L., who still lives on the farm. In his younger days Mr. Wood carried corn 
in a bag on his back to the Colby place in the village, and ground it in a hollow 
stump with a pestle. He has been over.seer of the poor and highway commissioner 
for many years. Hiram L. married Luthera Meserve of Parma, by whom he had 
one son, Frank S. He was clerk of the Baptist church for many years. Frank S. 
married Flora Consaul of Brockport, and they have two children, Hazel L. and Wal- 
ter H. Mrs. Francis L. died March 13, 1888, and Mrs. Hiram L. January 16, 1892, 
both being mourned by a large circle of friends. 

Enders, John C. . was born in Bavaria, Germany, in 1846, and came to America in 
1863, settling in Rochester where he has since resided. In 188S he purchased an in- 
terest in the Miller Brewing Company, which was incorporated in 1883. This ex- 



246 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

tensive concern was started many years ago by Frederick Miller, manufactures both 
ale and lager of the finest quality, and has a capacity of 50,000 barrels annually. Mr. 
Enders is a prominent member of the I. O. O. F., which he joined in 1868; he is also an 
active member of the Masonic fraternity and of the Knights of Pythias. The firm is 
a member of the Rochester Chamber of Commerce. 

Costich, Gilbert. — His father, Francis, was born in the town of Irondequoit, N. Y., 
in 1834, and educated in the schools of that early day. He learned the harnes.smak- 
er's trade at Brockport, where he attended night school, and afterwards sold nursery 
stock, and then became a nurseryman. April 10, 1862, he married Catherine Grent- 
zinger of his native town, and they were the parents of eleven children: Gilbert, 
Cyprian, Louisa, Bernard, Richard F., Rose M., who died in her fifth year, Stephen 
J., Edward, Clai-a Ei, Oliver U., and P. Walter, who died in infancy. Mr. Costich 
died September 'S, 1889. (Gilbert Costich was born at the old homestead in this town, 
educated in the public .schools, and has always followed the nursery business. He 
has 160 acres of nursery stock growing, which receives his skillful attention and 
supervision. He married Harriet A. Nabor of this town, and they have three living 
children: Ella L., George R., and Stella L. Mrs. Costich's father. Urban Nabor, 
was born in Baden, Germany, May 18, 1883, where he was educated. In 1852 he 
came to the United States, locating in Irondequoit. May 3, 1858. he married Harriet 
Sour, and eleven children were born to them: Urban, jr., Ella S., Mary J. and 
Emma M., (twins), Harriet A., Lydia, Joseph, Ignatius, Paul, Margaret, and John. 
The ancestry on the paternal side is French, on the maternal, German. 

Garnish, John, was born in Devonshire, England, August 12, 1848, a sou of a thor- 
ough English farmer. He was educated in their schools, and came to the United 
States in 1871, locating in Leroy, Genesee county, N. Y. In 1884 he became super- 
intendent of the Bay View stock farm in the town of Irondequoit. Among other 
things he conducts a milk route in Rochester, and is also engaged in general farm- 
ing. February 5, 1876, he married Mary J. Uespard, of New York city. They have 
three children: John A., George G., and Jessie M. Mr. Garnish's father, Anthony, 
was born at the old home in England, February 14, 1805. He married Elizabeth 
Smallridge, of his native place, by whom he had eight children: Eliza, Sarah, Ann, 
Thomas, John, Anthony, Mary, and Bessey. Mr. Garni.sh died October 8, 1874, and 
his wife November 7, 1879. Mrs. Garnish's father, John Despard, was born in Ire- 
land about 1827. He married Jane Lutteral of his native place, and came to the 
United States in 1856. They had three children: Mary J., John T., and Richard 
W. Mrs. Despard died March 3, 1876. The Garnish family is of English descent. 
At the Huguenot persecution in France the Despard family left and settled in Ire- 
land, consequently they are of French descent. 

Pardee, Edwin S. , was born in the old homestead, July 2, 1827. He was educated 
in the district schools and has always been engaged in farming. March 6, 1855, he 
married Laura M. Quaife, of the city of Oswego, N. Y. , by whom he has three chil- 
dren: Hiram W. , Charles E., and G. Herburt. Hiram W. married Mrs. Belle (Kel- 
logg) Howard and now resides in Charlotte; she had one daughter, Jessie. Charles 
E. married Flora Gates, of Rochester, N. Y., by whom he has three children: Edna 
M., George E., and Walter. G. Herburt still resides at home. Mr. Pardee's father, 



FAMILY SKETCHES. ' 247 

Hiram, was born in Westchester county, N. Y., in 1797. He was educated in the 
schools of his day, then engaged as a ship carpenter. In 1825 he married Sarah 
Scofield of his native place, and they had si.x children: Edwin S., Mary J., Julia A., 
Hannah E., Eliza A., and George W., who died at the age of twenty years. Hiram 
Pardee died in 1888 and his wife in i89;3. Mrs. Pardee's father, Robert T. Quaife, 
was born in Kent county, England, in 1790, and married, August 14, 1816, Grace 
Hooker, by whom he had eleven children. Mr. Quaife came to the United States in 
1833 and died m September, 1863. His wife died August 3, 1843. Mr. E. S. Pardee 
has been commissioner of highways and assessor of the town upwards of twenty-five 
years. The ancestry of the family is French and English. 

Emberry, Christine, was born in England in 1829 and came with her father, John 
Emberry, to Pittsford, in 1831, where they lived five years, then moved to Canada, 
where they remained ten years. They then returned, settling in Penfield, where her 
father rented a farm, on which he remained until 1840 or 1850, when with the aid of 
his three sons and three daughters he purchased the Charles Wesner farm of 175 
acres, one of the best in Penfield. Although he had but $1,000 to pay down, they all 
took hold with a determined will and by the time the war closed they had the debt 
about canceled. A few years later, when a division of the farm came, Miss Christine 
pooled her interest with her father, and when he began to fail she took the manage- 
ment of affairs. Since the death of her parents in 1876 and 1881, respectively, she 
has had the farm worked on shares, and by her good management has steadily added 
to the competence left her by her father, thereby demonstrating that if a woman 
cannot vote, she can make a good farmer. Miss Emberry received her education be- 
fore coming to Penfield. In early life she united with the Penfield Baptist church, 
of which she, together with her father, has ever been a liberal supporter. 

Billings, Lewis J., was born in Ontario, Wayne county, N. Y., September 18, 1822. 
He was educated in the common schools of Union Hill, N. Y., and his earlier life 
was spent on the farm with his father, William Billings. In 1844 he married Mahala 
Hicks, by whom he had two children: William, who died in infancy, and Warren, 
now of Webster, N. Y. He worked his father's farm for a short time after which he 
bought a farm of William Corning and moved to Webster. In 1857 he commenced 
growing nursery stock and by vigorous effort has been quite successful in that busi- 
ness. In 1872 he moved to Webster village where he still resides. Mrs. Billings died 
January 19, 1876. In July, 1879, he married for his second wife Libbie P. Northrup. 
They have two children, Mina and Hiram. About eight years ago Mr. Billings be- 
came interested in the orange culture and has since spent the winter season at De 
Leon, Volusia countj-, Florida, where he owns extensive orange groves. In 1852 he 
united with the Baptist church and has ever been a faithful officer and liberal sup- 
porter. Politically Mr. Billings is a Republican and has filled many offices of trust 
and honor, having twice represented his town in the Board of Supervisors. He was 
for three years connected with the Board of Managers of the Western House of 
Refuge of Roche.^ter. During the building of the Rome and Watertown railroad he 
took an active part as he was one of the commissioners. He has always taken a 
great interest in the cause of education, and althougli a large taxpayer his vote has 
always been for improvement. 



248 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Niven, William I)., is the son of John S. Niven, who with his father, David Niven, 
came from New York city to the town of Gates in 1831, and settled on the farm 
where they sti^l live, and where David Niven died. His mother was a daughter of 
William Hamilton, of Brighton, N. Y., who also was an early settler in Monroe 
county, purchasing a farm where part of Mount Hope Cemetery now lies. William 
D. is of Scotch descent, all of his grandparents coming here from Scotland early in 
the present century. After graduating from the Rochester Free Academy, he taught 
school for two years in the district where he resides, then choosing a business career, 
he entered the employ of G. R. Boyd, a lumber dealer at Lincoln Park, as book- 
keeper, where he remained two years, and then entered the office of Sibley, Lindsay 
& Curr, of Rochester, where he occupies the position of head bookkeeper in their 
general office. 

Pease, Dr. Joseph, was born in Sweden, Genesee county, N. Y., in 1837, moved 
with his parents to the town of Yates, Orleans county, when one year old. His 
father was born on the east side of the Green Mountain State of Vermont. He mar- 
ried Laura Holcomb in the State of Connecticut and removed to the town of Mar- 
cellus, Onondaga county, N.Y. ; from there to the town of Sweden, Genesee county, 
N.Y., and again to the town of Yates, Orleans county, again to the town of Bergen, 
Genesee county, when Joseph was twelve years old, and died there in. 1852. Joseph 
lived with his oldest brother, Abel, until he was married to Mary Brown of Parma, 
Monroe county. He shipped in the U. vS. navy February 5, 1862, and served in the 
Western Gulf Blockaking Squadron as carpenter until 1864, and was discharged at 
Portsmouth, N. J., June 26, 1864. He began the study of medicine shortly after, 
and was graduated from the University of the City of New York in 1875, and settled 
in Hamlin, where he has since resided. He is a member of the State Medical Asso- 
ciation, of the Rochester Pathological Society, Monroe County Medical Societ)-. In 
connection with his profession has carried on a drug store. 

Doyle, Joseph, was born in Canada on April 17, 1836. He lived at the old family 
homestead until 1853 when he decided to strike out for himself. He went to Oswego, 
N.Y., and in course of time, by steady application, became a skillful boat builder. 
After learning his trade he tried fishing, and at one time owned over twelve miles of 
gill net. In 1858 he decided that trading was more profitable than fishing, so built 
himself a boat and traded in fruit and fish between United States and Canada. It 
was while engaged in this business that he was capsized by the carelessness of his 
mate and made his famous swim through a heavy surf to Yorkshire Island, where he 
lived for eighteen days until rescued by a passing schooner. In 1878 he was ap- 
pointed keeper of the Charlotte Life Saving Station. He secured the appointment 
of a paid crew, and his services in rescuing the crews of the E. P. Dorr and schooner 
Star, for which he received a gold medal from the \J. S. government, are well known 
on the lakes. Captain Doyle held the position of keeper for seventeen years and 
then resigned on account of injuries received in the service. He has now a large 
boat building establishment at Charlotte, and owns several paying gold mines in 
Colorado. 

Swanson, T. ()., was born in Sweden in 1855, and came to America when a boy 
and located in Pennsylvania, soon after going to Rochester, N. Y., and later remov- 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 249 

ing to Hamlin, where he married Anna Rayburn, of Clarkson, in 1882. He started 
a grocery store at Hamlin depot and for the last two years has been engaged in buy- 
ing and shipping produce and fruit. He is now building a warehouse at the station, 
and is dealing in all kinds of produce and domestic fruits and also general merchan- 
dise. 

Manly, Howard, was born in Hamlin, August 15, 1827, moved on the farm where 
he now resides in 1834, and is the son of Howard Manly, who came from Lowell. 
Mass., with his brother, Adin, in 1824, and died here in 1850, leaving ten children, 
all of whom are deceased with the exception of Howard, who has always resided on 
the homestead. He has been constable for the past forty years, and collector two 
years, and deputy sheriff for fourteen years, and still holds the office of sheriff and 
constable. He married Syrena, daughter of Larius Phillips, and they have one son, 
Edgar, and two daughters, Mary and Alta. 

Keeler, Charles A., was born in Rockford, 111., July 7. 1846, and when quite young 
came to Western New York with his parents, where he received a preliminary edu- 
cation. He entered the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary at Lima, and took a special 
course preparatory to the study of law. He read law with Judge Homer A. Nelson, 
afterwards secretary of State, of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and later with C. H. Holmes 
of Albion, N.Y., and was admitted to the bar in Buffalo, General Term, in 1867. He 
began the practice of his profession at Albion the same year, and in 1870 he was ap- 
pointed clerk of the Orleans County Surrogate's Court which position he faithfully 
filled for seven years, when he received the nomination for district attornej-, and was 
elected by a large majority. He held that office until 1881, and in 1880 was appointed 
by Gov. Lucius Robinson a member of the Board of Managers of the Batavia Blind 
Asylum but never acted as such. He removed to Rochester in 1882, and in 1893 be- 
came the senior member of the law firm of Keeler & Marsh, with offices in the 
Chamber of Commerce building. He was employed as special counsel in building the 
bridge across the Ohio River at Cairo, 111., and the bridge at Memphis, Tenn.. across* 
the Mississippi River and also the bridge at Alton, 111., and many other large public 
and railroad works in several States and Canada. He is a thirty-second degree 
Mason, being a member of Yonondio Lodge, F. & A. M., and Rochester Consistory 
and Damascus Temple. 

Walz, John, was born in Baden, Germany, April 15, 1S54. He was educated in 
their schools, the commercial college, and the Botanical Institute, graduating as a 
florist and nurseryman, so he has been a florist and nurseryman " from his youth 
up." April 25, 1881. he married Louise Kiihne of his native place, and they have one 
son, William J. The family came to the United States March 15, 1887, locating in 
Rochester, N. Y., where he entered the employ of W. S. Little & Co., and in a few 
days it was found that he had full knowledge of the business and he was made fore- 
man of their extensive nurseries. His son is well educated and Mr. Walz is g<Mng 
to send him to Germany this fall to study at the Botanical Institute, from which he 
was graduated. Mr. Walz's father, John, was born at the old home in Germany in 
1802, where he was educated. He married Catherine Hahn of his native place, and 
they were the parents of fifteen children. He died in 1892, and his wife in February, 
1895. Mr. Walz is a member of Germania Lodge, No. 722, 1'. tV A. M.. and of 
Koermes Lodge. No. 388, I. G. O. F.. lioth of Rochester, 
ff 



250 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Seibel, Mrs. J H. — The late Joseph S. Seibcl was born uear Luntau in Bavaria, 
Germany, on the River Rhine, in 1831, was well educated, and a carraiagemaker 
by occupation. He came to the United States in 1853, and located first in Rochester, 
and soon after in Charlotte, where he kept the United States Hotel until he died. 
He married Susana Leiderger, formerly of his native country. They had six chil- 
dren, two of whom died in infancy, and George F., Charles F.. M. Matilda, and Car- 
rie F. George F. married Fannie Craig, of Charlotte, formerly of Canada, and they 
had two children, Stewart F. and Edith M. He is a contractor and rniller by occu- 
pation in Taunton, Mass. Charles F. was drowned with his father, from a row boat, 
in the lake October, 19, 1883. M. Matilda married twice, first to Ellsworth Uauchy, 
and had two children, Caroline E. and Edward J. Her second husband was William 
Peck, of Irondequoit, where they reside. Carrie F. married Fritz Glogauer, of Chi- 
cago, formerly of Prussia, Germany. They reside in Edgewater, a suburb of Chi- 
cago. They have three daughters: Paulire, Estella. and Carrie E. Mr. Glogauer 
is one of the proprietors of the Abend Post, a leading German daily newspaper in 
Chicago, and thoroughly understands several languages. Mrs. Seibel still lives in 
Charlotte. 

Richman. Dr. A. L., was born in 18.")8, and is the son of iJr. John Richman, who 
was a practicing physician in Parma for twenty-five years and in 1H85 came to Mor- 
ton, where he died in December, 1892. After graduating at the school at Parma, 
Dr. Richman took a course at the American University, Philadelphia; practiced in 
Michigan, and was graduated from the medical department of the University of Buf- 
falo in 1886, since which time has practiced at Morton. In 1885 he married Sarah J. 
Dobson of Rochester, and they have two sons, Raynauld D. and Burton S. They 
lost one daughter, Henrietta B., who died in infancy in 1S8S. 

Hawks, Haywood, was born in Rochester, X. V., in l!~i.")(), where he received a 
common school education. In 1865 he accepted the position of clerk in the Union 
Bank, and in 1867 was appointed assistant teller in the Powers Bank; in 1877 he was 
made assistant cashier and filled that position until 1888, when the Rochester Trust 
and Safe Deposit Company was formed. In April of that year Mr. Hawks was 
elected to the position of .secretary, which he still holds, being also a director. The 
Trust Company occupies the si.x-story fire-proof building on Exchange street, and is 
one of the wealthiest of the kind in the Empire State, having a surplus capital of 
half a million dollars. Mr. Hawks was a charter member of the Genesee Valley 
Club and is prominently connected with various other organizations. He is a direc- 
tor of the Rochester and (lenesee Valley railroad and the Rochester and Irondequoit 
railroad. 

I-^vans, John Joseph, M. D., s(.n of John and Mary A. (Dwver) Evans, was born in 
Ansonia, Conn., June 27, 1852, and when very young moved with his parents to New 
York city, where he attended the public school. After completing his education in 
the said schools he was engaged in teaching in the different schools in the above city. 
He then entered college to take up a higher course of studies, preparatory to a ccxurse 
of medicine. He was graduated from Mount St. Mary's College, Emmittsburg, Md., 
in 1884, from the Albany Medical College as an M. D., where he received one of the 
highest honors of his class, in 1888, and from the Polyclinig Institute of New York 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 251 

in 1889, the latter being a post-graduate course in medicine. His father and mother 
were natives of Ireland and came to America in 1850. They settled in Ansonia. 
Conn. ; after a few years they removed to New York city, where his father died Sep- 
tember 1, 1860. His mother died in Ithaca, N. Y., October 28, 1889. He has a 
brother, Rev. Alfred J. Evans, M. R., who is rector of the Immaculate Conception 
church of Ithaca, N. >» . Dr. Evans, upon leaving college, practiced his profession 
for a time in New York city, and from there he came to Rochester, where he has 
since been engaged in a successful general practice, making the treatment of the eye, 
ear, nose, and throat a specialty. He was a member of the Board of Education in 
1891-92 and city physician in 1893. He is also a member of the Monroe County and 
Central New York State Medical Societies; of the I. O. of R. M. and D. of P., being 
medicine man for both of the last named organizations. February 9, 1892, he mar- 
ried Miss Nellie A. Burk of Oneida, N. Y., by whom he has a daughter, Cornelia. 

Waring.— In 1817 Isaac Waring settled in Irondequoit with his family, having 
moved here from Southeast, Putnam county, N. Y. In 1827 his son, James Waring, 
married Miss Mary Hipp of Penfield. From this union were born six children: John, 
Ellas W., Isaac, Mary A., Cynthia C, and Hattie E. After his marriage he followed 
his trade, that of a cooper, for a number of years. About 1830 he bought the farm now 
situated at the corner of Culver and Waring streets, Irondequoit, on which his daugh- 
ter Mary still resides. His son, Elias W. , was born in 1833, and after securing his 
education at the stone school on the Culver road he worked with his father on the 
farm until he married in 1856 Miss Emily A., daughter of Archibald Carter, who set- 
tled in Irondequoit in 1817. From this union were born five children, all of whom 
died in childhood with the exception of Frank E. Elias W. , after his marriage, 
lived nine years in Irondequoit, and then bought the farm in Gates now owned by 
him, and occupied by his son. 

Craig, Oscar, was born in INIedina, N. Y. , November 14, 1836, and was graduated 
in 1856, from Union College, which conferred upon him in 1859 the degree of M. A.* 
In the latter year he was admitted to the bar in Buffalo; he immediately removed to 
Rochester, and began the practice of his profession, in which he attained a high 
reputation. After remaining away for several years on account of ill health, he re- 
turned in 1868 and continued his practice until his death, which occurred Janunry 2, 
1894. He was president of the State Board of Charities and a trustee of the Monroe 
County vSavings Bank, and actively identified with the growth of the city. 

Yoshall, Charles Watson, son of John Frederick Voshall, of Syracuse, N. Y., was 
born in that city and educated in the public schools there. At the early age of four- 
teen he entered the employ of his father in the lumber business, and continued until 
1872, when his father's health failed. The latter then sold his exten.sive business, 
but Charles W. remained as manager for his father's successor one year. In the 
spring of 1874 he moved to Roche.'-ter and became a partner in the large contracting 
firm of J. G. Wagner & Co., remaining as such until the retirement of Mr. Wagner 
in 1886. when Mr. Voshall became sole proprietor. Since that time he has con- 
structed under his own name many public and private buildings, among which are 
the Genesee Brewery, the Lyceum Theatre, the Whitcomb House, the Standard 
Brewery, the German Insurance building, and many others. He is president of the 



252 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Rochester Asphalt Pavin,ij Company, vice-president of the Standard Brewing Com- 
pany, treasurer of the Standard Sewer Pipe Company, and prominently connected 
with various other enterprises. He is proprietor of Big Elm Stock Farm in the town 
of Greece, which he established in the fall of 1891, and upon which he has constructed 
large and convenient stables, a good race track, and a new creamery. For some 
time he was engaged chiefly in developing trotting horses, but more recently he has 
converted the premises into a dairy farm stocked with high grade Jersey and Dur- 
ham cattle. Mr. Voshall is a member of the Rochester Whist Club and takes an 
active interest in the prosperity of the city. May 25, 1875, he married Caroline P., 
daughter of J. G. Wagner, at that time his partner. 

Hayden, J. Alexander, son of James E. Hayden, was born in Rochester September 
22, 1856, and was graduated from the high school in 1874 and from the University of 
Rochester in 1878. After graduating he went abroad and studied decorative art for 
eighteen months, and returning to Rochester entered the large furniture firm of James 
E. Hayden & Co., which was established by his father in 1844. In 1882 he formed 
the corporation known as the Hayden Furniture Company, of which he has served 
continuously as president. In 1887 a branch office and warerooms were established 
at 33d street and Broadway in New York city, and in 1892 they were moved tf) 
the present handsome quarters on West 34th street, where an entire building was 
fitted up for the purpose, and which is now one of the finest and most artistic furni- 
ture houses in the country. Mr. Hayden is a director in the Union Bank, a trustee 
of the Security Trust Company, and a member of the Genesee Valley Club. He also 
belongs to the Universitj' Club, the Players' Club, the Uptown Association, and the 
Psi Upsilon Alumni Club, all of New York city. He was married in April, 1893, to 
Miss Elizabeth Bruce Gwynne, daughter of William Gwynne, of Hillsboro, N. C. 
His father, James E. Hayden, died in Rochester in 1883; his mother survives and 
still resides in this city. 

Williamson, William A., president of the Williamson Law Book Company, was 
born in Rochester, N. Y., September 16, 1846, and is the oldest son of William Will- 
iamson, who came to Rochester in 1840 and died in 1889. He was educated in the 
public schools and Rochester Free Academy and began active life as a clerk for D. 
M. Dewey of the Arcade book store, in 1863, remaining there until 1870. He then 
started in business for himself in the Powers block (being among the first of Mr. 
Powers's tenants) as a dealer in news and stationery with W. W. Wadsworth. After 
two years this firm (Wadsworth & Williamson) was succeeded by.W. A. Williamson 
&- Co., which continued two and one-half years, by which time they had established 
a successful business as publishers of law books and dealers in law books and station- 
ery. In 1874 they were succeeded by Williamson & Higbie, which partnership con- 
tinued for fifteen years. In 1885 their store in Powers block (entrance to the eleva- 
tor) became too small for their increasing business, and they leased the entire five 
story building, Nos. 9 and 11 E.xchange street, formerly occupied b\' Ailing tSj Cory. 
On May 1, 1889, Horace A. Higbie having sold his interest to Mr. Willianis(;ii, the 
latter organized and incorporated the Williamson Law Book Company with a capital of 
$38,000. The officers since then have been W. A. Williamson, president; David F. 
Williamson, vice-president; Robert S. Williamson, treasurer; Joseph Williamson, 
manager stationery department (all of the above being younger brothers who had 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 253 

been with the concern for many years, and by their united efforts had aided very 
materially m building up the concern), and Robert M. Swinburne, secretary In 1889 
a branch was established at No. 50 West Eagle street. Buffalo, N. Y. under the 
management of D. F. Williamson, which is still continued. In 1894 they removed 
to then- present mammoth store, No. 41 State street, Ellwanger & Barry building 
Their business consists in the publication of law books and law blanks, mercantile 
stationery and office specialties. Over eighty per cent, of their business is done 
outside of the city of Rochester by means of traveling representatives and catalogues 
and their name is familiar to lawyers all over the United States and Canada, and 
from Its inception the company has achieved unqualified success. The members of 
the concern are also partners in the firm of R. M. Swinburne & Co., printers, of 
Rochester, N. Y. 

Barr, WilHam, senior member of the firm of Barr & Creelman, i)lumbers was born 
in Rochester, August 25, 1851, and is a .son of William Barr, sr., now of California, 
who came here from Scotland in 1849. After attending the public schools of hi.s 
city he began in 1867 to learn the plumbers trade with Sherlock & Sloan, with 
whom he remained nine years. F^ollowing this he was for four years foreman for 
Herman Mutschler, whom he bought out in partnership with John A. Creelman. 
The firm of Barr & Creelman is one of the leading plumbing and steam and gas fit- 
ting concerns in Rochester and employs about fifty hands. They have executed some 
of the most important work in the city and surrounding country and not infrequently 
extend their operations into distant territory. They placed the heating apparatus in 
eighteen of the government buildings at Plattsburg, the State Custodial Asylum at 
Newark, and the East Side Savings Bank building in Rochester, and for fifteen years 
have performed all the work in their line for the Bartholomay Brewing Company. 
They also did the plumbing in the new Chamber of Commerce building, the new 
Reynolds Library building, and the Mechanics Institute. Mr. Barr is a member of 
Rochester Lodge, No. 660, F. & A. M., the Mannechor, and Active Hose Co. of the # 
fire department. November 27, 1877, he married Frances H.. daughter of Luton 
Wood, of Rochester, and they have one son, Harry T., a student in the Free Acad- 
emy, born November 27, 1878. 

Creelman. John A., son of John, is a native of Rochester and was born January 8, 
1855. His father came here from Montreal and died in 1892, being a veteran of the 
war of the Rebellion, in which he enlisted as a member of the 13th N. V. Vols., served 
two years and nine months, and became a sergeant in Captain Downey's company. 
Young Creelman attended the public schools of the city and was graduated in 1869 
from the Rochester Free Academy. Deciding upon the plumber's trade he entered 
the establishment of Sherlock & Sloan, where he remained ten years. In March, 
1880, he formed a partnership with William Barr, jr., as Barr & Creelman, and pur- 
chased the plumbing and steam and gas fitting business of Herman Mutschler, which 
the}' have since continued with unvarying success. The firm was a charter member 
of the Rochester Chamber of Commerce, and ranks among the foremost concerns of 
the kind in Western New York. Mr. Creelman is member of Vonondio Lodge. F. & 
A. M., Hamilton Chapter, R. A. M., Doric Council, and Monroe Commandery K. T.. 
and for eighteen yearshas been a trustee of the United Pre.sbyterian church, being 
for a long time secretary of the board. 



254 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Kohlnietz, Charles E , was born in Rochester, X. Y., July 1, I808 Henry Kohl- 
metz, his father, came here from Germany, in 18o2, and died January 16, 1892, 
aged sixty-two. He was a blacksmith by trade and in 1873 established the busi- 
ness now conducted by his son, who became a partner in 1883 and who, since the 
father's death, has been sole proprietor. Charles E. was educated in the i)ublic schools 
of his native city and in the Rochester Business University, and at an early age 
learned the blacksmith s trade. He has successfully conducted the extensive busi- 
ness established by his father, which consists of the manufacture of all kinds of ar- 
chitectural iron works, fire escapes, railing, stairs, etc., and which under the two 
managements has developed into large proportions. He is a member of Germania 
Lodge, No. 722, F. & A. M., and Aurora Lodge, No. 406, L O. O. P., and for four 
years was treasurer of the Lowell Dime Permanent Savings and Loan Association. 
He was also treasurer for three years of the Rochester and Cayuga Vineyard Com- 
pany. In 1883 he married Miss Jennie S. , daughter of James Burrell, of Rochester. 
They have six children. 

Bryson, Robert, was born at Newton, Mearns, near Glasgow, Scotland, April 11, 
1843, and learned his trade of boiler maker in tlje celebrated ship yards on the Clyde. 
Coming to America in 1865 he settled in Rochester, and followed his vocation as a 
journeyman until 1880, when he established business for himself. In 1891 his sou 
John H. became a partner under the firm name of Robert Bryson ik Son. They 
manufacture boilers, tanks, water pipes, etc., and do general repairing. Mr. Bryson 
has achieved unvarying success and is one of the best known boiler manufacturers 
in Western New York. He was supervisor of 9th ward in 1892 and is a member of 
Yonondio Lodge F. & A. M. In 1867 he married Elizabeth Hart, daughter of Will- 
iam Hart, of Rochester, and they have three children: John H., Rachel A., and 
Robert W. 

Britenstool, Jacob A., born in Rochester, July 1."), 1849. is a son of Hirsch and 
Caroline (Greentree) Britenstool, who came here from Germany about 1845. His 
mother died in 1884. He received his education in private schools in his native city 
and in 1864 became a traveling salesman for Greentree & Wile, clothing manufac- 
turers. In 1874 he engaged in business for himself as a manufacturer of pants, to 
which he added in 1893 a general line of clothing. He employs about 300 hands and 
controls an extensive trade extending throughout the New England and Middle 
States and the West to California. This he has built up entirely alone. He started 
in a verj' small way in one room on Mill street and now occupies a new seven-story 
brick building, 25 by 100 feet, on North St. Paul street, which was specially con- 
structed for his business. He was one of the first in the United States to make a 
specialty of pants, and in all branches of his manufacturing enterprise he has met 
with unvarying success. In 1873 he married Fannie Frauenthal, daughter of Samuel 
Frauenthal, of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and sister of Dr. Henry Frauenthal, a well-known 
physician and surgeon of New York city. They have two children, Harry and 
Blanche. Harry Briten.stool is a graduate of the Rochester High School, class of 
1893, and is following in the footsteps of his father, being associated with him in the 
capacity of salesman. The daughter was graduated from Miss Cruttenden's school 
iu Rochester in 1895 and is now a student at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie. 

Graves, J. William, D.l). S., of Rochester, is a grandson of Jason Graves, a 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 255 

farmer, who came to Penfield, Monroe county, at a very early day and died tliere. 
C. J. Graves, son of Jason and father of Dr. J. W., was born in that town August 2«, 
1818, and was a farmer, a soldier in the old State militia, and a merchant and post- 
master at Penfield village, and died in 1878; his wife, Cornelia Roland, survived him 
until 1883. They had six children: Bessie C. (Mrs. William Newell), of Spokane, 
Wash.; Andrew]., of Irondequoit; Edwin T.. of Richmond, Va. ; a twin sister of 
the latter, deceased; Lettie J. (Mrs. A. D. McBain), of Brockport; and Dr. J. William. 
Dr. Graves, the youngest of this family, received his education, in the public schools 
of Roche.ster, and the Spencerian Business College of Washington, I). C, and was 
graduated from the dental department of the University of Maryland at Baltimore in 
1890, where he was afterwards demonstrator of oral surgery. In February, 1892, 
he opened his present office in Rochester for the practice of his profession. Dr. 
Graves is a member of the Seventh District Dental Society, RocTiester City Dental 
Society, and of the Knights of Pythias. 

Vick, Joseph S., was born in Rochester, N. Y., where he has always resided, De- 
cember 15, 1855. His father, Charles J. Vick, born in Isle of Wight, and came to 
Rochester in 1842, and is still a re.sident. Joseph S. was educated in the public 
schools and engaged in the boot and shoe business, being employed by Pancost, Sage 
and Morse, until he became attached to the Postal service, by being appointed a car- 
rier by Daniel T. Hunt. After serving as a carrier for two years, he was promoted 
to the position of assistant superintendent of carriers. Later he was made superin- 
tendent of the city delivery by Postmaster V. Fleckenstein, which position he still 
retains. Mr. Vick is a member of Gene-see Falls Lodge, No. 507, F. & A. M., Mt. 
Hope Encampment .N'o. 2, I. O. O. F., of which body he is a Past Grand; Jefferson 
Tent, K. O. T. M. ; Owasco Tribe, I. O. R. M., of which order he is a past sachem; 
and the National Association of Post-office Clerks, being chairman of the executive 
committee of the local association. In 1878 he married Mary E. Love, of Rochester, 
and is the father of three children, namely: Jessie, M. Bertha and Joseph S. , jr. 

Brownell, Frank A., son of Myron S. Brownell, a millwright, was born in Vienna, 
Ontario, Canada, February 4, 1859, and attended the grammar schools of his native 
town. He served out a five years' apprenticeship at cabinet making and also learned 
the trade of pattern maker, which he followed for a time as a vocation. In 1874 the 
family moved to Rochester, where the father died in 1878. About 1881 Mr. Brow- 
nell entered the employ of the Union View Company, making photographic apparatus, 
with which business he has ever since been identified. Since 1883 he has manufac- 
tured various kinds of photographic apparatus and microscopic and other fine goods 
on contract, and in this business he has been very successful. 

Decker, Dr. Richard J., a native of Rochester, was born September 10, 18<)0, and 
is a son of Frederick L. Decker, who came here from Germany in 1858. After com- 
pleting his tducation at SS. Peter and Paul's Parochial School he studied dentistry 
with Dr. Homer Belding and later with Dr. Frank B. Schuyler, both of Rochester, 
and then attended the Albany Medical College for a time. Deciding upon dentistry 
as his life work he again turned his attention to that profession, and for five years 
was a traveling salesman in the dental and surgical line. In 1887 he oi)ened his 
present dental office in Rochester and since then has practiced successfully alone. 



256 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

A staunch Democrat he has for several years taken an active interest in politics, and 
for about seven years was a member of the Board of Education from the old Eleventh 
and present Twentieth wards. In the fall of 1894 he was elected alderman from the 
latter ward. He is a member and past master workman of the A. O. U. W., 
and a member of Ihe C. M. B. A., the I. O. of R. M., the Rochester Athletic Asso- 
ciation, and other minor organizations. 

Williams, Henry T., born in Rochester, May 14, 1^58, was educated in the public 
schools and Rochester Free Academy, and was graduated from the medical depart- 
ment of the University of Pennsylvania in 1881. He also studied with Dr. John F. 
Whitbeck, and was associated with Dr. John W. Whitbeck in practice for a number 
of years. He is assistant visiting surgeon to the Rochester City Hospital, one of the 
visiting surgeons to St. Marj-'s Hospital, visiting surgeon to the Monroe County Pen- 
itentiary, and consulting physician to the Home for the Friendless. He is a physi- 
cian and surgeon of eminent skill and ability, and is a member of the New York 
State Medical Society, and the Central New York Medical As.sociation, and vice- 
president of the Monroe County Medical Society, the New York Medical Associa- 
tion, and of the Rochester Pathological Society. On December 22, 1891, he mar- 
ried Mary F. Ward of Rochester, and they have one son, Henry Ward Williams, 
who enjoys the distinction of being the great-grandson of Rev. Comfort Williams, 
first clergyman of the first church — the First Pre.sbyterian — erected in this city, in 
which he was installed pastor January 17, 1816. The parents of Dr. Williams were 
Charles H. and Susan (Miller) Williams, the former being prominent' in mercantile 
and political circles, and holding several important offices. They had two sons and 
four daughters, of whom only the sons survive The Williams family is of Welsh 
lineage. 

Adler, Levi, was born October 24, 1834 in Germany, where he received a common 
school education. In 1851 he came to America, and after living in Albion, N. Y., 
a short time, became proprietor of a retail clothing store in Mcdma, ( )rleans county, 
where he remained until 18(59, when he came to Rochester and opened a large whole- 
sale clothing manufactory with Nathan Stein, under the firm name of Stein & Adler, 
which was afterwards changed to vStein, Adler &. Co. In 1883 this partnership was 
dissolved, and Mr. Adler became partner of the firm of L. Adler, Brothers & Co., 
which still continues, and occupies the spacious brick block erected by Mr. Adler 
in 1890. The firm is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, and as manufacturer, 
makes a specialty of men's fine clothing, having an immense trade extending 
lliroughout the L^nitcd States. In 1861 Mr. Adler married Miss Theresa Wile, 
daughter of the late Abram Wile of Rochester. They have seven children of whom 
Isaac Adler is a rising young lawyer and a member of the law firm of Adler tV- Adler. 

Seymour, H. Franklin, was born in Lebanon, N. Y., December 16, 1845, came to 
Monroe county in 1859, and received his education in Satterlee's Collegiate Institute 
at Rochester, and also in Ames's Business College in Syracuse. Leaving the farm 
he went into a hardware store at Oneida, N. Y., where he remained about two and a 
half years. In February, 1872, he returned to Rochester, and engaged as a clerk in 
a large wholesale hardware store, which positif)n he held for sixteen years. In 1888 
he established his present business in partncrshiji with William Eccleston, under the 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 257 

firm name of H. F. vSeymour & Co. Two years later Mr. Eccleston retired and smce 
then Mr. Seymour has continued the establishment alone, but has retained the old 
firm name. The business was originally started by J. W. McKindley about 1856, 
and after his death passed through various hands to C. C. Carey & Co., of which Mr. 
Eccleston was a member. Mr. Seymour has been very successful and enjoys a trade 
which extends not only throughout the city, but into the adjacent country. He 
wholesales and retails builders' supplies and kindred wares. 

Chapin, Louis S., was born in Rochester, N. Y., April 11, 184(5, and was educated 
in the public and private schools of that city. He first engaged as clerk for two 
years for Smith, Perkins & Co., wholesale grocers, and then for live years in the 
employ of George Gould, Son & Co., shoe manufacturers. He then formed a part- 
nership with James M. Leonard, under the firm name of Chapin & Leonard, and en- 
gaged in the manufacture of shoes for several years, finally buying his partner out 
and continuing alone. In 1891, having closed out the shoe manufactory, he engaged 
with W. A. Page, as Page & Chapin, in the stained, ornamental and leaded glass 
business, of which he became sole owner in October, 1894. In this he has been very 
successful. His work adorns many of the finer and larger buildings of Rochester, 
such as the Third and Brick Presbyterian churches, the Monroe Avenue M. E., Christ 
Episcopal and_Trinity churches and many others, the Eureka and other club houses 
and restaurants, the Chamber of Commerce building, and the Alpha Delta Phi and 
Psi Upsilon chapter houses. Mr. Chapin's father, Louis Chapin, was born in We.st 
Springfield, Mass., November 8, 1809, came to Rochester in 1827, and died August 1, 
1894. Most of his life was spent in the milling business, in which he was very suc- 
cessful. He was a trustee, vice-president, and president of the Monroe County 
Savings Bank, and a director in the Rochester Gas Company and the Trust and Safe 
Deposit Company. April 3, 1859, he was ordained an elder in the Brick Presbyterian 
church, and held official relations with that society until his death. 

Miner, Arthur M., son of Chauncey and S. J. (McKnutt) Miner, was born in On- 
tario county, in November, 1859. Chauncey Miner, a native of that county, was a 
son of Amos Miner, who came there from near Albany at an early day. The family 
descended from two brothers named Bullman, Englishmen, who were originally coal 
miners in Wales. When the king made a trip to France he took a picked guard from 
their mines, and for that favor to the king they were knighted, giving them the name 
of Miner, which they and their descendants retained. They came to America and 
settled near New London, Conn. Amos Miner, great-grandfather of Arthur M., en- 
listed at the beginning of the Revolutionary war and was wounded in ofle of the first 
battles, but served through that conflict. He was the father of Amos, jr. , who came to 
Ontario county. Arthur M. Miner was educated in Palmyra, N. Y., where he began 
life in the nursery and fruit business, in which he remained until October, 1891. He 
then came to Rochester and engaged in the creamery business and continued until the 
fall of 1893, when he became an undertaker in partnership with Charles F. Scheuerman 
as Scheuerman & Miner. In February, 1895, they were appointed for three years 
keepers of the first public morgue established in Rochester. In October, 1884, Mr. 
Miner married Esther R., daughter of Lewis Randall of Rochester. 

Stern, Morley A., son of Abram, was born in Rochester in January, 1854. The 



258 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

father came to this city from Germany in 1848 and still lives here. At the age of 
fourteen young Stern began active life as a clerk in the clothing business, and when 
sixteen he became a traveling salesman in the hat and cap trade, which was fol- 
lowed a year later by a similar position in the dry goods line. In December, 1875, 
he became a member of the firm of H. Michaels & Co., wholesale clothing manufac- 
turers. In 1876 the name was changed to Michaels, Stern & Co. In 1878 Henry 
Michaels retired from the active management, and since then the responsibility has 
devolved upon his oldest son, Joseph Michaels and Mr. Stern. Their trade extends 
over nearly every State and Territory in the Union, and practically there are be- 
tween 5,000 and 6,000 people dependent upon their business. They employ about 
two hundred hands in the store in cutting, trimming, shipping, etc., the manufac- 
turing being done outside. Mr. Stern is a prominent member of Yonondio Lodge, 
F. & A. M., and of the Rochester and Eureka Clubs. 

Friederich, A., & Sons, masons and contractors. This business was founded by 
Adam Friederich in 1870. He came from Germany with his parents, Andrew and 
Elizabeth, when about fifteen years of age ; he was a practical mason, and in 1870 
began general contracting on a small scale. He founded the present business of 
A. Friederich & Sons, which firm was organized in 1884 by himself and sons, J. J. L. 
and William M. This partnership continued until 1892, when Adam retired from 
active business and since then has lived in retirement. The firm, which still bears 
the origmal name, is composed of J. J. L., Wm. M., Adam G., and Louis J. Friederich, 
brothers, all natives of Rochester, and all practical masons by trade. The firm is a 
member of the Chamber of Commerce. J. J. L. Friederich, born July 8, 1856, in 
Rochester, was an organizer and is president of the Builder.s' Exchange, of which he 
was the first treasurer. He is also a director in the Flour City Bank, and a member of 
Germania Lodge F. & A M. Among the buildings of which the firm was the con- 
tractor are the following : Monroe county court house, Ellwanger & Barry building, 
C. B. Woodworth building, American Brewing Co. buildings, Reynolds Laboratory, 
J. K. Hunt building. Cook Opera House, Y. M. C. A. building, Memorial Church, 
1). M. Child's buildings, Eastman Kodak buildings, M. Kolb & Son building. River- 
side Cemeter3% IIonKjL'pathic Hospital building, Rosenberg & Co. building, Rochester 
Power Co. buildings. Eureka Club House, Rochester State Hospital building. 

Jones, Frank A., M.D., son of Dr. Ambrose and Sylvia (Ford) Jones, was born in 
Charlotte, October 23, 1849. Dr. Ambrose Jones came from Montgomery county to 
Charlotte and practiced medicine about fifty years, and died there in 1883, aged 
seventy-nine; his wife died in October, 1892, aged eighty-two. They had ten chil- 
dren, of whom three are now living: Mrs. Orra Warren, Mrs. William Richmond, 
and Dr. F. A. Jones. The latter was educated at the Rochester Collegiate Institute, 
and was graduated from the medical department of the University of Buffalo in 
1869. He began the practice of his profession at Charlotte the same year, and later 
practiced in Grand Rapids, Mich., returning to Charlotte in 1874. Since February, 
1893, he has followed his profession in Rochester.' He is a member of the Monroe 
County Medical, and Rochester Pathological Societies, being president of the former 
in 1K90. He married, in 1869, Elizabeth Welles, daughter of Randolph and Mary 
Welles of Junius, Seneca county, N. Y. They have two children, Grace Louise and 
Charles F. D. 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 259 

Swanton, Thomas J., was born in Fairport, N. Y., November Ifi, 1864, and is a son 
of Robert Swanton, who settled at that place about 1850. Mr. Swanton was gradu- 
ated from the Rochester Free Academy in the class of 1881. He then began the 
study of law in the office of John R. Fanning, the city attorney, but after about one 
year he decided that his inclination ran in the direction of commercial lines more 
than anythmg else. He, therefore, entered the employ of the Commercial Bank as 
a clerk, succeeding Edward J. Raymond as general bookkeeper nine months later. 
He served in this capacity until October 1, 1890, when he was promoted to the posi- 
tion of teller. On January 28, 1895, by reason of long and faithful service, he was 
elected as the successor of Charles F. Pond, then the cashier. Mr. Swanton is the 
youngest man acting in the position of cashier in Western New York, and this prob- 
ably holds true throughout the entire State. He is the vice-president of the Mutual 
Underwriter Company, one of Rochester's most successful publishing houses, and is 
a prominent member of the Rochester Whist Club. 

Parker, Orin, was born June 5, 1845, in Plainfield, Ind., and is a sou of John 
Parker, a millwright. He was reared on a farm, where he remained until the age 
of nineteen, and received his education in the public schools of his native State. 
February 24, 1864, he enlisted in the 10th Ind. Vol. Battery as a private and served 
until July, 1865, participating in the Atlanta campaign, the battles of Buzzard's 
Roost, Resaca and Altoona and many other skirmishes and engagements of his regi- 
ment, being under fire for about fifty days. After the war he served in the 7th U. 
S. Inf. in Florida, Utah and Montana for eight years, was promoted first sergeant, 
and at the end of his term of service, was changed to the Signal Service and 
Weather Bureau of the U. S. Army. He was stationed successively at Washington, 
D. C, Montgomery, Ala., New Orleans, La., Boston, Mass., Buffalo, N. Y., and 
Greencastle, Ind. , where he pursued a course of law in the law department of Uepaw 
University, taking the degree of LL.B. in 1886. Thence he was transferred to Co- 
lumbus, O., and to Chicago, 111., in the Signal Service of the army, and was retired 
October 19, 1893, on the World's Fair grounds, credited with thirty-three years'* 
service in the U. S. Army. He then jo'ned the Weather Bureau, which had been 
transferred to the Agricultural Department, Julyl, 1891, at Chicago, and stationed 
at Columbus, O. In December, 1894, he was transferred to Rochester as observer 
in charge of the station here. Mr. Parker is a prominent member of the Masonic 
fraternity and the G. A. R., and one of the oldest officials connected with the gov- 
ernment Weather Bureau. 

McPhail, Percy R., cashier of the Merchants' Bank at Rochoster, was born in 
Toronto, Ontario, Canada, September 18, 1860, and is a son of Edward McPhail, 
who moved with his family to Rochester about 1869. Receiving a classical education 
in the University of Rochester, he became a clerk in Powers's Bank, where he re- 
mained until the organization of the Merchants' Bank in 1883, when he was made 
bookkeeper of that institution. Afterwards he was promoted teller, and since 1892 
has officiated as cashier. Mr. McPhail is a member of the Rochester Chapter of the 
Psi Upsilon fraternity. In 1887 he married a daughter of Rev. Isaac Gibbard of 
Rochester. 

Ashley, William J., son of Rev. William Bliss Ashley, D. D., and Julia Cornwall 
Hall, his wife, was born in Portland, Middlesex Co. , Conn. His father was a prominent 



260 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Episcopal clergyman in the Diocese of Western New York from 1849 to 1860, after 
which he resided in Milwaukee, Wis. William J. Ashley was graduated from Hobart 
College at Geneva, N. Y., receiving the degrees of A. B. and A. M. in course. Since 
1882 he has been a trustee, and is president of the Alumni Association of his alma 
mater, and is also a member of the Sigma Phi and Phi Beta Kappa college fraterni- 
ties. He was clerk in the U. S. quartermaster's department for two years; came to 
Rochester in July, 1866, in the employ of the First National Bank, and was a bank clerk 
thirteen years. From 1869 to 1884 he was secretary of the Safe Deposit Co. (now the 
Rochester Trust and Safe Deposit Co.). He was one of the incorporators, in Decem- 
ber, 1883, of the Merchants' Bank, its first cashier, a member of its board of directors 
since that time, and its vice-president since 1892. He was one of the organizers of 
the New York State Bankers' Association, chairman of the Rochester Group, and 
member of the council of administration for 1894-95. He has been a member of the 
vestry of Christ church for twenty-five years; member Diocesan Council of Western 
New York for about twenty years; is a trustee of the Church Home ; was one of the 
organizers of the Church Club, and of the Infants' Summer Hospital, of which latter 
organization he was treasurer and member of the board of managers for four years. 
He married in 1871, Katharine, daughter of Arthur T. Lee, Colonel U. S. army, and 
has two daughters, Margaret Lee and Mary Janet Ashley. 

Van Zandt, Clarence D., born in Rochester, March 21, 1853, is a son of the late 
John J. Van Zandt, who came here from Albany in 1844. and was the founder of 
the coffee and spice business in this citv, and built the present residence of President 
Hill of the university. Clarence D. Van Zandt was educated in the public schools, 
Benedict & Satterlee's, and Carpenter's Collegiate Institute. He removed to East 
Saginaw, Mich., and in the 1868 engaged in the drug business, but returned to Roch- 
ester the following year, and became connected with the old drug firm of Lane & 
Paine, who were succeeded by the Paine Drug Co., of which he has been a member 
since 1881. He was formerly a member of the old Light Guard of Rochester. In 
1881 he married Mary E. White, a daughter of Dr. J. Balsey White of New York 
city, and has one daughter, Marie, living, 

Mead, Darwin W., son of Darwin M., was l)<)rn in Oswego, N. Y., January 2, 1856, 
and received his education in the public schools of that city. He early became a clerk 
in his father's drug store, and remained there until 1878, after which he was for one 
season in Saratoga in the same business. He went thence to Buffalo in 1879 as clerk 
in the Erie street freight office of the N. Y. C. & H. R. Railroad ; in 1882 he was made 
chief clerk in the Buffalo freight and passenger office of the Pennsylvania Railroad, 
and held that position until July, 1886, when he removed to Harrisburg, Pa., as 
Interior New York and Pennsylvania agent of the Great Southern Despatch. March 
1, 1894, he came to Rochester, succeeding F. W. Parsons as agent of the Atlantic 
Coast Despatch and Richmond and Dansville Despatch, all rail fast freight lines, 
operating between the New England and Middle States and the South and South- 
west, having charge of the business from and to New York, Pennsylvania, New 
Jersey and the New England States and Canada. He resides in Watkins with head- 
quarters in this city. 

Scofield, Warren D., son of Warren S. Scofield, was born in Palmyra, N. Y., April 
21, 1844, and finished his education at the Union Classical School in that village. At 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 261 

the age of fourteen he became a clerk in the grocery store there and later went to 
work on a farm. The next year, however, he entered upon a clerkship in a dry 
goods store and remained there three years. In August, 1864, he enlisted in Co. F, 
111th N. Y. Vols., and served till the close of the war, being detailed as regimental 
clerk. Returning from the army he settled in Rochester in September, 1865, and 
began clerking in the dry goods store of Hubbard & Northrup and six years later 
entered the establishment of Burke, Fitz Simons, Hone & Co., with whom he re- 
mained nine years, during eight of which he was manager of the silk department. 
In the fall of 1879 he started business for himself under the firm name of Scofield & 
Strong, which continued until 1884, when they closed out. In January, 1887, he 
established his present store at 170 East Main street, and deals exclusively in fine 
dress goods and trimmings. Mr. Scofield is a member of Valley Lodge, No. 109, F. 
& A. M., Marshall Post G. A. R., and the Royal Arcanum, in which he has held all 
the lodge offices, and of which he was State deputy for two years. 

Almy, Elmer E., proprietor of the New Osburn House, was born in Rochester, 
April 28, 1852, and, although a young man, is a veteran in the hotel business. He 
served his apprenticeship at the Reed House, Erie, Pa., and has held various re- 
sponsible positions in such hotels as the Trans-Continental, Lafayette, and Continental, 
of Philadelphia, Pa. ; Grand Pacific, of Chicago; and St. James, of New York. He 
returned to Rochester in 1881, and has been the proprietor of the New Osburn House 
ever since. Mr. Almy is a member of the National Hotel-Keepers' Association, the 
New York wState Hotel Association, and the Rochester Chamber of Commerce. He 
is also prominent in fraternal orders, and is a member of Blue Lodge, Chapter, Com. 
mandery. Mystic Shrine, Consistory, B. P. O. Elks, etc. He was formerly vice- 
president of the Commercial Travelers' Association of the State of New York and is 
an honorary member of the Commercial Travelers' Home Association of Binghamton. 
The New Osburn House is in all respects a strictly first-class hotel. The appoint- 
ments are rich, beautiful, and tasteful. The hotel was built and first opened to the , 
public in 1881. N. Osburn, grandfather of the present proprietor, assumed con- 
trol in 1882. Under the latter's efficient management the popularity of the house 
kept steadily growing, and, m order to meet the demands of the increa.sed and in- 
creasing patronage, had the hotel rebuilt and refurnished in 1892-98. It is a hand- 
some four-story brick structure, 175 feet on South St. Paul street, and 160 feet deep, 
and contains 194 rooms. It is thoroughly steam heated and perfectly ventilated, 
lighted by gas and electricity, and is conducted on the American plan. 

Shedd, Kendrick P., clerk of Monroe county, was born in Trumansburg. October 
22, 1837, is a son of Rev. P. Shedd, a Baptist clergyman, and was educated in the 
public schools at Dundee and at Warsaw Academy. His first business experience 
was acquired in a country store near Rochester. In ]855 he came to Rochester and 
obtained a position in the wholesale and retail grocery of Dewey & Monroe, where 
he spent several years. During the Rebellion he was in the pay department, with 
Major Wingard, for three years. At the close of the war he returned to Rochester, 
and in 1866 married Miss Emily E. :\Iudge, formerly principal of School No. 2. Six 
children have been the fruit of the union. Mr. Shedd then engaged in the grocery 
business in Rochester and continued in trade until elected county clerk in 1891, to 
which office he was re-elected in 1894 by the largest majority ever given in the county 



262 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

for any office. He is a member of Genesee Falls Lodge, Hamilton Chapter, Monroe 
Commandery, the A. O. U. W., Knights of Honor, Rochester Whist Club, and Colum- 
bia Rifle and and Pistol Club. Upon entering upon his duties as county clerk he at 
once inaugurated many changes in the routine work, and although the office has 
been twice moved, all papers and public documents have been carefully preserved 
and kept where they can be obtained at short notice. He will be the first county 
clerk to occupy the handsome new court house. 

Elliott, Frank, was born October 11, 1852, in Hamlin, Monroe county, and is a son 
of German Elliott, a native of Hastings, Oswego county, who came to Hamlin about 
1823, settling finally on the farm now owned and occupied by the subject of this 
sketch. He was educated in the district school and the Brockport State Normal 
School, and has always been a farmer, and upon the death of his father in 1871, suc- 
ceeded him on the homestead, where he still resides. In October, 1893, he became 
interested in a general store at . Morton, which he still continues, the firm being 
Elliott & Kenyon. He was collector for two years, and in 1893-94 was on the Board 
of Supervisors. He married, December 23, 1874, Ella E., daughter of A. R. Kenyon 
of Hamlin, and they have three sons, Allie K., Elmer, and Randall J. 

Randall, Amos C, was born September 19, 1847, in Kendall, Orleans county, and 
is a son of Gideon Randall, whose father, Amos, was a very early settler of that 
town. He was educated in the public schools, the Brockport Collegiate Institute, 
and the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary at Lima. He has always been a farmer (ex- 
cept four years when he resided in Brockport), and settled upon his present farm in 
April, 1879. Both in Kendall and in Brockport he was officially connected with the 
M. E. church, and in town and public affairs has always taken a keen but quiet in- 
terest. He was married in January, 1869, to Cordelia, daughter of the late Dr. 
Charles Farnham of Kendall, and they have two daughters: Florence, a graduate of 
the Rochester Business University, and Lucy Louise, now a student at the Brock- 
port State Normal School. 

Brownell, Frank A., son of Myron S. Browuell, a millwright, was born in Vienna, 
Ontario, Canada, February 4, 1859, and attended the grammar schools of his native 
town. In 18"6 the family moved to Rochester, where the father died in 1878. Mr. 
Brownell served out a five years' apprenticeship at.cabinet making, and also followed 
the trade of pattern making for about one year. In 1883 he entered the employ of 
the Union View Company, making photographic apparatus, with which business he 
has ever since been identified. Since 1885 he has manufp.ctured various kinds of 
photographic apparatus, and microscopic, and other fine goods on contract, and in 
this business he has been very successful. 

Redman, James H., was born in Hamlin, in 1839. Hiram Redman, father of 
James H., was born in 1815, and came from Onondaga county, N. Y., to Clarkson 
with his father, John Redman, where he died in 1879. James H. Redman is now 
serving his town in the Board of Supervisors for the eleventh term, and has also 
been a justice since 1871. He engaged in farming until 1883, when he bought the 
store at Hamlin Center, which he now runs with his son, H. Elmer, who is also town 
clerk. Mr. Redman is also postmaster, having been appointed in 1884, and in 1894 
was a member of the Constitutional Convention. 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 263 

Palmer, Isaac, was born July 1, 1809, on the 4th Section road in the town of Sweden 
Monroe county, on a farm now owned and occupied by Wm. Palmer. His father Simeon 
came there from Eaton, Madison county, in the winter of 1808-9, and died there in 
1838. aged fifty-three years; he served in the war of 1812. Mr. Palmer in 1832 went 
to Brockport and read law with L. B. Holmes, and was admitted to the bar in 1836 
and practiced in partnership with his preceptor until about 1855, when he became 
mterested m farming, which he has since followed. In 1875 he moved to Hamlin 
settled upon his present farm, and is known as one of the best and the wealthiest 
farmer of Hamlin. He was for about six years ma.ster in chancery, but excepting 
this has held no public office. He was for five years a partner of Henry C. Wisner 
of Rochester in the crockery business, and has been the controlling owner of the gas 
works of Brockport for the past few years. In 1839 he married Eliza Spencer and 
they have three children : George, Emily P. (Mrs. Jonah D. Decker), and Fred, all 
residents or Monroe county 

Storer, George W., was born June 18, 1827, in Oswego county, N. Y., and is a son 
of George W. Storer, an early settler there. The family came to Hamlin (then 
Clarkson) about 1843 to a farm adjoining the place subsequently owned by the late 
John H. Storer, who died there in 1895. George W. Storer, jr., was educated in the 
schools of Hamlin and the Eastman Business College of Rochester, and has alwavs 
been a farmer. He settled upon his present farm in the spring of 1866. He has al- 
ways been a Republican, and has served as assessor nine years and three terms as 
supervisor, always taking a keen and active interest in the welfare of the town. He 
married in 1859 Helen, daughter of William C. Henion, who settled in Hamlin in 
1834 and died in Clarkson in January, 1892. They have one son, Frank B., a physi- 
cian of Holley, N. Y. 

Timmerman, Albert T. — Solomon Timmerman moved from Montgomery county 
to Monroe county in the year 1837 and located on a farm just north of Brockport; in 
1839 he removed to what is now the town of Hamlin and bought the farm now owned » 
and occupied by his descendants. In the 3'ear 1828 he married Mi.ss Maria Ehle, by 
whom he had six children, namely: Oliver, DelilaE., Lany C, Zerlina, Albert and 
Helen M., all of whom are living except Oliver, Laney B., and Helen M. His wife 
died m 1855, and himself in 1882. Albert, the son, now owns and lives on the home- 
stead in the town of Hamlin. He has been twice married ; his first wife was Sarah A. 
Johnson, daughter of Asa L. Johnson, by whom he had one child jnamed Elmer J., 
aged twenty-three years; his second wife was Clara E. Ferris, daughter of Walter A. 
Ferris, by whom he has four children, namely: Sarah Delila, Alberta Cordelia, Edeth 
Elizabeth and Marion Louise. The first record we have of the family is of five 
brothers, Jacob, George, Laurence, Henry and Theobald; he settled in Mendon, 
Montgomery county, N. Y., when he came from Swi^terland in 1759. His wife was 
Elizabeth Hawn ; they had three sons, Thomas, John and Adin ; he married Marga- 
ret Mattice, and Thomas married Elizabeth Sanders, and had ten children, one of 
which was Solomon, the father of Albert, the subject of this sketch. 

Vogel, Charles, was born in Prussia, Germany, August 31, 1842, received his edu- 
cation in the schools of his native country, and came to America with his parents in 
1853, settling in Rochester, where his father, Johannes Vogel formerly a contractor 



264 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

and builder, died in 18(iO. He first entered the employ of the late Louis Sacks, sr. 
making band boxes, and in 1854 the family removed to Seneca Falls, N. Y., where 
he worked in a foundry and pump factory. The next year they moved to Waterloo, 
whence they soon returned to Rochester, where Charles Vogel was employed for one 
year by Smith & Harrington, manufacturers of and dealers in tinware. In 1857 he 
entered the employ of the late John Siddons, manufacturer of tinware and roofing, 
where he remained until 1860, when he went to California. Returning to Rochester 
in 1865, he became foreman for Mr. Siddons, and in 1878 was given and interest in 
the business. In March, 1889, the John Siddons Company was incorporated, and 
Mr. Vogel became its vice-president, a position he held until the death of Mr. Sid- 
dons in 1800, when he was elected president, which office he has since held, and to 
which was added that of superintendent in 1895. '1 he firm is a member of the Cham- 
ber of Commerce, and one of the largest and best known roofing concerns in the 
United States. Among the many buildings which contain its work, are the Michigan 
State Capitol, the Stockton, Cal., court house, the inner dome of the Illinois State 
House, the court-hcuses at Joliet, 111., Marion, Ind., Elyria Ohio, Smethport, Pa., 
and Lockport, N. Y., the U. S. Government buildings at Utica and Rochester, the 
City Hall at Rome, the Albright Library and High School at Scran ton, Pa., two of 
the Cornell University buildings, the Granite, Chamber of Commerce, Eastman, 
Powers, and Rochester Savings Bank buildings and new court-house at Rochester, 
and many others. They also erected the copper statue of Mercury on the William 
S. Kimball factory in Rochester, which was designed by the sculptor, Guernsey 
Mitchell. Mr. Vogel was a member of Valley Lodge, F. & A. M., and for twenty- 
five years has been a member of Germania Lodge, No. 722, F. & A. M., of which he 
was a charter member and formerly senior warden. He is a charter member of 
Germania Lodge of Perfection, Scottish Rite, and of the Builders' Exchange, has 
served in Co. F, 54th Regt. N. Y. S. N. G., is a life member of the Council Princes of 
Jerusalem, Chapter Rose Croix, and Sovereign Grand Consistory, a member of Roch- 
ester Turn Verein, and for twenty-five years has been a member of the Mannechor. 
He is a thirty-second degree Mason, and has been three times recommended for the 
thirty-third degree, and fur the past eight years has served as '1\ P. G. M. of Ger- 
mania Lodge of Perfection. 

Colt, Mrs. Sarah A. — Silas B. Colt, son of Samuel Dicken.son Colt, was born in 
Pittsfield, Mass., January 11, 1818, received an academic education, and his early 
manhood was spent on his father's farm as a wool grower. In 1849 he came to 
Rochester, and owned the Cole farm on the Boulevard six years, sold it, and bought 
the homestead nearer to the city in 1856. May 26, 1856, he married Sarah A. Wells 
of Rochester, formerly of Shelby, Orleans count}', N. Y., by whom he had three sons: 
Edward W., Walter S., and Silas B., all of whom conduct the farm and market gar- 
dening business. Mr. Colt died April 19, 1876. Mrs. Colt's father, Levi Wells, was 
born in St. Albans, Vt., in 1797, and was educated in the schools of that early day, 
after which he engaged in farming. He was a soldier in the war of 1812, after which 
he located in Orleans county. He married Rebecca Edgeworth of Hudson, N. Y. , a 
cousin of Maria Edgeworth, the poet and writer, by whom he had seven children. 
Mr. Wells died in 1880, aged eighty-three years, and his wife the same year, aged 
seventy-four years. The family has resided in Michigan since the marriage of Mrs. 
Colt in 1856. 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 265 

Alden, John F., son of Sidney Alden, was born in Cohoes, N. Y , iMarcli 19 185'^ 
prepared for college in private schools in Albany, and was graduated from the Rens- 
selaer Polytechnic Institute at Troy in 1873, after which he was made assistant en- 
gmeer on the Central- Hudson railroad bridge at Albany. He came to Rochester on 
January 1, 1875, to accept a similar position with the late Thomas Leighton, one of 
the most extensive iron bridge contractors in the countrv and the founder of the pres- 
ent Rochester Bridge and Iron Works. In 1878 he became engineer in charge and 
in 1879 was also admitted to partnership in the Leighton Bridge and Iron Works 
Company, incorporated. In 1880 he formed a co-partnership with Moritz Lassig, of 
Chicago, under the firm name of Alden & La,ssig, and leased this establishment, 
which they continued for five years. During that period they also started a bridge 
and iron manufactory in Chicago under the style of Lassig & Alden. In 188o the 
business was divided, Mr. Lassig taking the Chicago end and Mr. Alden the Roch- 
ester works. The name of the latter establishment was changed to the Rochester 
Bridge and Iron Works, which it has ever since borne, and of which Mr. Alden has 
been the sole proprietor, as at that time (1885) he purchased the entire Leighton in- 
terest. The works cover an area of about eight acres and are conveniently arranged 
and thoroughly equipped with powerful machinery for the easy handling and the 
rapid construction of large iron structures for railroads, etc. Mr. Alden not only 
manages the entire business but attends personally to all the engineering work. 
During the last ten years he has designed and constructed many large railroad and 
highway bridges, iron work for buildings, and other structural iron work between 
Portland, Maine, and Portland. Oregon, and along the principal railroads in the 
United States and Canada. Among the iron and steel structures may be mentioned 
the elevated railway tracks in New York city ; the bridge over the Columbus River at 
Pasco, Wash. ; two large viaducts at Los Angeles, Cal. ; the upper su.spension bridge 
at Niagara Falls; the tower and iron roof on the western House of Parliament at 
Ottawa, Can., much of the iron work at St. Paul and Chicago, including some of the 
World's Fair iron and steel work; and miles of other railroad bridges. In the paSt 
twentj'-three years he has probably designed and superintended the construction of 
as many or more lineal feet and tons of bridge and other structural iron work as any 
one man in this line of business. He is a member, ex-third vice-president, and for 
several years a trustee of the Chamber of Commerce, member of the East Side Sewer 
Commission, since 1887 a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, a 
member of the Rensselaer Society of Civil Engineers, and a member of the Alumni 
of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Troy, N. Y. Mr. Alden traces his ancestry 
directy to the Hon. John Alden who came to Plymouth in the Mayflower and signed 
the compact in her cabin in 1620, being of the seventh generation of Aldens since 
the landing of the Pilgrims upon our shores. 

Bausch E. E., one of the leading and oldest opticians in Rochester, is a native of 
the kingdom of Wurtemberg, Germany, and emigrated to this country in 1854, arriv- 
ing in Rochester May 3. He had learned the business of optician with his brother, 
J. G. Bausch, in the fatherland. In 1857 he went to Philadelphia, but the same year 
returned to Rochester and became a clerk for his brother, J. J. Bausch, and Henry 
Lomb (Bausch & Lomb), where lie remained about five years. With Thomas Drans- 
field he then bought Bausch & Lomb out, the latter firm themselves engaging in the 

hli 



266 LANDMARKi^ OF MONROE COUNTY. 

manufacture of optical goods. The firm of Bausch & Dransfield continued a success- 
ful business at No. 20 Arcade for twenty-two years, when Mr. Bausch purchased his 
partner's interest and formed a copartnership with his son, George R. Bausch, un- 
der the firm name of E. E. Bausch & Son, which still continues, at No. 6 East Main 
street, in the Elwood Memorial building. Here Mr. Bausch has carried on a large 
business for about twelve years, doing prescription work and general repairing, and 
devotes special care to the eyes, and their motto is " Take care of your eyes." 

Kent, J. H., son of Henry Kent, was born in Plattsburg, N.Y. ; in 1848 he moved to 
Brockport, Monroe county, where he began his life work as a photographer. In 1868 
he came to Rochester, where he has ever since resided and followed his profession. 
Mr. Kent is recognized not only as the leading photographer in Rochester and West- 
ern New York, but enjoys a reputation which extends throughout the country. He 
is a master of the art, and for several ye^rs has been recognized as one of the leaders in 
photographic work in America, being also well known among the profession abroad. 
For a time he was president of the National Photographic Association, embracing 
the United States and Canada. At the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia in 
1876 he exhibited the best and largest photographs ever made at that time, and 
probably larger than has ever been attempted since, receiving all the first prizes, five 
in number. He is the oldest and best known photographer in Rochester, where he 
is prominently identified with the city's material interests, and where he is one of 
the foremost citizens. He was one of the incorporators and is vice-president of the 
Eastman Kodak Company, the largest manufacturers of cameras and photographic 
materials in this country. 

Adams, Abner, was born in East Bloomfield, Ontario county, N. V., March 31, 
1838, and is a .son of the late Myron Adams, whose grandfather. Capt, John Adams, 
was one of the pioneers of Western New York over one hundred years ago. Myron 
Adams, son of Abner Adams, who died in Adams Basin, Monroe county, in 1849, 
was born in Bloomfield in 1799 and died m Rochester in 1893. Abner Adams the 
subject of this sketch, spent his boyhood at school and on his father's farm in his 
native place. During the war of the Rebellion, he enlisted in the 24th New York 
Battery, U. S. Vols., and was subsequently promoted to a lieutenancy in the Second 
North Carolina Union Vols., serving as military secretary on the staff of Gov. Edward 
Stanly, military governor of the Department of North Carolina, in 1862-3. He was 
first identified with the commercial industries of Rochester in 1886, when he became 
connected with the Wood-Mosaic Co., of this city, manufacturers of fine hardwood 
floors. This business was started about ten years ago, under the above title, and 
has developed from a comparatively small beginning into one of the largest concerns 
of the kind in the country. Originally, only endwood mosaic flooring (the invention 
of the projector of the company), was manufactured. Later, however, as the demand 
for hardwood floors became more general, the plant was extensively enlarged, and 
has since been devoted to the mauuracture of parquetry, wood-carpet, mosaic, and 
other approved kinds of plain and ornamental hardwood flooring. For several years 
past Mr. Adams has been one of the principal representatives of the Wood Mosaic 
Co., and during his administration of the business in this city and Western New 
York, their goods have acquired an enviable reputation, having come to be regarded 
as a prime necessity. His success in this line of business is also supplemented by 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 2G7 

that of two sons, one of whom, Robert T. Adams, is now the New England repre- 
sentative of this successful Rochester enterprise, with headquarters in Boston. The 
other, John M. Adams, is manager of the company's branch office in Baltimore. 

Kondolf, Mathias, son of Henry Kondolf, was born in Germany on April 19, 1835, 
and removed with his parents to Rochester when two years old. Educated in SS. 
Peter and Paul's Parochial School, he began Hfe in his father's brewery, the second 
German brewery in the city, at the corner of Child and Jay streets, then in the town 
of Gates. This was in 1846, and there he remained about six years, thoroughly 
learning the business. He then learned and followed the carpenter's trade about 
four years, after which he engaged with his father and David Upton, at the same 
location, in the manufacture of flour barrel staves and heading. Henry Kondolf 
finally sold his interest to Mr. Upton and the Arm became Michael Brayer & Co., who 
subsequently removed to Oak street, where adarge business was conducted for some 
twelve years, when Mathias Kondolf sold out. Meanwhile he had become a heavy 
stockholder, director, and one of the originators of the Rochester Co-operative 
Foundry and the German Insurance Company; with the former he was long identi- 
fied, and of the latter he is still a director Soon after settling the stave business he 
founded the Genesee Brewing Company, which was incorporated in 1878, and of 
which he served as president until 1888, when it passed into the hands of an English 
syndicate controlling this and the Bartholomay breweries, under the name of the 
Bartholomay Brewing Company, of which Mr. Kondolf is a director. He has also 
been an extensive dealer in real estate. He was the pioneer in securing pure ice 
from Hemlock Lake water for the city of Rochester about 1883, has ever since been 
identified with that business under the name of Kondolf Brothers, and has had 
several imitators. About 1885 he organized the Standard Sewer Bipe Company with 
a capital of §100,000, and has continuously been its president. He has been a director 
in the German American Bank since its inception, was for five years a member of the 
Board of Health, and was one of the originators of the.present park system in 1888. 
serving ever since as one of the park commissioners. In this latter connection he has 
been especially active, buying considerable land for Seneca Park and the con- 
templated boulevard for public purposes, not for private gain or speculation. He is 
a prominent member of the Chamber of Commerce and takes a lively interest in the 
general welfare of the city. He has been married twice and has thirteen children 
living. 

Myers, Robert M., is a native of Herkimer county, and was first engaged in busi- 
ness at Ilion, N. Y. In 1874 he removed to Rochester and purchased an interest in 
the paper house of N. G. Hawley & Co. In 1880 he bought his partner out and 
changed the name of the firm to R. M. Myers & Co. Finding the structure then 
occupied by the firm inadequate to its increasing business, he bought in 1887 the site 
of the old Clinton Hotel on E.\change street, and erected a seven-story fire-proof 
building, which is one of the most substantially constructed in the city. He removed 
to the new building in April, 1888, where he is engaged in business at the present 
time, dealing in paper, cardboard, etc. Mr. Myers is a director of the Rochester 
Trust and Safe Deposit Company, vice-president of the Commercial Bank, formerly 
president and now a director of the Citizen's Light and Power Company, and is in- 
terested in other Rochestei'and Buffalo enterprises. Possessed of a sound, practical 



268 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

common sense and good judgment, his opinion is always valued, and while never 
taking an active part in politics, he is a most enthusiastic Republican. In 1886 he 
married Mary, daughter of the late Thomas Evershed. 

Evershed, Thomas, civil engineer, was born in Sussex, England, February 20, 
1817, and came to America with his parents in his youth. He was engaged on the 
Erie Canal enlargement, had charge of the combined locks at Lockport, and '^super- 
intended the building of many of the structures on the Chemung and Crooked Lake 
Canals. In 1849 he went to California and built a levee around the city of Sacra- 
mento, and returning to Rochester was engaged on the Rochester and Niagara Falls 
Railroad, the Erie Canal, and the Grand Trunk Railroad in Canada. In 1878 he was 
appointed division engineer of the New York State Canals, and held that office until 
his death, February 9, 1890. He had f..e direction of the survey for the State Res- 
ervation at Niagara Falls, and while engaged in that work conceived the idea of 
utilizing the exten.sive water power there by means of a tunnel, an idea which re- 
sulted in the incorporation of the Niagara Falls Power Company, of which Mr. Ever- 
shed was made engineer. He originated and designed the present hydraulic tunnel, 
which was commenced October 4, 1890, and is 6,700 feet long. This is one of the 
greate.st achievements of modern times. It will stand forever as a monument to Mr. 
Evershed's wonderful foresight and remarkable engineering skill. 

Buck &• Sanger, proprietors of the Powers fire-proof hotel, opened that celebrated 
hostelry in April, 1883, immediately after its completion, and have conducted it ever 
since. The firm consists of George A. Buck and AVilliam H. Sanger, and was organ- 
ized in November, 1867, to take charge of the Revere House in Ottawa, Canada. In 
1869 they went to Wacertown, N. Y., as proprietors of the Woodruff House, and ten 
years later came' to Rochester in charge of the Osborn House, which they continued 
until the opening of the Powers in 1883. Few hotels in America enjoy a wider 
reputation or a higher prestige among the better class of travelers and tourists than 
does this famous house. It is known abroad almost as well as nearer home, and 
ranks with the very best hotels in the country. 

Otis, Lyman M., was born in Henrietta, Monroe county, November 12, 1831, and is 
the eldest son of David G. and Maria (Morris) Otis, the other children bemg Har- 
rison G., of Rochester, and David G., of Battle Creek, Mich. David G. Otis, sr., 
came from Connecticut to Perry, N. Y., at a very early day, taught school in Monroe 
county, settled in Henrietta in 1829, and died there in 1837, being a general in the 
old State militia and school commissioner at the time of his death. He was practi- 
cally a lifelong farmer. His wife's father, Lyman Morris, moved to Warsaw, N. Y., 
in 1804, where Maria Morris was born in 1806; she died in Frbruary, 1882. Lyman 
M. Otis was educated in the district schools, Monroe Academy, and Genesee Wes- 
leyan Seminary at Lima, and taught school winters and worked on the farm sum- 
mers. In 1855 he engaged in the nursery bu.siness with D. W. Chase as Chase & Otis. 
They also bought wood, live stock, and produce, and in 1867 removed to Rochester, 
where they purchased the lumber business of J. H. Robinson & Son. This partner- 
ship continued until the death of Mr. Chase in 1888. On February 1, 1889, Charles 
H. Moody was admitted to the firm, which became L. M. Otis & Co. They are ex- 
tensive wholesale and retail dealers in all kinds of lumber, and have occupied the 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 269 

present premises at 734 East Main street since 1891, prior to that being first located 
where the Erie depot now stands and later (1882) on Crouch's Island, where they 
purchased the business of H. H. Edgerton. Mr. Otis was a Democrat until the 
organization of the Republican party, when he affiliated with that great political 
body. He has served as town clerk of Henrietta in 1857, justice of the peace for 
nine years from 1858, supervisor of the Fourth ward si.x terms, chan-man of the board 
two terms, alderman two years, and treasurer of the Monroe County Agricultural 
Society, and is now chairman of the building committee of the new court-house, 
member of the West Side Sewer Commission, member of the Masonic fraternity 
about thirty-five years, and president of the Monroe Avenue Loan and Savings As- 
sociation. He was married in 1864 to Miss Amanda M., daughter of Ambrose Corn- 
well, of Henrietta. They have one daughter. Mary S. 

i'. 
Palmer, Griff D., son of Henry T. Palmer, was born in Elmira, N. Y., March 26, 
1847, and finished his education at the Elmira High School. He became a clerk in the 
hardware business in that city, being for a time associated with the wholesale firm 
of Pratt & Co., and in 1886 came to Rochester, where he organized the house of 
Weaver, Palmer & Richmond, wholesale and retail dealers in general hardware at 
31 to 35 East Main street. Their business has been very successful, extending 
throughout the city and over a large surrounding territory. The firm has been a 
member of the Chamber of Commerce since its organization. In 1871 he married a 
daughter of the late Erastus K._ Weaver, formerly of Penfield, Monroe county. Thev 
have two children, S. Elizabeth and Carl G. 

Grant, Justus Herbert, was born in Auburn, N. Y., June 19, 1849, was prepared 
for college at the Auburn Academy, and received the degree of Ph. D. from the 
Sheffield Scientific Department of Yale College in 1870. His practical experience in 
civil engineering, however, had commenced in 1866, when he was a rodman on the 
preliminary and locating surveys of the Southern Central Railroad, where he re- 
mained untill867, when hebegan his collegiate course. Inl871 he was topographer and 
leveler on the location of theUtica, Chenango & Cortland Railroad; in 1872 leveler and 
assistant engineer in charge of the Central Valley Railroad, a short narrow gauge 
line in Chenango county, N. Y. ; in 1872 and 1873 leveler on jjreliminary surveys on 
the Auburn & Homer Midland and the Canandaigua, Palmyra & Ontario Railroads; 
from 1873 to 1876 assistant engineer on the New York Central & Hudson River Rail- 
road, making preliminarj^ cross sections and estimates of earthwork of thirty miles 
between Syracuse and Rochester, measurements of old masonry and designs for ex- 
tension and estimates of same, and in charge of construction with charge of party 
and office on sixteen miles and of thirty-two miles track laying and ballasting that 
line ; and from 1876 to 1885 engineer and superintendent for George H. Thompson & 
Co., one of the largest railroad contractors in the State. LTpon the death of Mr. 
Thompson in 1884 and the retirement of Mr. Luther in 1885, Mr. Grant became a 
member of the firm of Ellsworth & Grant. He is a member of the American Society 
of Civil Engineers, a trustee of the Mechanics' Institute, and secretary of the Build- 
ers' Exchange since its organization. He was one of the organizers of the Exchange 
on January 10, 1888, and is the author of its constitution. In 1879 he married Miss 
Caroline L., daughter of Scott W. Updike, of Rochester. They have three children: 
Charles H., Richard H., and Laura Annesley. 



270 LANDMARKS OF iMONROE COUNTY. 

Buckley, James, M. D., is a son of Charles Buckley, a native of Ireland, who came 
up the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario to Hanford's Landing and settled in 
that part of Rochester known as "Dublin" at a very early day. He engaged in 
milling, being in the employ of Charles J. Hill for many years, and died here. His 
wife was Julia Mulhare. Charles Buckley, deceased, wasa native of this city, was grad- 
uated from the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, and successfully 
practiced his profession in Rochester until his death at Ale.xandria Bay, N. Y., Septem- 
ber 1, 1891. He was for six years health officer of the city, wasnoted for his many acts 
of charity, for his genial good nature, and was regarded as one of the best physicians 
and surgeons in Western New York. He was universally esteemed, and acquired 
during his brief career a reputation as imperishable as it was pure. He was a prom- 
inent member of the Monroe County and New York State Medical Societies and the 
Rochester Pathological Society. Dr. James Buckley studied medicine with his 
brother and was graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New 
York City in 1883. After graduating he formed a partnership with Dr. Charles 
Buckley, and upon the latter's death succeeded to the entire practice, which he has 
successfully continued. He is a member of the Monroe County and New York State 
Medical Societies. In 1895 he married Miss Anna M. Stock, daughter of Nicholas 
Stock, of Brockport, N. Y. 

Warner, Etta E. — Arsino B. Warner was born in Canandaigua, Ontario counlj', N. 
Y., June 22, 1820, and was educated in the public schools here. In 1821 his parents 
moved to the town of Greece, where he has since resided and followed the occupa- 
tion of farming. May 27, 1854, he married Marietta Harroun, formerly of Cam- 
bridge, Washington county, N. Y., and they have had three children: Lillie A., 
Frank A., and Etta E. Lillie A. married Melzer Barrett, and had three children : 
Clara J., Olive L., and Mildred C. Mrs. Barrett died at the age of thirty-seven. 
Frank M. married Bertha E. Hart, and they had three children: Jessie E., Harry C, 
and a baby not named. Etta E. resides at home. Mr. Warner's father, Mertillow, 
was born in Connecticut in 1781, and came to Ontario county with his parents when 
he was fifteen years old. lie married Eleanor Cassort, formerly of the Mohawk 
valley, and they had eleven children, seven sons and four daughters. Mr. Warner 
died in 1854 and his wife died in 1864. He was a soldier in the war of 1812, and his 
grandfather Warner was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and his brother, Mer- 
tillo, in the late war. Mrs. Warner's father, George Harroun, was born at White 
Creek, Washington county, N. Y., in 1800, and was a well educated man. He mar- 
ried twice, first to Lena Jones, of Cambridge, Washington county, and they had 
three children. Mrs. Harroun died in 1832. For his second wife he married Julia A. 
Hicks, of Bennington, Vt., and they had three children. The family came to West- 
ern New York in 1835. He died in 1844. 

Martin & Brother, A. N. — This firm are among the stirring business men of the 
town of Webster, where they have a large lumber yard, being dealers in lumber of 
all kinds and also building contractors. They employ from twenty-five to forty men 
in their factory and building. The father of the above gentlemen was Andrew Mar- 
tin, who was also engaged in the same line of business, being a first-class carpenter 
and builder. 

Gaffney, Owen, was born in Ireland, June (i, 1S24, came to America with his par- 
ents when but seven years of age, settled in Utica, where he gained his education. 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 271 

He early evinced a strong aptitude for mercantile pursuits, and when only seventeen 
years old was the owner of the most enterprising dry goods house of that city. Pos- 
sessing a rare business tact, he saw early in his mercantile career the approaching 
necessity of seeking elsewhere a larger field. In those days Rochester and Buffalo 
were considered as belonging to the far west. Through the advice and encourage- 
ment of his friend, the late O. M. Benedict, he made choice of Rochester. In 1849 
he married Louisa Burke, of Utica, a woman with rare mental qualities, whose death, 
December 1, 1891, caused universal sorrow. In the year of his marriage he removed 
to this city and laid the foundation of the dry goods establishment which is now 
known as the house of Burke, Fitz Simons, Hone & Co. In 1853 he took into part- 
nership with him, under the firm name of Gaffney, Burke & Co., his brother-in-law, 
the late Charles J, Burke, the late Charles Fitz Simons, and Alexander B. Hone, who 
had been salesmen in his store. The firm enjoyed marked prosperity. In 1857 Mr. 
Gaffney retired from active connection with the concern, though still retaining a 
silent interest in the same, and in the sixties, withdrew entirely from the business. 
He next identified himself with various financial undertakings, and after a long and 
successful life died in 1895. 

Greenleaf, Col. Halbert S. , was born in Guilford county, Vt., April 12, 1827, was 
brought up on a farm, and received a common school and academic education. In 
1856 he was commissioned justice of the peace, and August 29, 1857, a captain of the 
Massachusetts militia. In August, 1862, he enlisted as a private in the Union Army, 
and on September 12 of that year was commissioned captain of Co. E, 52d Regiment 
Mass. Vols. On October 23, 1862, he was unanimously elected colonel of the regi- 
ment, and subsequently served under General Banks in the Department of the Gulf. 
Colonel Greenleaf came to Rochester in 1867, and on July 1 of that year formed a co- 
partnership with Mr. Sargent, under the name of Sargent & Greenleaf, manufactur- 
ers of time combination, and key locks for general and special uses. He organized 
and commanded the Hancock Brigade in the fall of 1880, and was elected commander 
of the 1st New York Veteran Brigade in February, 1882, and re-elected in January, 
1883. He was elected to the 4Sth Congress as a Democrat in a Republican district, 
and was re-elected to the 52d Congress, serving with honor and distinction. Colonel 
Greenleaf also extensively engaged in farming and stock raising. He is a member 
of the board of trustees of the Rochester Savings Bank, of the Rochester Park 
Commission, of the St. Lawrence University at Canton, and of the Soldiers" and Sail- 
ors' Home at Bath. 

Burke, Fitz Simons, Hone & Co., the oldest leading dry goods firm in Rochester, 
was founded by the late Owen Gaffney in 1848. In 1853 Charles J. Burke, Charles 
Fitz Simons, and Alexander B. Hone, formerly clerks, were taken into partnership 
under the style of Gaffney, Burke & Co. Two years later Mr. Gaffney retired. 
though he continued to hold for some time afterward an interest in the business, and 
the style became Burke, Gaffney & Hone. In 1858 this was changed to Burke, Fitz 
Simons, Hone & Co., a name it has ever since retained and made famous throughout 
the country. At that time Patrick Mahon was admitted a partner; in 1872 Thomas 
J. Devine was given an interest, and upon Mr. Mahon's death in February, 1881, be- 
came one of the firm. The partnership thus formed expired by limitation in 1886. 
but it was renewed with the same members, and Daniel B. Murphy, who had had 



272 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

charge of the financial department since 1881, was given an interest. Mr. Fitz 
Simons died in 1888, while on a visit with his family to Switzerland. January 1, 
1891, a reorganization was effected under which those having a full interest in the 
business were Charles J. Burke, Alexander B. Howe, Thomas J. Devine, Daniel B. 
Murphy, and Alexander K. Hone, while Augustus L. McKittrick and Michael A. 
Stupp were given special interests. Mr. Burke died in May, 1892, and since then the 
business has been continued by the other partners. It has occupied the same site at 
the corner of East Main and North St. Paul streets since its inception, but the build- 
ings have been several times enlarged. The wholesale department was built in 1876. 
the middle section in 1890, and the corner structure in 1894. Their retail business is 
one of the largest between New York and Chicago, while the wholesale trade extends 
throughout this State, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, and both consist of everything in the 
line of dry goods. Charles J. Burke was born in Potsdam, N. Y., September 18^ 
1832, and died May 17, 1892. He was graduated from Perkins Academy at Utica in 
1819, came to Rochester the same year and entered the employ of his brother-in-law, 
Owen Gatfney, and from 1853 until his death was actively identified with the firm of 
which he was long the senior member. He was a director in the Traders' National 
Bank, an organizer and trustee of Mechanics' Saving Bank, an organizer, the first 
vice-president, and later president of the Merchants' Bank, a director in the Roches- 
ter Safe and Trust Deposit Company, and one of the original members of the Park 
Commission. He was vice-president of the Chamber of Commerce, presidental elec- 
tor on the Democratic ticket in 1884, and one of the organizers of the Rochester and 
Genesee Valley Clubs. Mr. Burke was always a public spirited citizen and took a 
constant interest in the affairs of the city whose development he had watched for so 
many years. 

Peck, Henry J. — Both Mr. and Mrs. Peck, of Brighton, are descended from families 
who were pioneers of the town. Henry Peck's father was Hiram Peck, and Mrs. 
Peck is the daughter of the late Samuel R. Hart, farmer and lumberman. In the 
early annals of the town of Brighton both families occupied prominent positions in 
business, society and church. Henry Peck was born in Brighton in 1839, and has 
always been identified with the nursery industry. In 1868 he married Amelia Hart. 
Their children are George H., Harry C, Robert C, and S. Ernest. George, the 
eldest son, has begun his business career by an association with A. L. Beardsley, of 
Fairport. 

Wilder, Merion R., was born in the town of Greece, May 27, ISoO, and his educa- 
tion was obtained in the public schools, his early life being spent on his father's 
farm. In 1876 he became a railroad man, and has been a conductor on the R., W. & 
O. Railroad eleven years. In 1895 he resigned the position of conductor after two 
years' service with the B., R. & P. Railway Company. On April 1, 1895, he opened 
a bakery and confectionery establishment on Broadway in Charlotte. He has mar- 
ried twice, first to Julia E. Denise, of this town, on F'ebruary 15, 1870. Tney had 
four children, two sons and two daughters, only two sons survive, Charles O., who is 
a bookkeeper with the firm of Smith & Perkins, Rochester, N. Y., and George W., 
who assists his father in the bakery. Mrs. Wilder died November 14, 1886. He 
married April 18, 1889, Sarah M., yx)ungest daughter of James H., and Sarah M. 
Upton, of the town of Greece. Mr. Wilder's father, Ira, was born in Vermont, 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 273 

December 11, 1811, and came with his parents to this locality when a child. He was 
educated in the common schools and became a farmer. He married Mary Goodell. 
of the town of Parma, and eleven children were born to them, six of whom survive: 
Simeon, who is in California; Celia, now Mrs. George Northrup, of this town; 
Belden, who is a resident of Parma; Virginia, now Mrs. Malon Atwell of Missouri; 
Merion R. ; and Addie J., now Mrs. Edgar Denise, of Charlotte. Mr. Wilder died in 
1883, and his wife in 1892. Mrs. M. R. Wilder's father, James H. Upton, was born 
near Albany, N. Y., in 182G. He received an academic education and came to 
the town of Greece with his parents when a boy. His early life was spent 
farming and was afterward a commission dealer in cattle in the West. He married 
Sarah M. Bigelow, and five sons were born to them. Mrs. James H. Upton died 
May 1, 1864. Mr. Wilder is a member of the Railway Conductors' Frontier Lodge, 
No. 167, also of the Knights of Pythias, Dirigo Lodge, 249, Oswego, New York. 

Wood worth, Frank J., son of the late Dwight J. Woodworth, was born in York- 
shire, Cattaraugus county, N. Y., in 1870. After attending the public schools of his 
native town and the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary at Lima he began the study of 
dentistry in the office of Dr. R. H. Hofheinz, of Rochester, and in 1892 was graduated' 
from the New York Dental College. Since then he has successfully practiced his profes- 
sion in Rochester. Dr. Woodworth is an active member of the Seventh District 
Dental Society, a delegate to the New York State Dental Society, secretary and 
treasurer of the Rochester Dental Society, and a member of the Columbia Rifle and 
Pistol Club of this city. 

Fillmore, Mrs. Sarah A. — Mrs. Fillmore's father, the late Christian Butts, was born 
in Northampton county, Pa., in 1790. He married Mrs. Elizabeth Arnold of his 
native State, and they were the parents of six children: Simon ; Sarah A., who mar- 
ried Hezekiah hillmore, and had one son, Addison B., who was educated in the 
public schools, was graduated from Rochester Free Academy, and is now a fruit 
grower; Betsey, who married John Tennison, of Parma; Mary, now deceased, who* 
became the wife of Timothy Wicks, of Tompkins county. N. Y. ; Susan, now de- 
ceased, who married Peter McKenen, who was at one time a teacher in the Rochester 
Free Academy for twelve years ; and Daniel, who resides near Long Pond Bridge. 
In 1817 or 1818 Mr. and Mrs. Butts first located at the Rapids, near Rochester, N. Y., 
and shortly afterward in the town of Greece. He died February 19, 1888. and Mrs. 
Butts in 1875. This old family have been identified with the best interests of this 
town and county the past seventy-eight years. Christian Butts was a veteran in the 
war of 1812, and participated in the battle of Chippeway and Lundy's Lane. At 
this time he passed through Rochester and was struck with its future advantages, 
and thus came to settle at Rochester. He was a man of great sociability and kind- 
heartedness, especially toward the poor. He died at the age of about ninety-eight 
years. 

Leonard, Charles N., is a son of Ichabod and Laura H. (Northrup) Leonard, and 
grandson of Ichabod, sr. Mr. Leonard's father came to Brighton in 181(5, and to 
Penfield in 1823, his death occurring in 1867. He left two sous, Charles N. and 
George R. Mr. Leonard married Sarah P. De Shon, and settled in 1S7(> on the farm 
where he now lives. He takes an active part in the affairs of his town and has four 
times been elected supervisor, 187!)-'si), '88 and '89. 



274 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY 

Leonard, George R., was born in Penfield, in 1841, and is the son of Ichabod and 
Laura (Northrop) Leonard and grandson of Ichabol Leonard, sr., who came from Massa- 
chusetts to Brighton in 1816, and to Penfield in 1823, and settled where Mr. Leonard now 
lives. Mr. Leonard's father died in 1867, leaving two sons, Charles N. and George 
R., and one daughter. He married in ISIO, Mary, daughter of William R. Thomas, 
and granddaughter of Alpheus Clark, who was one of the first settlers of Penfield. 

Weber, Frank. — The late Florian Weber, was born in Bavaria, Germany, May 4, 
1822, was educated in their schools, and was a farmer by occupation. At the age of 
twenty-five he came to this country, and located at Brighton, this county, and five 
years later returned to Germany, where he made a prolonged visit. Returning 
again to America he located at the above mentioned place. In September, 1854, he 
married Cecilia Fetser, formerly of his native place, and their children were: Frank. 
Peter, Joseph F. , Mary A. and Catherine. Peter married Mary McKiver of Ogden, 
and they have two children: Frances and Cecilia. Mary A. married Blasius Leicht- 
ner of Rochester. Catherine married John Leibeck of Greece, and they have two 
children, John A. and Walter J. The family have resided on this homestead in the 
•south part of the town twenty-eight years. Mr. Weber died in 1886. Frank and 
Joseph F. are farmers on the homestead. 

Davis, Benjamin F., was born in Bangor, Maine, June 21, 1829. His education 
was obtained in the common schools, came to this State when he was fifteen years 
old, first locating in Rochester, and soon afterward in the town of Greece, and be- 
came a farmer by occupation. In July, 1853, he married Mary A. Loper of Char 
lotte, and they have three children: Dora A., Emma J., and Charles A. Dora A. 
'married William Loper, and they have one son, Frank E. Emma J. married Thomas 
Hogan, and three children were born to them: Thomas A., Frank, and Mar); A. 
Charles A. married Medora Worden of this town, and they have three sons: Earl, 
Albert, and Wilber. Mr. Davis's father, Benjamin, was born in Elaine, in 1800. 
He married Mary A. Washburne of his native State, and they have two children : 
William W., and Benjamin F., as above. Mr. Davis died in 1835, and his wife in 
183--''. Mrs. Davis's father Gabriel Loper. was born in Connecticut in 1793. He 
married Alzina Payne of that State, and they were the parents of fifteen children, 
two of whom died in infancy: Stephen, Halsey, Simon, Geter. Judson, Henry, 
James, William, John, Charles. Asmeth, Mary A., as above, and Eliza. Mr. Loper 
died in 1853, and his wife in 1864. Mr. Davis is a hotel keeper, and an ice dealer. 
The ancestry of the family is Dutch and Welch. 

Fuller, George R., son of Wyman M. Fuller, was born at Massena, N. Y., April 7, 
1850, and when an infant moved with his parents to Norwood, N. Y., where his 
father was a merchant and postmaster. After attending the public schools he be- 
came a clerk in his father's store and at the age of eighteen began active life as a 
telegraph operator at De Kalb Junction, N. Y. He was then successively a ticket 
agent, passenger conductor, and traveling auditor from the general offices of the R., 
W. & O. Railroad at Watertown. In 1876 he came to Rochester and purchased his 
present business from the estate of Dr. Douglass Bly. Mr. Fuller is one of the most 
extensive manufacturers of artificial limbs in the country. At the time he succeeded 
Dr. Bly the business consisted of this branch alone, but to it he has since added the 
manufacture of trusses, supporters, crutches, etc. His trade extends not only 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 275 

throughout the United States and Canada but into Europe, Africa, Australia, the 
South and Spanish Americas, and other foreign countries. Mr. Fuller also publishes 
the New York State Medical Reporter, a monthly journal which he started in March. 
1894, and which has acquired a wide and influential circulation. He is a member of 
the Masonic fraternity, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Rochester Whist Ckib, was 
the first vice-president and is now president of the Park Avenue Loan Association, 
has been president since the organization and incorporation of the Boyer Diamond 
Vineyard Company, of Farmer, Seneca county, which has 180 acres of Diamond 
grapes, being probably the largest vineyard of one variety of grapes in the State. 
This company was incorporated in 1891 and had met with unvarying success. 

Conterman, Adam L., was born in Minden, Montgomery county, N. Y., January 
16, 1819. He was educated in the schools of his day and moved with his parents to 
Oswego county when he was sixteen years of age. and is a farmer by occupation, 
and has been a resident of Western New York since 1879. He was twice married, 
first on January 21, 1841, to Nancy Hoyt, of West Monroe, by whom he had four 
children: George H., Betsey, James S. (who was a soldier in the late war and died 
April 12, 1865, in the hospital at Point of Rocks, Va.), and Nancy. Mrs Conterman 
died May 23, 18r)8. January 14, 1860, he married Betsey A. Smith, of Chenango 
county, N. Y. They had two children: Ferma and John S. Mrs. Conterman died 
February 10, 1895. John S. is a farmer living at home. He married Ella Garlock, 
of Greece. The ancestry of the family is Dutch and German. 

Brown, Le Grand, son of Dyer D. S. Brown, at one time proprietor of the old 
Rochester Democrat and later j^resident of the Democrat and Chronicle, whose bio- 
graphical sketch appears on another page of this work, was born in t^cottsville, Mon- 
roe county, Oct^ober 19, 1863, and completed his education at the University of R<jch- 
ester. Developing at an early age an aptitude for civil engineering, he devoted 
much time to the study of that profession and obtained a practical knowledge of its 
various branches. In 1882 he entered the employ of the Rochester & Ontario R. R. 
Co. (now the Rochester branch of the R., W. & O. R. R.) where he remained until 
his father having been appointed one of the commissioner to examine the Northern 
Pacific Railroad in the fall of 1883, he accompanied the party. Returning in 1884, 
he went to Florida as assistant engineer on the J., T. & K. W. R. R.. and returning 
to Rochester in 1885, he entered the employ of the Central Union Transfer and 
Storage Company, where he remained a short time, being also engaged at several 
pieces of engineering work, among which with A. P. Bovier was the location of the 
line of the Lehigh Valley Railroad from Rochester to Honeoye Falls. In 1887 he 
formed a partnership with H. L. S. Hall and engaged in the coal and lumber busi- 
ness at Scottsville for a short time, after which returning to Rochester, opened in 
1890 his present office. He was chief engineer for and had charge of the reconstruc- 
tion of the Rochester Railway Company's lines and the Grand View Beach Railroad. 
In 1891 he took charge of the location of, and later was employed as assistant engi- 
neer on the construction of the new Rochester Water Works Conduit under Enitl 
Kuichling, chief engineer, and continued in that capacity until its completion in 1895. 
carrying on also a large private engineering business. At present he does much 
work on surveys and maps in legal cases, electric railroads, water works, etc., being 
constructing engineer on Charlotte sewers, Canandaigua water works, Ri)chester and 



276 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Glen Haven R. R. and other important works. He is a member of the Rochester 
Chamber of Commerce and Academy of Science, and one of the best known civil 
engineers in Western New York. He is a Republican in politics with independent 
proclivities. In 1887 he was married to Miss Margaret E. Baker, daughter of W. Y. 
Baker of Rochester, and they have two children : Margaret Louise and Roscoe 
Selden. 

Singleton, Daniel R., was born in Massachusetts in 1857, and when a young man 
he came to Monroe county and settled in Parma, where he was later engaged for 
some years in the produce business, until 1884, when he came to Hamlin Center and 
bought the hotel which he has since run, and by the courtesy of himself and wife to 
their guests it gained the reputation of being one of the best in that section. Mr. 
Singleton also owns and runs the summer hotel at Oak Island Beach, which is 
becoming under his management to be favorably known as a first-class place to 
spend a few days for either rest or fishing. Mr. Singleton has always taken a keen 
interest in the public affairs of the town, and is in fact known as one of the leading 
spirits in all public enterprises. 

Babcock, John W., born in Rochester, November 4, 185-5, is a son of William Bab- 
cock, who was also a native of this city, born in August, 1823, being a son of John 
Babcock, who came here from New England at a very early day. The latter, a car- 
penter by trade, built manj' of the first buildings in the then village of Rochester- 
ville, and was long a member of the old Alexander .street M. E. church. William 
Babcock was a canal boatman for about forty years, running grain boats between 
Buffalo and New York and carrying large quantities of grain from Brockport, Spen- 
cerport, and other points to Albany. He stopped about ten j^ears ago and now lives 
in Rochester. He married Eliza S., daughter of James Wilson, both natives of Scot- 
land, and had six children, of whom John W. and George are living, John W. Bab- 
cock was educated at No. 13 school and the Free Academy, but during his first year 
in the latter institution sustained a severe injury, which compelled him to give up an 
academic course. Recovering, he was employed by Sargent & Greenleaf, lock man- 
ufacturers, for two and one-half years, and then attended business college. He was 
for eleven years bookkeeper for M. & E. Huntington, dealers in paints and oils, and 
their successors, B. H. Clark & Son, for three years bookkeeper for G. W. & C. T. 
Crouch & Sons, and two years for E. B. Chace, lumber dealers, and for five years a 
salesman, etc., for Doyle & Gallery, coal. In the spring of 1892 he established his 
present coal business at No. 321 South St. Paul street. He is a member of Yonondio 
Lodge, No. 163, F. & A. M. In July, 1877, he married Susie S., daughter of the late 
Col. Duncan McVicar of Rochester. She died in 1880, leaving an only daughter. 
In 1882 he married Lillia H., daughter of tlie late William Smeed, of this city, by 
whom he has one daughter and a son. 

Ellsworth, Henry Mason, son of Henry Ellsworth, and Harriet Leroy ^lason, was 
born in New York city May 21, 1833. His father, who died in 1840, was a native of 
East Windsor, Conn., a lineal descendant of one of the signers of the Declaration of 
Independence, and a merchant in New York city, and after his death young Ells- 
worth went to Vermont, where he was educated. In September, 1847, he came to 
Rochester, arriving on a Saturday practically a stranger. Introducing himself to 
Charles B. Stuart, then city surveyor and afterward State engineer and surveyor, he 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 277 

began the next Monday morning driving pegs for a surveying party for §1 a day, 
and remained with Mr. Stuart until the latter's election as State engineer. In the 
meantime Mr. Ellsworth finished his education here under Prof Dewey. From 1848 
to 1858 he engaged as a civil engineer on the Erie Canal enlargement, and at the 
end of that period went to California, where he engaged in mining and lumbering. 
He was second lieutenant of Co. C. 1st Bat. Nevada Cav., and was post adjutant at 
Camp Douglass, Utah, under P. Edward Connor. When the Civil war closed he 
returned to California and remained there till December, 18G7 ; he then came to Roch- 
ester and with others was engaged until 1871 on the construction of the Northern 
Pacific Railroad through Minnesota. In 1873 he formed a partnership with George 
H. Thompson and John Luther under the style of G. H. Thompson & Co., and car- 
ried on a large building and railroad contracting business until the death of Mr. 
Thompson in 1884, when J. H. Grant was admtted to the firm and the name became 
Ellsworth, Luther & Co. In 1885 Mr. Luther retired and since then the style has 
been Ellsworth & Grant. Among the important works with which Mr. Ellsworth 
has been connected are the Lyons & Geneva and the Rochester & Lake Ontario Rail- 
roads, the N. Y. C. and the B. R. & P. depots in Rochester, forty miles of the Pine 
Creek and twenty miles of the Beech Creek Railroads in Pennsylvania, twenty miles 
of railroad from Canastota to Camden, the road from Dresden to Penn Yan for Gen. 
George J. Magee, of Watkins, the Erie double track from Attica to Portage, forty- 
two miles of the B. R. & P. Railroad from Ashford junction to Buffalo, forty miles of 
the Adirondack Railroad for Dr. W. Seward Webb, and others. He was also con- 
nected with the construction of the Elwood, Curtis, Martin Bnggs, Reynolds & 
Eddy, Leary and other blocks in Rochester, the New Chamber of Commerce build- 
ing, and in fact with more than eighty-five buildings in this city. He is a 32d de- 
gree Mason, being a member of Frank R. Lawrence Lodge F. & A. M., Monroe 
Commandery K. T. and intermediate bodies, and is ex-vice-president and since 1877 
a director of the German American Bank. May 10, 1878, he married Mrs. Helen L. 
Hartupee in Chicago, 111. • 

Hamil, Aaron, was born in Clarkson, N. Y., in 1837. Daniel Hamil, father of 
Aaron H., came from East Bloomfield in 1828, and settled in Clarkson, where he died 
in the same year. Aaron H. remained on the farm until 1862, when he enlisted in 
Co. A, 140th N. Y. Vols., and served until the close of the war. He returned to 
Clarkson, where he engaged in farming until 1890. In 1894 he opened a hardware 
store in Hamlin, where he is still engaged in business. He married Amanda, daugh- 
ter of Isaac Scott, of Clarkson, by whom he had these children: Edward E., Clar- 
ence V.. H. E., who is in business with his father; Walter U., Willie N.. Bertrand 
P., and Charley A. Mr. Hamil is a member of Cady Post, G. A. R.. of Brockport. 
Mrs. Hamil died, and he married for his second wife, S. A. Peterson, of Philadel- 
phia, Pa. 

Emberry, A. J. and Willis.— Robert, their father, came to Pittsford, N. Y., in 1831, 
where he lived five years, then returned to England for his sister Amelia, who came 
back with him and settled in Penfield and together they purchased the farm now 
owned by A. J. and Willis. About 1840 Robert Embery married Miss yuick. A 
few years later they built the stone house, which has given the farm the name of the 
"Stone House" farm. A. J. and Willis are two of six sons, and were born in 1854 



278 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

and 1856 respectivelv. They were educated in the common schools and began 
farming with their brothers, with whom they continued until the death of their 
parents and aunt, when they divided the farm and bought out the other heirs. 
In lif86 A. J. Emberry married Elnora Morley, by whom he has two children: Mary 
and Richard. While not active politicians, these brothers are well read and keep 
posted in public affairs. They are members of the Penfield Masonic Lodge and the 
Patrons of Husbandry. 

Denise, Daniel S., was born in the town of Freehold, Monmouth county. New 
Jersey, November 25, 1822. His parents moved to West Walworth, Wayne county, 
N. v., when he was two years old, where he was partly educated in the public 
schools. In 1834 they moved to Macedon, and he attended the Macedon Academy 
nearly four years. In 1844 he went to his old home in New Jersey and taught school 
one year, and upon his return to Wayne county he entered the employ of a dry 
goods house in Palmyra, where he remained as a clerk two years and six months. 
In 1848 he went on a visit to Michigan, and February 21, 1849, he married Caroline 
Chapin, of Adrain, Mich., and came to this homestead May 3, 1850. They have had 
five children: Julian E., Edgar A., William H., Daniel S., jr., who died when but 
three years old, and Albert L. Edgar married Addie J. Wilder, and they have two 
daughters, Lida A., and Mary W. William H. married M. Louisa Fry, and have 
had two children, Walter, who died in his fifth year, and Harry. Albert L. married 
Adelaicfe Davis, formerly of Canada, and they have one son, Edgar A. Mr. Denise"s 
father, Dennise Denise, was also born in New Jersey at the old home, in 1799. He 
married Aletta Hulch, of his native place. She was born in 1797. Eleven children 
were born to them Mr. D. Denise died in 1880, and his wife in 1865. Mrs. Daniel 
Denise's father, Silas Chapin, was born in New Hampshire, Februarj' 5, 1793. He 
married Charity W'hitney, of Elmira, born September 6, 1803. They had three chil- 
dren. Mr. Chapin died in 1829; his wife survives and lives in Michigan. Mr. Denise 
has been trustee of the school in Charlotte for eighteen years. The ancestry of this 
family is Dutch, English and Welsh. The two older brothers are general merchants 
in the village of Charlotte, under the firm name of Denise Bros. The company was 
formed August 5, 1879. 

Dyson, Robert, was born in Cambridge, England. June 7, 1839, and came to the 
United States with his parents at the age of fifteen, and was educated in the com- 
mon schools. He is a farmer and fruit grower and al.so the owner of an extensive 
fruit evaporator by steam and healing processes known to himself, which he manu- 
factures, and has applied for patents on them. The capacity of his evaporators is 
400 bushels per day. He was married twice, first to Mary McCoy, of Rochester, 
N. Y. They had two children: John and Martha. John married Elizabeth Peeling, 
and they had two children: Alice Maud, and Mabel. Martha married William Low- 
den, of Pennsylvania, and they have three children: Cora M., William and Robert. 
Mrs. Robert Dyson died July 9, 1892. The second time he married Lucy Long, of 
Bunker Hill, 111., and they have one daughter, Hattie M. Mr. Dyson's father, John, 
was born at the old home in England in 1799, was a farmer by occupation, and he 
married Martha Hall, of his native place. They had six children: Sarah, Mary, 
Rebecca, Diana, John, and Robert, as above noted. The family came to the U^nited 
States in 1854. Mr. Dyson's father died in 1872, and his mother in 1854. Mrs. 



Family sketches. 279 

Dyson's father, Joseph Long, was born in Illinois in 1837, and he married Mary 
Davis, of Kentucky. They had four children; Laura, Lucy, as above. Amanda, and 
Lloyd R. Mr. Long was a soldier in the late war in Co. D, 10th Kansas Vols., and 
was honorably discharged at the close of the war and died in 1871. Mr. Dyson is a 
member of Clio Lodge No. 776, F. & A. M., in Parma, N. Y. 

Flynn, Jeremiah, was born in Cnnandaigua, N. Y., February 20. 1857, and was 
educated in the public schools. He worked in the lumber yard for J. L. Sherwood 
eleven years, and came to Charlotte, N. Y., in 1884. He is proprietor of the 
European Hotel at the Beach, which is conducted in first-class style. On November 
22, 1887, he married M. Annie Heifner, formerly of Bavaria, Germany. Mr. Flynn's 
father, Jeremiah, was born in County Galway, Ireland, in 1825, and came to the 
United States when a j'onng man and located at Canandaigua, N. Y. He married 
Catherine Kennedy, formerly of his native place, and they had nine children. He 
died in 1870, and his wife some years later. Mrs. Flynn's father, Adam Heifner. 
was born at the old home in Bavaria, in 1828, and married Annie D. Wilhelm, of his 
native country. They had nine children, seven of whom are living. Mr. Heifner 
died July 4, 1894. Mr. and Mrs. Flynn are members of the Holy Cross Catholic 
church at Charlotte. 

Fry, Thomas J., was born in Mayfield, Sussex, England, May 27, 1822, and came 
to this country at the age of fifteen, with his parents. He worked at blacksmithing 
until 1864, when he became a farmer and market gardener as well as seedsman, 
making a specialty of pansy seeds for Vick, of Rochester. August 29, 1842, he mar- 
ried Matilda Mather, of Schuyler, Herkimer county, and they have had ten chil- 
dren: Eliza, Isabel, Lillian, Thomas J., Edward H., Francis W., Albert H., and 
three who died young. Four of the above seven are now deceased. Lillian married 
John Wright, formerly of Canada ; Thomas J. married Ora Butler, of Parma, and 
has had five children: Daisy, Fernetta, Gertrude, Frank (deceased), and Jefferson H. ; 
Fi-ancis W. married Frank S. Southwick, of South Butler, Wayne county, wher^ 
they now live; their children are Persey, Edith, and Virginia. Mrs. Fry's father, 
Elizur Mather, was born in Connecticut in 1785, and their children were Elizur P., 
Laura Avery, Laura. William, Prudence, Matilda, Mary, Prudence, Timothy and 
Jane A He died February 10, 1869, and his wife March 3, 1863. Mrs. Fry's grand- 
father Mather )vas a soldier in the Revolution, and her father was a soldier in the 
war of 1812, and her brother William was a soWier in the late war. The ancestry of 
this family is English, German and Welsh. 

Gallusser, John, was born in St. Gaull, Switzerland, December 5. 18.50, was edu- 
cated in the common schools there, and helped his father in his small store and farm. 
In 1872 he came to the United States, locating in Westchester county, N. Y., and 
came to Rochester in 1873, and worked in the coal yard of George Engart & Co., 
seven years. He then entered the employ of A. G. Yates & Co., and for the past 
fourteen years he has been foreman for that company at their coal docks at Port of 
Genesee at Charlotte. September 28, 1878, he married Catherine Rupp, formerly of 
Germany. Mr. Gallusser's father, John, was born at the home in Switzerland, Sep- 
tember 20, 1826. He married Barbara Ulrick, of Germany, and had seven children: 
John, Ulrick, Jacob, Tobias, Barbara, Catrina and August. The last named died at 
the age of twenty-two years. Both father and mother are still living. Mrs. Gallus- 



280 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

ser's father, Conrad Rupp, was born in Schweinsburg, Hessen, Germany, and mar- 
ried Margaret Hahn, of his native place, and had four children: Conrad, Augfust, 
Catherine and Annie. Mrs. Gallusser came to the United States in 1872. Mr. 
Gallusser is a member of Frontier Lodge, No. 638, L O. O. F., of Charlotte, and was 
instrumental with others in the organization of the same. 

Ilillmun, Dr. Walter B. — The late Dr. Lovinus L. Ilillman was born in Cattarau- 
gus county, March 22, 1825, was educated in the schools of his day and studied med- 
icine at the Buffalo Medical College, from which he graduated and took a regular 
course in clinics in New York city. He began practice in Greece in 1850. May 7, 
1860, he married Aurelia Benedict, of Greece, this county, and they have had four 
children: Flora, who died young; Jessie E., who graduated from the Brockport 
Normal School in 1872, and from the musical department in 1878, also having studied 
a year with Prof. W. Mason of New York city; Walter B., and Frank H., who died 
aged seven. Dr. L. L. Hillman died August 27, 1898, after a practice of over forty- 
three years. He was well known and beloved by the whole community. He was a 
genuine friend to the the poor, and was much interested in higher education. Self- 
ishness had no part in his nature, and when called suddenly away, he was mourned 
by a bereaved wife and family, as well as by the entire community. His son, 
Walter, was born in Greece, January 10, 1876, he was educated in the common 
schools, and graduated from the Brockport State Normal School in 1885, from the 
Rochester University in 1889, with the degree of A. M., then took a four years' course 
in Bellevue Hospital Medical College, from which he was graduated with the degree 
of M. D. He was resident physician and surgeon in St. Mary's Hospital four months, 
when he was called to take his father's practice on the latter's death. He is a mem- 
ber of the Monroe County Medical Society. August 23, 1894, he married Mary D. 
Paine of his native town. He is now practicing with eminent success. 

Henchen, Virginia, widow of the late John Henchen. The latter was born in 
Germany in 1819, and was twice married, his first wife being Magdalene Henchen, 
whom he married in Germany, by whom he had six children. His wife died and he 
married Virginia Renaud, born Root, and of their four children, Julia died in infancy, 
the others being William, Florian and Annie. William married Julia Martin, and 
has one daughter, Frances. Mr. Henchen came to the United States soon after his 
first marriage, and died November 26, 1886. Mrs. Henchen married for her first 
husband Augustus Renaud, formerly of Switzerland, and they had four children, 
Joseph, Mary, Josephine and John. Joseph married Catharine Fetzner, and has 
seven children: Joseph, jr., Mary, Annie, Cicilia, Frank and Josephine; Mary mar- 
ried Louis Garmack and has two children, Lizzie and ; Josephine married 

Isaac Smallworth and has four children, Jacob, Rose, Carrie and Estella; John mar- 
ried Magdelene Wischer, and has a son, William. The late Augustus Renaud was a 
soldier in the 20th N. Y. Vols., was present at the capture of Richmond, was shot be- 
low the heart, and died on his way to hospital. Mrs. Renaud was born in Metz, 
France. 

Hedditch, Robert, was born in Rochester, X. V., May 15, 185!), and his education 
was obtained in the public schools. He has always followed the butcher's trade, 
having learned the trade with his father. January 5, 1884, he" formed a copartner- 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 281 

ship with George Clark, which was continued until 1888. The following June. Mr. 
Hedditch began business, keeping a first class market on his own account, which he 
has continued with success. December 19, 1881, he married Elizabeth McCready, of 
Brighton, Canada, and they have one son, Henry R. Mr. Hedditchs father, Henry, 
was born in Somersetshire, England, in 1835. In his early days he was a dairy 
farmer. At the age of twenty he came to the United States, locating in Rochester^ 
N. Y., where he learned the butcher's trade. He began business on his own account 
with a partner in 1857. In 1856 he married Catharine Baker of Rochester and they 
had five sons: George, Robert, John, Henry, jr., and Frank. John died in 1894. 
Mrs. Hedditch's father, George McCready, was born in Scotland in 1830, was 
educated in the schools of that time, and was a farmer by occupation. He came 
with his parents to Canada, when a child. In 1856 he married Margaret Or- 
trum, of Brighton, Canada, and they had seven children: William M., Jennie, 
Martha, Belle S., Elizabeth A., Maria A., and George H. Both father and mother 
are still living at the old home in Canada. 

Jones, Charles B., was born in Charlotte, January 2, 1868, and his education was 
obtained at the public schools. He is an engineer by occupation. November 27, 
1885, he married Sarah M. McPherson of Elmira, N. Y., and they have three chil- 
dren, George B., Russell R., and Marjorie. Mr. Jones's father, Charles H., was born 
in Canada, May 1, 1833, and came to Manchester, v^. ntario, with his parents when a 
boy, and was educated in the district schools. He, too, was an engineer by occupa- 
tion. He married Mary Lash, of Rochester, N. Y., and had four children, Henry P., 
Henrietta, Charles B., as above, and Frank L. Mr. Jones died February 7, 1869, 
aged thirty six years. Mrs. Chas. B. Jones's father, John McPherson, was born in 
Scotland, April 25, 1836. He came to the United States with his parents at the age 
of fourteen. He is an overseer in Rathbun Blast Furnace in Elmira. He married 
Eliza Colbraith, formerly of Scotland. They had seven children, Jennie, Sarah M., 
as above, Mary, Maggie M., Henrietta S., John B., jr., and Charles K. Both father 
and mother are living. Mr. C. B. Jonesischief engineer of the Rochester, Charlotte, 
and Manitou Power for their electric railway, and was chief for the Grand View- 
Beach Company in 1891-92-94. He has also been chief engineer of the Elmira Re- 
formatory steam system, also for the Eastman Dry Plate works on the Boulevard. 
He is a member of Frontier Lodge, No. 638, I. O. O. F., Charlotte, N. Y., and was 
largely instrumental with some others in its organization. 

Kintz, Milton W.— The late Anthony Kintz was born in Easton, Pa.. April 5, 1825, 
and came to this State with his parents when he was four years old. They located 
in the town of Greece, where he was educated in the district schools, and was a 
farmer by occupation. December 12. 1851, he married Lucretia Peterson, of the 
town of Greece, and they had four children: Emma E.. John, who died in infancy, 
Milton W., and Homer M. Emma E. married William T. Kirk of this town, and 
they have five children: Bertha, Flora, Carrie, Daisy and John. Homer M. married 
Edith Hayner of the town of Parma. Mr. Kintz died April 13, 1893. Milton W. 
Kintz was born on the Kintz homestead on the Latta Road, November 6, 1856, and 
was educated in the public schools and at the Brockport State Normal School, and 
was a farmer by occupation. June 18, 1884, he married Ida F. Wilder of the town 
of Greece, and they have three children: William W., Caroline and Corinne. Mrs. 
jj 



282 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Kintz's father, William Wilder, was born in the town of Parma, October 19, 1839, 
and was educated in the common schools and he, too, was a farmer. He married 
Caroline Lockwood, of Rochester, N. Y., and they had one daughter, Ida, as above 
noted. Mr. Wilder resides m Canada; his wife died August 25, 1889. William 
Hincher, the grandfather of Mrs. Anthony Kintz on the maternal side, was a native 
of Brookfield, Mass., and participated in the Shay Rebellion, and left there on that 
account with his father, William, and came to Newtown Point, N. Y., in 1791. 
Later they came to the mouth of the Genesee River, where they began to erect a log 
house, where the government lighthouse is now, and February, 1792, they settled 
across the river until their residence was completed, which was the first one erected 
between here and Fort Niagara. Their made of conveyance was an ox team and 
sleds. Upon the sale of their first property to the government, they erected a log 
house on what is now known as the Latta farm. He married Lucretia Granger, 
and they had eight children. 

Kintz, John, was born in what is now known as Monroe county, Pa., October 24, 
181G, and came to the town of Greece with his parents when eleven years old. They 
located north of Greece Center, where he was educated in the schools of that early 
day, and has always been a farmer by occupation. He married Rachel Miller, of the 
town of Greece, who died in 1884. Mr. Kintz's father, Anthony, was born in Penn- 
sylvania, October 19, 1796, and married Mary Butz, of his native State, and they 
were the parents of ten children: John, as above, Sarah, Lovey, Susanna, Anthony, 
George W., Mary A., Henry J., Emehne, and Lizzey, the first five of whom were 
born in Pennsylvania. Anthony, sr. , died February 12, 187G, and his wife August 
20, 18b6. Mr. Kintz has been supervisor of the town one term, assessor two years, 
and justice of the peace twelve years. The familj' on both sides are of German ex- 
traction. 

Luke, T. John, was born in Hamburg, Germany, February 27, 1858, was educated 
in their schools, and a ship carpenter by trade. He first came to the United States 
in 1876, and returnt d to Germany in 1879. His first residence in this countrv was in 
Buffalo, and \ipon his return from the Fatherland in the latter part of 1879, he located 
in Rochester. He resided there nine years following his trade, and then moved to 
Charlotte, where he is employed as a skillful boat builder and ship carpenter. July 
11, 1881, he married Sylvia Dumond, of Rochester, N. Y., formerly of Ulster county, 
N. Y , and they have four children: Florence L. , Elizabeth M., John T., and Charles 
H. Mr. Luke's father, John O. P., was born at the old home in 1813. He married 
Henrietta G. Geysel, and they had thirteen children, three died in infancy, and the 
others are Henrietta, Phillipena, Joseph, Lucy, Louisa, Gotlieb, T. John, as above, 
Henry, Louis, and Robert. Mr. Luke came to the United States and returned in 
1877. Mr. Luke's father, Philander Dumond, was born in Ulster county, N. Y. He 
married Mary J. Markle, and they have one daughter, Sylvia, as above. Mr. Dumond 
was a soldier in the late war, and was killed in the battle of Gettysburg. Six of his 
family were in that war. Mr. Luke is a member of Frontier Lodge, No. 638, L O. O. F., 
and Genesaga Tribe of Red Men. 

Lane, Almira. — The late Samuel T. Lane was born in Charlestown, Montgomery 
county, N. Y., July 7, 1803, and came to Greece with his parents when he was ten 
years old. His education was obtained in the common schools, and he was a farmer 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 283 

by occupation. January 15, 1826, he married Almira, daughter of Richard and Rhoda 
Wilder, of Parma, by whom he had five children: Theodore B., who is a farmer in 
town; Roderick W., who died at the age of twenty-three; Mary J., who resides with 
her mother; Rhoda C, who married John Butts, of Greece, and has two children, 
Franklin T , and Minnie E. ; and Josephme A., who married Richard Bennish. of 
Greece, and has five children: John L., Myra, Richard, jr., Cora, and Franklin. 

Latta, Mrs. Frances M.— James Mann, her father, was born in Buckinghamshire 
England, in 1794. He first married Maria Winters, by whom he had three children : 
Frances M., born in ISU, Alfred, and Henry. Mrs. Mann died in 1838, and in 1839 
Mr. Mann married Julia M. Bird, of Canada, by whom he had these children : Jessie 
E. Griihth, George G., James F., and Frederick, who died in infancy. Mr. Mann 
died in 1870. The family came to the United States in 1821, locating in Monroe 
county. November 19, 1839, Frances M. married George C. Latta, one of the oldest 
settlers in the town of Greece. They had nine children : George C, Maria A., Agnes 
B., Mortimer D., James H., Frances J., Flora L., John W., and Manvelette. Mr. 
Latta died in 1877. Maria A. married Benjamin S. Abram, of Napanee, Canada. 
He was born April 12, 1846, and is an expert accountant. George C. married Ger- 
trude Van Dresser, by whom he has two children: George B. and May. James H. 
married Isabella Chapman, by whom he has two children: Frances M. and Kubie E. 
Frances J. married Andrew J. Mulligan. Flora L. married Newkirk Barnes, and 
they have three children: William, Ruble M., and George. Manvelette married 
Emma Fay. Samuel Latta, brother of George C, was born in 1776, and cut a road 
from Charlotte to North Greece, which is the road of to-day. 

Mitchell, William, was born in Sussex county, England, January 9, 1838, and 
came here with his parents in 1841, locating in' Greece, this county, where he was 
educated in the public schools, and became a prosperous citizen. November 29, 
1863, he married Maria Hillman, of this town, and they have had three children: 
William H., Charles E. and Susie May. William H. is manager of the Puget Sound 
Lumber Company, in California, and married Margaret South, of Newman, Cal. 
Charles E. is a farmer at home, and one of the town's bright and active citizens. 
Susie May is now a student in music. Mr. Mitchell's father, Henrv, came to the 
town of Greece, as above, having married in England Harriet Davis. Their two 
children were William, and Harriet (who died in infancy). Mr. Mitchell died in 
1874, and his first wife died in 1841. Mrs. Mitchell's father, William Hillman, was 
born in Devonshire, England, and married Harriet Tuckett of that county. Their 
children were Charles, who died aged five, Maria, as above, and George, who died 
in Colorado. The family came to this country in 1851, where he died in 1881. 

Miller, Jorgen J., was Ixirn in Denmark, February 16, 1852, was educated in their 
.schools, and a farmer by occupation. He served in the Danish cavalry two years, 
and came to the United States in 1881, and located first at Johnstown, Pa., where he 
remained fourteen months, and then came to Charlotte. April 3, 1884, he married 
Annie S. Falleson, of the town of Greece, formerly of Denmark. Two sons have 
been born to them, Charles A., born January 15, 1885, and Harry J., born November 
17, 1888. Mr. Miller's father, Hans J. Miller, was born at the old home in Denmark, 
December 28, 1801, and was married three times, the third time to the mother of 
Jorgen J., a Miss Jansen, of his native country. They had seven children: Jorgen 



2,^4 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

J., Anna M.. and Catrina, who died in infancy, John C, Harry, Anna, and Catrina 
Hans J. Miller died in 1872. Mrs. Miller's father, Andrew Falleson, was born at the 
old home in Denmark, and married Helen M. Peterson. They had twelve children: 
Anna M., who died young, Martha M., Andrew"!'., Hedwig C, Hans P., Maria C, 
Annie S., Anna M. 2d, Helen M., Catrina, Frederiea L., and Jorgen P., and Catrina, 
by first marriage. Mr. Falleson died May 4, 188(5, and his wife November 3, 1883. 
Mr. Jorgen J. Miller is a fruit grower, having several acres of vineyard, peaches, and 
other varieties of fruits. 

Miller, Mrs. Laura A. — The late John Miller was born on East avenue, near 
Brighton, N. Y., in 1804, was educated in the schools of that day, and was a gun- 
smith by occupation. March 4, 1843, he married Laura A. Paddock, who was born 
in Penfield. Mr. Miller died February 11, 1884, mourned by a bereaved wife 
and friends. Mr. Miller's father, John, sr., was born in Scotland^ March 21, 1763, 
and came to the United States when a young man and located near Rochester, 
N. Y. He married and had twelve children. Mrs. Laura A. Miller's father, John 
Paddock, was born in Dutchess county, N. Y., in 1802, and when a boy came with 
his parents to the town of Penfield, Monroe county, N. Y. He was educated in the 
.schools of that day, and was a carpenter and contractor by occupation. He married 
Anna Kirby, of the Friends denomination, formerly of New Jersey. Four children 
were born to them, Laura A., Mary, Charles and Martha. Mr. Paddock died in 
185(5, and his wife in 1837. Mr. and Mrs. Miller came to reside at Charlotte in 1865. 
The ancestry of the family on the paternal side was Scotch, on the maternal side, 
English. 

Manning, Mrs. Frances. — William II. Manning was born in the town of Ironde- 
quoit, Monroe county, N. Y., March 11, 1850, was educated in the public schools, and 
is a marine engineer by occupation. July 3, 1877, he married Frances G. Howland, 
of Palmyra. She was born in Fairport. They have one son, W. Wallace, who is a 
student in the Union School. Mr. Manning's father, Jerome B., was born in 1815. 
He married Susan A. Leake of Irondequoit, and they had four children : William H., 
Bonaparte, Franklin, and Charles. The last three named are dead. Both father 
and mother reside on the old homestead in Irondequoit. Mrs. Manning's father, 
George P. Howland, was born in 1822. He married Sarah J. Ludington of Fairport, 
and had two children, Ella L., and Frances G. Ella L. married twice, first to 
Luther Sweeting, and they had two children, Claude L. and Bertha P. Mr. Sweet- 
ing died in 1890. Her second husband was H. B. Ciraves, of Rochester, N. Y. Mr. 
Howland died January 28, 1894, and his wife May 26, 1861. The ancestry of the 
family on the paternal side is English, on the maternal side Dutch. 

Nelson, Mrs. William. — The late William Nelson was born iu Ilackering, Norfolk, 
England, April 19, 1824, was well educated in their public schools, and was steward 
for one of the large estates. July 22, 1849, he married Emeline Sendall, of his native 
place, and they had one son who survived, William S., who was born August 30^ 
1860. Mrs. Nelson was born January 17, 1830. The family came to the United 
States in 1865, locating at Independence, Iowa, where they remained until 1870, 
when they came to Rochester, N. Y. The son was educated in the public schools, 
and is a photographer by occupation, at Rochester. He married Lizzie Johnson, of 
that city, and they have two sous; William R. and Chester I. This family are dis- 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 285 

tir.ctly related to the late Admiral Lord Nelson, of the British navy, of Trafalgar 
fame. Mr. Nelson was a prominent Odd Fellow, also a member of vSt. Andrews's 
Brotherhood. Mr. and Mrs. Nelson were members of the Episcopal church. He 
died August 1^0, 1892, mourned by a bereaved wife and son. 

Northrup, Mrs. George W.— George W. Northrup was born on the old homestead 
October 17, 18B9, was educated in the public schools, and is a farmer by occupation. 
December 17, 1864, he married Celia A., daughter of the late Ira Wilder of his native 
town, formerly of the town of Parma. They have three daughters: Junietta, Addie 
F., and Harriet. Junietta W. married John Bridgmau of this town, and they have 
three children: Carrie E., George J., and William. Addie F. married Charles G. 
Warhols of the town of Parma, and they have two children: Ruth A., and a baby 
boy not named. The youngest daughter, Harriet, resides at home. Mr. Northrup's 
father, Joseph, was born in the town of Jefferson, Schoharie county, N. Y., March 6, 
1806, and came to the city of Rochester when he was nineteen years old. A Satur- 
day night found him at Brighton at Oliver Culver's hotel with one shilling in money 
and his wordly possessions tied up in a small bundle. He told Mr. Culver his story 
and he kindly let young Mr. Northrup stay over Sunday. The first part of the week 
he found employment with a Mr. Hogan at eleven dollars per month. He worked in 
the city about nine years, and excelled as a first-class teamster and horseman. He 
was in the employ of Jonathan Childs when he was elected mayor of Rochester in 
1834. In that year he came to the town of Greece and bought on the east side, where 
he and his son reside, paying $100 per acre and lo.st S250 through a defective title, 
and let it for three years to his wife's brothers, the Wesleys. He married Maria A. 
Wesley of East Bloomfield, formerly of Windsor, Hartford county. Conn. They had 
seven children, five of whom grew to maturity: Mary A., Philip C, George W., as 
above, Joseph W,, who died at the age of twenty-three years, and F'rancis M. Mrs. 
Northrup died in 1871. Mr. Northrup is residing with his son, George W. , and family. 

Shepard, John H., was born in Plantsville, Conn., January 20, 1849, and was firsP 
educated in the public schools, afterwards graduating from the Hudson River Insti- 
tute at Claverack, N. Y. He resided in Dakota six years, as a speculator, then came 
to Chicago and was made superintendent of Oakwood Cemetery, which position lie 
held four years. The authorities of Riverside Cemetery sought his services U) sujier- 
intend, lay out, and beautify this new cemetery on the banks of the Genesee River, 
which under his guiding hand is to be one of the best in New York State. August 
31, 1870, he married Mary E. Hayden, of Port Byron, N. Y., and they have three 
children: Maibelle K., Charles H., and Stanley S. Mr. Shej^ard's father, Samuel, 
was born at the old home in Connecticut, July 10, 1820, and was educated in the 
schools of his day. He was a manufacturer of hardware stock until he retired. He 
is now living with his son. He married Lucj^ Carter of his native place, and they 
had four children, two died in infancy. Two sons still survive, John H., and Samuel, 
who is soon to reside in Cleveland, Ohio. Mrs. Shepard's father, Charles Hayden, 
was born at Port Byron, N. Y., in 1826. He married Lucinda Stokes of Montezuma, 
and they had two children. Mr. Hayden died November 24. 1893, and his wife in 
185.5. This family trace their ancestry in the L'nited States to 1640. Two of Mr. 
Shepard's ancestors were in the war of 1812, and four in the Revolutionary war. The 
great-great-grandfather came from Wales. 



286 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Slater, William J. — The late James Slater was born in Chili, Monroe county, N. 
Y., and his education was obtained in the public schools. He was a contractor and 
farmer, and when the Erie Canal was enlarged, he had a contract from Clyde, 
Wayne county, to the Montezuma marshes, also built the slope wall between the 
above mentioned places. April 17, 1852, he married Ann Wheelahan, formerly of 
Kings county, Ireland. She came to the United States with her parents when but 
two years old. They had eight children, six grew to maturity : Thomas, who mar- 
ried Effie Gallery of the town of Greece, Ann, Lizzie, who married Joseph Larkin 
and have four children ; Josephine, who married John Beaty of Greece, and had 
four children: Julia, Mrs. Rigimy, died in 1883, and William J. The last 
named has been collector of the village of Charlotte one year. His father, James, 
was accidently killed by being thrown from a wagon on Lake avenue, Rochester, N. 
Y., August 30, 1871. Mrs. Slater's father, Thomas Wheelahan, was born in Kings 
county. Ireland, in 1810. He married Mary Ryan of his native place, and they had 
fourteen children. The family came to the United States in 1832, and located in the 
town of Greece. He died in 1890. and his wife in the spring of 1892. Mrs. James 
Slater was the only one who did not have fever and ague in the Montezuma swamp. 

Smith, Jacob, was born in Herkimer county, November 18, 1824. His parents re- 
moved to Oswego county when he was two years old, thence to Ontario, and later to 
Clarkson, this county in 1834, and finally settled here in 1844, where he has ever 
since resided. He was educated in the district schools, and was a toll-keeper twenty- 
five years, but for the past seventeen years has been a farmer. He married Sarah 
Robbins, of Greece, and had one son, Theodore R., who married Mary Barber of 
San Francisco, Cal., and he has one son Albert T. Mr. Smith married second Mary 
J. Robbins, a sister of his first wife, and they have one son, Albert W. Mr. Smith 
has served "as justice of the peace for a number of years. His father, John, was 
born in Dutchess count)' about 1788, and married Dolly Stever, by whom he had six 
children: Gertrude, Catharine, Caroline, Jacob, Maria, and one who died in infancy. 
He died in 1862, and his wife in 1858. Jehiel Robbins, father of JNIrs. Smith, was 
born in the Mohawk valley in 179") Of their eleven children nine grew to maturity: 
George, Phoebe, Anna, Sarah, Wilder, Ruth, Mary J., John, and Truman. Mr. 
Robbins died in 1865, and his wife in 1841. Jehiel Robbins was a soldier in the war 
of 1812. The ancestry of this family on both sides is Dutch. 

Sexton, Lawrence, was born in Charlotte, N. Y. , December 5, 1858. He was ed- 
ucated in the public school, and has a variety of occupations, and is now proprietor 
of the Beach Hotel, conducts a refreshment stand on the corner of Broadway and 
the Beach, also carries on a billiard parlor at No. 18 South St. Paul street, with 
choice brands of whiskeys, wines and cigars. He has been married twice, first to 
Catharine Wildner of Medina. N. Y.. and they had one daughter, Katie M. B. Mrs, 
Sexton died May 22, 1891. For his second wife he married, January 3, 1893, Mary 
Brett of Holley, N. Y. , and they have one son, Lawrence E. Mr. Sexton's father 
was born in the old country in 1832, and married Joanna Dailey of his native place 
and came to the United States, locating in the town of (ireece. They had six living 
children: Jeremiah, Cornelius and David, twins, John, Lawrence and Anna. John 
Sexton died in July, 1893. 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 287 

Skinner, George W., was born in Rochester, N. Y., May 12, 1854, was educated in 
Che common schools in Rochester and the town of Greece, his parents having moved 
to Braddock's Bay, June 1, 1865, where his father opened up a summer resort which 
was continued after his death. George W. erected a new and commodious summer 
hotel which is conducted on liberal lines, and is growing in favor daily, being head- 
quarters for fishermen and hunters. October^G, 1874, he married Margaret E. 
Frieson of the town of Greece, and they have two children: Alice, now Mrs. William 
Pfarrer of the town of Chili, and Charles, who is a student at school. Mr. Skinner's 
father, Roswell B., was also born in Rochester, March 18, 1820, was educated in the 
.schools of Rochester, and married Adelia Fisk, formerly of New York city. They 
had nine children, only five of whom grew to maturity: George W., as above, Will- 
iam N., Falding W., Lewis B., and Frank. Mr. Skinner was identified with Roch- 
ester business interests in many ways before he moved to the town of Greece. He 
died November 10, 188!*, and his wife August 21, 1874. Mrs. Skinner's father. Joab 
Frieson, was born in Germany in 1830, married Margaret Black, and came to the 
United States in 1854, locating in the town of Greece. '1 hey had four children: 
Michael, Margaret, as above, Jacob, and Rose. Both father and mother are still 
living. 

Taft, Horace, was born in Woodstock, Windsor county, Vt.. April 24, 1826, and 
was educated in their schools. He came to Rochester with his parents in 1839, and 
to the town of Greece in 1840. He learned the comb trade and followed the business 
fourteen years, and is now a farmer and fruit grower. October 24, 1853, he married 
Edna Bonsteel, and they were the parents, of two daughters: Ella, now Mrs Rich- 
ard Hu.sband, and Eva A., now Mrs, Edward Simpson, both of Rochester, N. Y. 
The Husband family have three children: Eva, Cora, and a baby not named. Mr. 
Simpson's family consists of two children, Horace and Edna C. Mrs. Taft died Octo- 
ber 24, 1871. Mr. Taft's father, Samuel, was born at the old home in Vermont in 1791. 
He married Anna Sears of the old home, and they had six children: Ma.son, So 
phronia, Henry, Mary, Horace, as above, and Sarah J. The family came to the town 
of Greece as above noted in 1840. Mr. Taft died in 1878, and his wife died of con- 
sumption when quite young. Mr. Taft's grandfather was a soldier in the Revolu- 
tionary war, and the first Taft in the United States landed at Plymouth Rock from 
the ship Mayflower from Holland. 

Worden, Edward, was born in Penfield in 1816, a son of Edward, who came from 
Johnstown and married a daughter of William Hill. When Edward, jr., was about 
one year old he came to East Penfield with his mother and settled on the Hill home- 
stead, where he has since resided. He married Celia Cheeney, who died in 1892, 
leaving one son, Deyo S., who married a daughter of Artemas Fuller, of Penfield, 
and now lives on the homestead with his father and carries on the farm. 

Hincher, Wheeler, was born near the old homestead where he now resides, Au 
gust 1, 1835. His education was obtained in the district schools and he has always 
been engaged in farming. He married Catherine Doud, of Greece, and they have 
four daughters: Lucy, Gertie, Ada, and Edna. Mr. Hincher's father. William, was 
born in Charlotte in 1807. He too was educated in the public schools and was a 
farmer. He married Lucy Heko.x, of this town, and had seven children: Wheeler, 
Irving, Adelaide, Juliette, who died at the age of twenty-one years, and Frank. The 



2ft8 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

other children died in infancy. William Hincher died January 8, 1868, and his wife, 
June 15, 1878. Wheeler Hincher's great-grandfather, William Hincher, was the first 
settler \\\est of the (Jenesee River and the first settler of Charlotte, having come there 
in 1792. 

Clark, George C, was born in Chesterfield, X. H., June 22, 1830. He was edu- 
cated in the schools of the day, then learned the machinist's trade. In 1852 he came 
to Rochester, N. Y., and worked at his trade until 1S70. He and another gentleman 
organized a stock company that same year for the manufacture of machine screws. 
A factory was erected on Caledonia avenue, which has been in full operation ever 
since under the name of the Rochester Machine Screw Co. Mr. Clark has been su- 
perintendent of the company. In 1855 he married Mary Potter, of O.xford, N. Y., 
by whom he had these children: George P., Hattie L., Mildred, Nellie, Mary, and 
Charles X., a graduate of Aurora Academy, being captain of his company in the 
military department. George P. married Mary Haddock, of Greece. Hattie L. mar- 
ried Lewis A. Fountaine, by whom he has two children, Lewis and Hattie. Mildred 
married George Hedditch and has one daughter, Viola. Nellie married Charles 
Robbins, of Greece. Mary married Frederick Defendorf of Barnard's Crossing, and 
they have four children: Clark N., Mabel, Ralph and Frank. Mr. Clark is a mem- 
ber of Yonnondio Lodge, No. 103, F. & A. M., Rochester. N. Y. He has been a con- 
tributing member of this lodge for over forty years and in 1893 he was constituted a 
life member. 

Canfield, James P., was born in the village of Chaumont, Jefferson county, N. Y., 
November 9, 1851. The family moved to Pinckney, Lewis county, when he was a 
child, where he was educated in the common schools, and graduated from Lowville 
Academy in 1868. He taught school winters and worked on the farm with his father 
.summers until 1873. February 7, 1871, he married Ada J. Hodge of Adams Center. 
They have one son, De Forest, who has been a student in Brockport Normal School 
and Rochester Business University, and is now a clerk for his father in the New 
York Central and Hud.son River Railway office at Charlotte. September 1, 1873, 
James P. entered the emploj- of the Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg Company, 
as assistant station master at Adams Center, under Daniel Funks, until 1876, when 
he became station agent at Kent on their new railway through Orleans county to 
Niagara Falls, where he remained one year. In 1877 he was made station agent at 
vSodus, Wayne county, where he remained ten years. In 1887 he came to Charlotte, 
still in the employ of that company until 1893, when he became station agent for the 
New York Central and Hudson River Railway Company, jointly with the other com- 
pany, and in the fall of the same j-ear was station agent for the B. R. & P. Railway 
company, discharging his duty as station agent jointly for the three companies. Mr. 
Canfield is a member of Sodus Lodge, No. 376, F. & A. M. He is also a charter 
member of Wayne county Chapter, R. A. M., of Monroe Commaudery, No. 12, K. T., 
of Damascus Temple, A. A. Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. Mr. Canfield traces 
his family origin to the Huguenots of France who came to England and for some 
distinguished service to the British crown was given a large tract of land. 

Corbitt, Robert C, jr., was born in the town of Greece on the Little Ridge Road, 
August 9, 1853. He was educated in the public schools, and learned the carpenter's 
and joiner's trade, and is now a contractor and builder in Charlotte. He has mar- 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 2.sa 

ried twice, first on November 27, 1873, to Lucy A. Baxter, formerly of Michijjan. 
Seven children were born to them: Estella A., who died in her fifth year, a baby boy 
not named, Thurston A., Edith L., Wilbur B., Ward E., and Miles H. Mrs. Corbitt 
died March 29, 1892. The second time he married, October 7, 1892. Mrs. Clarissa 
Potter, nee Allen. She has four living children by her first marriage: Elizabeth A., 
now Mrs. Henry Schafer, Warren S., who married Augusta Clark, Ida B., who mar- 
ried Henry Walheiser, and Delia C, who married Adelbert Baxter. Mr. Corbitfs 
father, Robert, was born in Scotland, in 1825, and married Rachel Wallace of his 
native place, and came to the United States, locating first in the town of Parma. 
They had five children- Agnes, who died at the age of ten, John, who died at the 
age of eight, Robert, jr., as above, Charles, and Jennie. Both father and mother 
reside in the town of Parma. Mr. Corbitt has just been elected one of the trustees 
of the village of Charlotte. He is a member of the Clio Lodge, No. 779, F. & A. M. 
of the town of Parma. The ancestry of this family is Scotch and Engli.sh. 

Burling, George, was born in Cambridgeshire, England, September 26, 1842. At 
the age of thirteen years he came to this country with his father, locating in West 
Junius, Ontario county. He was educated in common schools, and in early life was 
a farmer. He has lived m Greece since 1859. June 30, 1870, he married Sarah Green- 
wood, of Oil City, Pa. They had five children: Mamie, who died in infancy; Alice 
M., who died at the age of five years; Cora M. ; Alfred J. ; and Julia E. Mrs. Bur- 
ling died April 26, 1883. Mr. Burling's father, James, was born in England in 1819. 
He married Susan Hills, by whom he had twelve children: Mary A., George, Emma, 
James, Sarah, Alfred, Alice. Rebecca, Elizabeth, John, and Carrie L. Mr. Burling 
died February 1. 187(1. His widow married Henry Palmer and they now live in 
Greece. Mr. Burling now conducts a small fruit farm, also a large fruit evaporator, 
of which he is sole owner. He is in jjartnership with Mr. Casburn, wtiich partner- 
ship has existed for nineteen years. 

Beaty, Thomas, was born in the town of Greece, October 8. 1823, was educated in * 
the public schools, and has always been a farmer until he retired from busine.ss. In 
1870 he married Mary McCaffrey, of the town of Greece, formerly of Ireland. She 
died October 20, 1886. Mr. Beaty's father, James, was born in Ireland in 1789, and 
married Alice Burns of his native place, and came to the United States in 1818 and 
located at Mount Read. They had four children: Patrick, Nancy, Thomas, and Ro- 
sanna. Mr. Beaty died September 11, 1855, and his beloved wife June 8, 1849. This 
old Irish family has been identified with the material prosperity of the town from a 
very early day. Mr. Beaty is a member of Mount Read Catholic church located near 
bis home. 

Bolton, William R., was born in Birmingham, England, September 21, 1865, and 
his parents moved to Bambury, Oxfordshire, England, when he was one year old. 
He was educated in their schools, and began to learn the shoe trade with his father 
and followed the business until he became very skillful working on fine sewed work 
in the best shops of England, even for some members of the royal family. Septem- 
ber 6, 1888, he came to the United States, and first located in New York city, and 
December 14, he came to Rochester, N. V., and was immediately employed by his 
uncle, Thomas Bolton, in his shoe factory, and is there at the present time. He has 
recently erected a residence near Charlotte. July 14, 1889, he married Carrie Merrill 

kk 



290 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

of the town of Simcoe, Boston, Ontario, Canada. They have one daughter, Clara L. 
Mr. Bolton's father, William, was born at Bambury, Oxfordshire, England. He 
married Harriet Page, of his native place, and they had six children, five of whom 
survive: William B., Clara, John H., Louisa, and Percy H. The family, with the 
exception of our subject, reside in England. Mrs. Bolton's father, I. Warren Merrill, 
was born in the town of Simcoe, Canada, in 182(5, and is a farmer by occupation. 
He married Sarah A., daughter of George Olmstead, formerly of Boston, Mass., and 
they have two children: George S. . and Carrie, as above noted. Mrs. Merrill died 
in 1807, and he married a second tinie. Mr. Bolton is a member of Kevstone Lodge, 
No. 661. L O. O. F., of Rochester. N. Y. He is also a member of Crystal Tent, No. 
86, K. O. T. M. 

Barney, John S. , was born in the town of Adams, Jeiferson county, N. Y., July 18, 
1840. His parents moved to Sackett's Harbor when he was one j-ear old, and in 
1848 the family came to Charlotte, where he was educated in the common schools, 
and in 1855 began his life work as a sailor. He has been captain of sailing ves- 
sels since 1867, and captain of the same harbor tug since 1875. January 7, 1868, he 
married Caroline L. Way of this place. Captain Barney's father, Benjamin K., was 
born in Jefferson county, N. Y., in 1818, and was educated in the schools of his day 
at Sackett's Harbor. Bemg a zealous abolitionist, he had charge of one of the un- 
derground railway stations. He married Jane Stevens of that county, and they had 
five children, two died in infanc3\ John S., Earl W., and Adeline L., came here in 
1848. He became manager in a general store at this place, and opened the first 
meat market here in 1850. He died m 1890, and his wife in 1856. Mrs. Barney's 
father, Joseph Way, was born in Vermont, and came to Watertown when a young 
man. He married Louisa Lord, whx) was born in Connecticut, and they had four 
children: John, Lydia, George W., and Caroline L. Mrs. Day died in 1886. and it is 
supposed that Mr. Day died in the West, when looking for a site for his carding mill. 
Captain Barney has been a contributing member of Genesee Falls Lodge, No. 507, 
F. & A. ]\I., Rochester, N. Y., and is now a life member. 

Bingham, James R., was born near Toronto, Canada, in 1863. He first attended 
the public schools, then the High School, and graduated from the medical depart- 
ment of Trinity University, Toronto, in 1891. He then took a post-graduate course 
of polyclinics in New York city, then practiced in the hospital in Toronto. He has 
practiced with success in Charlotte since 1893. The doctor comes of a family of 
physicians and surgeons, having two uncles and two brothers in the profession. He 
is a member of the Canada Ontario College of Pharmacy, and is one of Monroe 
county's most skillful physicians and surgeons. 

Burke, James, was born in Canada in 1852, where he learned the harnessmaker's 
trade In 1870 he came to Hamlin and after a few months he bought a general 
horse furnishing and harness store, which he still runs. In 1879 he married a daugh- 
ter of Michael Martin, by whom he has two sons: Joseph M. and Henry A. Mr. 
Burke was elected overseer of the poor in 1895, which office he still holds. 

Estes, James W., was born in Clayton, Jefferson county, N. Y., Octt)ber 15, 1853. 
The family moved to Ogdensburg, St. Lawrence county, and from there to Char- 
lotte, in 1860, where he was educated in the common schools, and is now chief en- 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 201 

gineer of the lake, bay, and sound steamers, and is one of the sewer commissioners 
of the village of Charlotte. August 11 1872, he married Margaret Hogg, of Char- 
lotte. Two sons were born to them, Milo D., who is a clerk in Denise Bros.' gen- 
eral store, and George G. , who is a student in the graded school. Mr. Estess father 
James B., was born on Long, or Wolf Island, in the St. Lawrence River, June 6, 
1818. He was educated in the schools of his day, and has always followed the St. 
Lawrence River and the lakes. He was captain of a saihng vessel at the age of 
seventeen. In 1840 he married Hannah S. Adams, Watertown, Jefferson county 
and they had three sons: Milo D , Eldridge M., and James W. The sons are all 
loyal to the United States government, the two oldest were volunteers in the United 
States navy, and after serving one year were honorably discharged. Milo D. is now 
superintendent of the Albany and Troy line of steamboats. Eldridge M. enlisted in 
Co. A, 3dN. Y. Cavalry, was captured on the Wilson Raid, and starved to death in 
prison by the rebels in Florence, South Carolina. Mrs. Estes's father. John Hogg, 
was born in Scotland, January 1, 1817. In 1849 he married Jane Haig, of his native 
place, and came to Canada in 18o7, and to the United States in 1867, locating at 
Charlotte. Four children were born to them: Jane, now Mrs. Conkling, of Saranac; 
James, who died at the age of twenty-five; Margaret, and Susan, row Mrs. Conrad, 
of Saranac. Mr. Hogg died at the age of thirty-seven. 

Beaman, Cassias C, was born in Burke, Franklin county, N.Y.. July 22. 1848, and 
is a son of Orson Beaman, who was born in 1820, and who came to Gates in 1882. 
He became a resident of Gates in 18(58 and has been since then one of the represen- 
tative farmers of the town. In 1872 he started a milk route in Rochester and has 
since continued it successfully. In 1874 he married Miss Julia E., youngest daugh- 
ter of the late Frederick Rowe, upon whose homestead they have resided since 1877. 
They have two children, Charlie O. and Nellie J. 

Smith, Uziel B., is a son of Samuel, who came from Maine, and settled m Wayne 
county at an early day, where he died in 1871. L ziel B. Smith came to Penfield in 
1864, where he was engaged in farming until 1893, when he removed to Webster, hi# 
present place of residence. He married Maria, daughter of Isaac Merritt, -who was 
among the early settlers of Penfield, coming from New Jersey. They have one son, 
Nelson I. 

Chapin, Charles Hall, son of Moses, fir.st county judge of Monroe county, and a 
descendant of Deacon Samuel Chapin, who came from England to Massachusetts 
between 1635 and 1640, was born in Rochester, January 6, i830. His mother's an- 
cestor was Timothy Dwight, president of Yale College. Mr. Chapin first assumed 
the management of the Kidd Iron Works in his native city under the firm name of 
Chapin & Terry. In 1871 he established the banking house of Kidd & Chapin, of 
wdiich he had entire charge. In 1875 this was merged into the Hank of Rochester 
and Mr. Chapin was president until his death, which occurred in Rochester March 
16, 1882. In 1877 he organized the Rochester Car Wheel Works, which were estab- 
lished by William Kidd, and which now turn out annually from 30,000 to 40,000 car 
wheels, consuming about 10,000 tons of iron. He was also vice-president of the 
Charlotte Iron W^orksand a trustee of the Roberts Iron Works of Kingston, Ontario, 
Canada. Mr. Chapin married, in 1854, Miss Elizabeth, daughter of William Kidd. 
Their children were William Kidd Chapin, Charles Terry Chapin, Mrs. William E. 
Marcus, Edward Hall Chapin, and Eleanor B. Chapin (who died in 1881). 



'J92 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Barhydt, Edwin, was born in Schenectady county, N. Y., December 16, 1820, son 
of Mathias Barhydt. Mr. Barhydt was for many years in the employ of the N.Y.C. 
R.R., and was conductor for twenty-two years, retiring in 1876. In 1880 he bought 
the hotel on the Lyell road in Gates, which he has since conducted. He has one son, 
James A., who is master mechanic of the B., R. cV P. R. R. at Lincoln Park, N. Y. 

McClintock, J. Y. , city engineer, is a son of John McClintock, and was born in 
Hallowell. Maine, April 22, 1853. He wasedncated in the public schools of his native 
town, at Hallowell Academy and Maine Wesleyan Seminary, and attended Bowdoin 
College one year in the class of 1872. After studying civil engineering in an office 
in Portland, Me., one year he became one of the civil engineers on the construction 
of the Northern Pacific Raih'oad, where he remained also one year. He was then en- 
gaged on city work in Boston and with the U. S. Coast Survey and U. S. Engineer 
Corps on the coast of Maine for one year, after which he was for eight years division 
engineer and chief engineer for the Boston and Maine Railroad with headquarters 
first at Portland and afterward at Boston. Following this he was for several years 
engmeer for a construction company engaged in building and rebuilding gas works 
in various cities east of the Mississippi River, and in 1880, while acting in that 
capacity, came to Rochester, where he had charge of the erection of the Municipal 
Gas Works, now a part of the Rochester Gas Works. When the Chamber of Com. 
merce was established Mr. McClintock was elected its first secretary, an office he 
held a little more than three years. In 1892 he was made city surveyor and held that 
position ever since, the name of the office being changed to city engineer in the spring 
of 1895. Among the many important improvements which Mr. McClintock has de- 
signed and superintended since entering upon the duties of his office are the Clarissa 
street. Court street, and Andrews street bridges, the paving of Main and State 
streets and several others of equal importance. He has inaugurated numerous 
changes in the detail of street construction and public improvements which have 
greatly improved the character of the work and the appearance of the city. 

Palmer, sr., James, was born in London, England, February 13, 1821, and came 
with his parents to America when nine years old. The family first settled in Utica, 
where he was educated. At the age of sixteen he engaged in the manufacture of 
fire works in that city. In 1842 he came to Rochester and resumed the same busi- 
ness on the site of the present Palmer block on East Main street, continuing success- 
fully in the same until 1876, when he retired from active life. He was succeeded by 
the firm of James Palmer's Sons (James, jr., and Joseph W.), who still carry on the 
business under the corporate title of the Rochester Fire Works Co. In 1878 he re- 
moved to the town of Brighton, where he now resides. He built the present Palmer 
block in 1868. In 1842 Mr. Palmer married Eliza Gardner of Utica, who died in 1873. 
His second wife was Miss Abbie Baldwin of Rochester. Peter Palmer, his father, 
was also a pyrotechnist, died at Rochester in March, 1895, at the advanced age of 
ninety-six years. He has nine children living: James, jr., John P. (one of the man- 
agers of the Warner Safe Cure Company), Jo.seph W., Charles H. (cashier of the 
Tradei-s' National Bank), Jerome B., George W., Fred D., Mrs. (ieorge W. Crouch, 
jr., and Mrs. Jerome Dietrich. 

Leddy, Thomas J. — Thomas Leddy, senior, was born in Dublin, Ireland, and in 
early life came to Toronto, Canada, where he married Miss Ellen Montgomery, and 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 293 

later came to Rochester, N. Y., where Thomas J., the subject of our sketch, was born 
in 1861. While achildhisparents lived in Rush and Caledonia, where he received the 
greater part of his education, in the common schools, which was finished at one of 
Rochester's parochial schools. After leaving school Mr. Leddy returned to Caledonia 
and worked on a farm by the month for several years. When about twenty one he 
went to Michigan, but not finding a great opening returned to Rochester, and in 
1883 commenced to learn the stone mason and brick laying trade. In 1884 he bought 
property and built a house in the town of Gates, where he now lives. In 1887 he 
commenced business on his own account, as a contractor, which is his present bu.si- 
ness. In 1888 Mr. Leddy married Miss Margaret O'Brien of Cauandaigua, and they 
have three children; May, Frank and Adelaide. He is a member of St. Patrick's 
church. Politically, Mr. Leddy is a Democrat and has held several minor offices, 
and is now serving his second term as justice of the peace of the town of Gates, and 
also represents his town as a member of the County Central Committee. As a man, 
Mr. Leddy is successful; the same energy and patience which enabled him to work 
so long and faithfully on a farm in his youth, when applied to his business is not only 
winning him success financially, but the confidence and respect of all who know him. 

Tennison, John, jr.. was born in Ogden, Monroe county, November 13, 1856. He 
was educated in the public schools and Rochester Business University, and is now 
engaged in farming. November 21, 1881, he married Hattie A. Bush, of Parma, and 
they had one son. Allen, who died in infancy. Mr. Tennison's father, John, was born 
in Greece, in August, 1824. He was educated in the public schools and then en- 
gaged in farming. He married Betsey Butts, of Greece, by whom he had eight chil- 
dren: two died in infancy, Frankie, John, Edward, Emeline, Anna and Minnie. 
Mr. and Mrs. Tennison reside in the town of Parma. Mrs. Tennison, jr.'s. father, 
Edward Bush, was born in New Jersey, December 2, 1805, and came to Western 
New York when a young man. May 11, 1842, he married Mary Bennett, by whom 
he had ten children: Elizabeth, Edward, Peter, George, Louie, Wesley, John, Harry, 
and two that died in infancy. Mr. Bush died January 22, 1887, and his wife, De- 
cember 28, 1890. Mr. Tennison's grandfather, John, was one of the first settlers in 
the town. Mr. Tennison is a member of Clio Lodge, No. 779, F. & A. M., Roches- 
ter, N. Y. The family is f)f English, German and Scotch origin. 

Aman, Joseph, was born on the old homestead, in the town of Irondequoit, N. Y., 
October 14, 1851. He was educated in the district schools, and is a small fruit grower, 
market gardener, and nurseryman by occupation. May 30, 1876, he married Jose- 
phine Marchand, formerly of Buffalo, N. Y., by whom he had si.x children: Flora S., 
Frederick J., Reuben E., William H., Gertrude B., and Joseph F. Mr. Aman is a 
justice of the peace, serving his second term. Benedict Aman. father of Joseph, was 
born in Alsace, France (now Germany), February 26, 1810, and came with his parents 
to the United States in 1831. They located in the town of Irondequoit. where his 
father bought a small farm. March 8. 1837, he married Barbara Mo.ser, by whom he 
had eleven children: George S., Martin, Annie M., Benedict. Barbara G.. Joseph, 
who died in infancy, Joseph No. 2, as above, Jacob, Margaret, Emma, who died in 
infancy, and John C. Mr. Aman died April 30, 1882. Mrs. Amau's father, Jacob 
Marchand, was born in Besancon, France, in 1S27, and came to the United States 
when a young man, locating in Buffalo, N. Y. He married Frances Perriard, form- 



294 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

erly of France by whom he had these children, Josephine, EujTenic, Marv, Fred- 
erick, Louis, Celcalia, and two who died in infancy. Mr. Marchand died in 1871, 
and i:is wife in 1889. 

Allen, John, was born in Sweden, in 1825. Philemon Allen, father of John, came 
from Ma.ssachu.setts and settled in Sweden, where he cnj^aged in farming and spec- 
ulating. John Allen lived for .some time in Brockport, where he was justice of the 
peace for eight years, and later moved to Clarkson, where he was justice for four 
years. In 1889 he moved to Hamlin, where he is now engaged in farming. He 
married Livona, daughter of Amos Stickncy of Sweden, by whom he had one .son, 
F. J., and one daughter, Mrs. Alexander Ferguson. Mrs. Allen died, and he mar- 
ried for his second wife, Lettie Bragg, who died in 1894, by whom he had two sons, 
Leonard and Charles H., and one daughter, Lottie M. 

Mann, Frank C, was born in West Bend, Wis., May 14, 1867, and was educated in 
the Schoharie Academy, and Gloversville High School. His first venture in the 
business world vs^as as anewsboj-, which he began at the age of ten years. This occu- 
pation he followed for about five years. At the age of eighteen he went on the 
road as a commercial traveler and continued two years. In January, 1888, at the 
age of twenty he took up life insurance work, and two years later was sent to Roch- 
ester by the National Life Insurance Co. of Vermont, to assume the duties of general 
manager of their agency, the successful establishment of which in a city and territur\' 
that was already apparently overcrowded by representatives of that line, marks Mr. 
Mann as an adept at the business. From the smallest agency on the company's list, 
under Mr. Mann's management it has grown to be one of the largest. His head 
offices at Rochester are said to be as beautiful and complete as any in the United 
States. June 11, 1890, Mr. Mann married Maud L., daughter of George E. Camm, 
of Johnstown, N. Y. They have one son, Herbert A. Mann, and reside at No. 14 
Harper street. 

Titus, Adelbert. — German Titus, father of Adelbert, was born in Canada, March 
;}, 1822, and came to the United States with his parents at the age of two years. He 
was educated in the district schools, and has had a variety of occupations, among 
others farming, and in 1870 he began market gardening, his gardens being in ten- 
acre lots fenced with evergreen hedges. August 2:}, 1846, he married Augusta 
Roberts, of the town of Mendon, and they have three children : Adelbert, George 
B., and Seymour G. Adelbert married Eugenia Titus, and they have one daughter. 
Adrienne. George B. married Emma S. Sherry, of this town, and they have three 
children- Leone, Carrie L., and German; and Seymour G. married Eudora B. Maw- 
hiuney, of Onondaga county. N.Y. Adelbert worked with his father in the market 
garden business until he was twenty-three years old, when he began on his own 
account. His methods are of the most approved style, and his hot houses are the 
best. He has one of the largest in the State, its dimensions being 50.n234 feet, and 
it has twenty-three ventilators, which are operated with a crank on each side, and 
heated by a low pressure boiler, which heats 4,000 feet of inch and a quarter pipe. 
The entire cost of this greenhouse was §3,000. (For full history of Titus family .see 
George Cooper's sketch.) 

Cooper, George, was born in Yorkshire England, June 2, 1827, and came to the 
United States with his parents in 1830, settling in Rochester, where he was educated 



Family sketches. " 295 

in the common schools. They came to Irondequoit in 1887. where he now has a lot 
of twenty acres fenced with evergreen. Mr. Cooper is a gardener of rare taste. 
December 4, 1849, he married Phoebe J. Titus, of this town, formerly of Scottsville, 
and they have three children: George, jr., G. Titus, and Jolm M. George, jr., mar- 
ried Alice Johnson, and they have had eight children, seven of whom survive- 
Maud M., Florence L., Richard W., Winfred S., Anneta. Edith E.. and George C. 
G. Titus married Anna Hendricks, of Rochester. John M. married Harriet E. 
Whitney, of Rochester. Mr. Cooper's father, Richard, was born at the old home, 
where he was born in 1801. He married Mary Gardam, of his native place, and they 
had six children : George, Anna, Sarah, MarJ^ Richard, and William. Mr. Cooper 
died in 1-54, and his wife in 1838. Mrs. Cooper's father, Stephen B. Titus, was born 
in Schoharie county, N. Y., April 28, 1796. He married Mary Whitney in Hudson, 
N. Y., and they went to Canada, and they were the parents of eight children, four of 
whom died in infancy. They returned to Monroe county in 1823, and to the town of 
Irondequoit in 1834, where he died in 1877, and his wife in 1872. Both branches of 
this family have done much for the growth and prosperity of the town of Ironde- 
quoit. 

Gates, Henry P., was born in Ogden in 1841, son of Henry (iales, l)orn August 3, 
1808, who came from Schoharie county, N. Y., to Ogden, where he engaged in farm- 
ing, and later moved to Gates, where he died February 10, 1877, leaving one son and 
two daughters. Henry P. settled on the homestead, and is a farmer and carpenter. 
He married Elizabeth, daughter of D. A. Campbell, and they have three sons: 
Samuel W., William H., and Charles A.; also two daughters: Isabel W. and 
Edna L. 

Standeranaier, Mary. — Her first husband, George Serth, was born in Hesse- 
Darmstadt, Germany, in 1823 and came to the United States in 1849, locating in 
Rochester, N. Y. In 1852 he married Mary Schneck, formerly of Germany, by whom 
he had eight children: Barbara, John, William, Catherine, Moneca, George, Louisa 
and Theresa. Mr. Serth died in 1869. In 875 Mrs. Serth married John Standem- 
naier, of Wurtemburg, Germany, and they have one daughter, Louisa R. L. Mr. 
Standemnaier died in 1886. ■Mrs. Standemnaier's father, George Schneck, was born 
in Germany m 1800. He married Magdalene Leoffel, of his native country, by whom 
he had seven children: Mary, Jacob, Frank, John, Louis, Charles, and* Anthony. 
The family came to the United States in 1851. He died in 1891 and his wife in 1852. 
Mrs. Standemnaier has a fine hotel near the Boulevard at the Rifle Range, situated 
on the Genesee River. 

Weisner, Adam, was born in the town of Irondequoit, now Rochester, N. Y. , No- 
vember 1, 1843, and educated in the common schools. He is a dairy farmer, keeping 
thirty-three cows for the wholesale milk trade of the city of Rochester. May 23, 
1867, he married Catherine Heberger, of Rochester, and they have had twelve chil- 
dren: Anne B., who died in her sixth year; Martha J., Lawrence J., Henry P., 
Josephine E., Elizabeth E., Emma B., Mary L., George M., Cecilia A., Joseph L., 
and Frances A. Josephine married William Allenby of Rochester, and they have 
one son, Lawrence J. Martha J. is a sister in a convent in New York city. ;Mr. 
Weisner's father, Lawrence, was born in Bavaria, Germany, in 1812, and came to 
the United States when a young man, and located in Irondequoit. He married 



1 



296 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

Catherine Hinz of his native place, and they were the parents of five children: 
Catherine, Adam, as above noted, Barbara. Joseph, and Theresia. Mr. Weisner 
died March 24, 1871, and his wife September 28, 1890. Mrs. Weisner's father, George 
M. Heberger, was born in Bavaria, Germany, August 15, 1815. He married Anna 
M. Bieck, of his native place, and came to the United States in 1841, locating in 
Rochester, N.Y. They were the parents of nine children: John, Mary A., Catherine, 
as above, Jacob. Valentine, Elizabeth, Eva, Phillip, and Barbara. Mr. Heberger 
died in 18S2, and his wife in 1877. Mr. Weisner and familj' are members of the 
Most Holy Redeemer Catholic church of Rochester. In politics he is a Democrat. 

Curry, John C, was born on the farm where he now resides, in 1888, son of 
Robert Curry, who came from Ireland to Rochester in 1811, and kept the first black- 
smith shop in Rochester, where he worked until 1830, when he bought the farm 
where his son now resides. Mr. Curry married Margaret Lynn, and they have two 
sons, John and Lynn, also five daughters. 

Yawman & Erbe. — This firm was organized in 1880 and consists of Philip II. Yaw- 
man and Gustav Erbe, the former a machinist by trade, the latter a scientific instru- 
ment maker. They first began in a small way the manufacture t)f various articles 
and employed five hands; now they manufacture light machinery, metal specialties, 
etc., consisting of fishermen's automatic reels, bottle washers, bottlers' supplies, 
etc., and employ nearly 300 operatives. They erected their present building at 340- 
348 North St. Paul street in 1884 and since then have enlarged it materially. Their 
trade extends not only throughout the United States and Canada but into Me.xico, 
South America, Australian colonies, Great Britain, and Europe. Mr. Yawman, the 
senior member, was born in Rochester on September 1, 1839, and is a son of Nicholas 
Yawman, a cooper, who came here from Germany on the canal in 1832, being among 
the first German settlers of the city. Mr. Erbe was born in New York citj^ May 23, 
1852, and came to Rochester in 1877. He is a director in the Office Specialty Manu- 
facturing Compan}' and a member of German American Bowling Club, the Manne- 
chor, and the Monroe and Rochester Clubs. The firm is a member of the Chamber 
of Commerce and the Mechanics' Institute. 

Whitcomb & Downs. — Alonzo G. Whitcomb was born in Pittsford, Monroe county, 
N. Y., June 24, 1824, and while still a young man began the busine.ss which subse- 
quently made his name a synonym for hospitality throughout the Eastern States. 
His youthful life was passed in the country. After reaching his maturity he engaged 
in hotel keeping in Parma, afterward in Clarkson, and later in Brock port, whence he 
came to Rochester, where he first was proprietor of the old Exchange Hotel at 80 to 
84 West Main street. He was afterward for nine years landlord of the old National^ 
which occupied the northwest corner of West Main and Fitzhugh streets. In 1872 
he erected the present Whitcomb House and conducted it until his death on Decem- 
ber 13, 1880. Here he made a name which has ever since clung to that popular and 
widely known hostelry, and closed a career that placed him foremost among the 
landlords in Rochester. No hotel enjoys a better reputation among the vast army of 
commercial travelers. Since his death Mr. Downs, for a time his partner, has been 
its active manager. Mr. Whitcomb was supervisor one year and member of the 
Common Council several terms. He was one of the organizers of the Rochester 
Driving Park Association, for several years president of the Western New York 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 297 

Agricultural Society, and a member of Genesee Falls Lodge. F. & A. M Fel)ruarv 
1:3, 1844, he married Miss Tursey S. Tillotson, of Parma, who survives him. 

\\'alijndge, Edward N., was born in Rochester, where he has always resided. 
October 11. 1859. Silas Walbrjdiie, jr., his grandfather, came here with his family 
from Vermont about 1830 and kept tavern at the junction of East avenue and Main 
street; afterward he conducted a tavern at Clarkson, and with his son ran a stage 
line from Rochester to Gaines. He died at the age of eighty-two; his father was a 
Revolutionary soldier. Silas Dewey Walbridge. son of Silas, jr., and father of 
Edward N., was born in Bennington, Vt., May 28. 1815, and succeeded his father in 
the stage and hotel business at Clarkson. Later he had a store at Eagle Harbor and 
finally came to Rochester, wher(; he conducted a livery stable and afterward the 
Mansion House where the Mansion House block now stands. He purchased the old 
Eagle Hotel on the site of the Powers buildings and kept it twenty years, and there 
Edward N. was born. He .sold this property to Mr. Powers about' 1863, and since 
then has been largely interested in real estate. Edward E. Walbridge was gradu- 
ated from the Free Academy in 1878 and after a short course at the Williams Husi 
uess University entered the hardware store of Hamilton Matthews, where he re- 
mained about a year. Since then he has been as.sociated with his father, and for a 
time was engaged in the wholesale grain business. September 29, 1891, he enlisted 
in the 2d Separate Naval Division, X. Y. S. N. G., and on November 22, 1891, was 
elected and commissioned lieutenant, which position he .still holds. May 1, 1895. he 
was appointed special agent of canals of the State under the superintendent of public 
works. He was one of the organizers and a charter member of the Rochester Yacht 
Club, in which he has held all the offices, being now chairman of the regatta com- 
mittee. He is also a member of the United States Naval Institute of Annapolis, 
Md., the Oswego Yacht Club, the Rochester Whist and Genesee Valley Clubs, the 
Rochester Athletic Club, the Chamber of Commerce, the Rochester Historical Soci- 
et3^ and the Sons of the Society of the American Revolution, of both State and 4 
National organization. He is especially prominent in yachting circles. For several 
j-ears he was librarian and secretary of the Sunday school of the First Presbyterian 
church, of which he also a member. 13ecember 2, 1884. he married Helen Velnette. 
daughter of Solomon F. Hess, senior member of the tobacco firm of S. F. Hess &• 
Co., of Rochester. 'I'hey have three children: Arthur Hess. El.sa. and an infant. 

Teall & Sons. — Isaac Teall, the leading caterer of Rochester, is a son of Philip 
'i'eal], and was born in England, April 3, 1844. He came with his parents to America 
in 1847 and settled in Rochester, where his father died in August, 1888. and his 
mother m August, 1895. His education was limited to the public schools of the city. 
In 1S(;4 he enlisted in Co. E, 54th N. Y. Vols., and served until the close of the Re- 
bellion. In 1867 he began active life for himself in a very modest way as a retail 
dealer in ice cream, and about three years later opened a small catering establish- 
ment in Plymouth avenue. From this insignificant beginning he gradually enlarged 
his business until it eventually became one of the chief enterprises in Rochester. In 
1872 he moved to his present quarters at 25 North Fitzhugh street, and in 1893 his 
sons, William H. and George Nelson, were admitted to partnership under the firm 
name of Teall c^- Sons. Mr. Teall is not only the foremost caterer in the city, but 
enjoys a reputation which extends throughout the State. He has had charge of 
11 



2S8 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

many notable gatherings, banquets, parties, etc., catering on such occasions to dis- 
tinguished men of the United States and the best society in various centers of popu- 
lation, and probably doing more in this line than any other caterer between New- 
York and Chicago. His business through his individual efforts and personal popu- 
larity has developed into the largest of its kind in this end of the State. He is a 
charter member of the Chamber of Commerce, and takes a cjuiet interest in the pro- 
gress and welfare of the city. 

Spader, Willard B., has been engaged in business in Rochester as a dealer in in- 
vestment securities for several years. He has private wires with New York and 
Chicago, and is repi'esented on the New York Stock Exchange and Chicago Board 
of Trade. He buys and sells outright all classes of local securities, and makes a 
.specialty of traction stocks and bonds. 

Security Trust Comj)any of Rochester was incor])orated November 1, lSi)2, with 
Edward Harris, president; Granger A. Hollister, vice-president ; and William L. 
Mercer, secretary, all of whom retain their respective offices. 'J he company trans- 
acts a general trust business acts as trustee, receiver, administrator, executor, and 
guardian, allows interest on deposits subject to check, and has offices in the Granite 
building. It has a capital of $200,000 and a surplus aggregating $150,000. 

Martin, Bernard F., was born in the town of Gates, Monroe county, January 12, 
1852. His father, Anthony H. Martin, came from what is now Alsace, France, to 
the Genesee Valley in 1812, and with Ezra Mason cut oft" the timber and opened a 
corduroy road from the upper falls to their farms along the present Lyell avenue. 
He died in 1853, leaving seven children: Anthony H., jr., alderman and poormaster, 
who died in 1883; George W., for several years engaged in wood turning and scroll 
sawing, who died in 1881; Andrew W., who went to Pike's Peak in 1855 and was 
never afterward heard of; Bernard F., and three daughters. H. F. Martin, after 
attending the district schools and Williams & Rogers' Business University, engaged 
in business as a machinist, mastered the trade, and continued for several years, con- 
tracting and manufacturing considerable machinery. In 1876 he opened the "Cen- 
tennial Novelty Store" on State street, and in the fall of 1878 engaged m his present 
business in the Powers building, in which he has met with unqualified success. At 
first he had only a retail trade, but in 1881 added a wholesale grocery line, mainly 
teas, coffees, and spices, which has since developed into one of the largest enterprises 
of the kind in Rochester. Mr. Martin started in a small way, with little capital, but 
with an energy and enterprise which characterized his race, and from this modest 
beginning he has established a business which covers the entire city. He is a mem- 
ber of the Chamber of Commerce and the Rochester Whist Club, and was one of the 
originators and a director of the Rochester & Glen Haven Railroad. 

Lindsay, Alc.Nander .M., member of the widely l.-uowu dry goods lirm of Sibley, 
Lindsay & Curr, was born April 27, 1841, in Scotland, where he received a common 
school education. Before he had reached his fourteenth year he was apprenticed to 
the dry goods trade in Kilmarnock, where he served about six years, when he went 
to Glasgow and was for three years associated with a large retail dry goods house 
there. In 1805 he came to this country and accepted a position as clerk in Boston, 
where he remained until the spring of 1868. when he came to Rochester and organ- 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 209 

ized the firm of Sibley, Lindsay & Curr, which has developed into one of the most 
extensive dry goods syndicates in the country. Mr. Lindsay is a talented business 
man, and thoroughly identified with the progress and welfare of the city of Rocli- 

ester. 

Laney, Calvin C, superintendent and engineer of parks of the city of Rochester, 
was born in Waterloo, N. Y., February 18, 1850, and received his education at the 
Friends Academy in Union Springs, at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., and at the Waterloo 
LTnion School. He taught school two years, and later was engaged with the en- 
gineer corps for about two 3'ears on the survey of the Pennsylvania and Sodus Bay 
Railroad. He was for a similar period assistant engineer on the construction of the 
four-track line of the Hudson-Central Railroad between Batavia and Rochester, and 
successively engaged on bridge building- in Buffalo, on the topographical survey of 
the city of Rochester, and in locating a narrow guage railroad in Vermont. He 
went to Corning, N. Y., as assi.stant engineer in charge of the construction of a 
division of the Geneva and Corning Railroad, and had charge of the building of a 
part of the Geneva and Lyons Railroad, made the surveys for a line in Illinois run- 
ning south from Chicago, and was engaged for three years in double tracking the 
Erie lines between Buffalo and Hornellsville, residing meanwhile in Warsaw and 
Castile. In these he served in the capacity of assistant engineer. As locating en- 
gineer he made surveys for the Bradford, Eldred and Cuba Narrow Guage Railroad ; 
as division engineer he had charge of part of the construction of the Pine Creek 
Railroad between Wellsboro, Pa,, and Willianisport, Pa.; and as superintendent of 
construction he had charge of part of the work on the Beech Creek Railroad from 
Jersey Shore to Clearfield in Pennsylvania. In 1886 he opened a surveyor's office in 
Rochester and the same year assisted in surveying the Lehigh Valley line from 
Buffalo to Geneva, but in the fall became locating engineer for the Kansas City and 
Omaha Railroad in Nebraska. He thence went to California, where he engaged for 
several months in surveying. In the spring of 1888 Mr. Laney returned to Roches- 
ter and reopened a surveyor's office, and in June of that year was appointed engineer 
for the newly organized Park Commission. In 1889, when the work of the Park 
Commission commenced, Frederick Law Olmsted, the celebrated landscape architect, 
recommended him for the position of superintendent, to which he was immediately 
appointed, and since then he has filled both offices. The park system of Rochester 
is recognized as one of the finest in the United States. During the year 1894 the 
various smaller parks and squares and trees of the city were placed under Mr. Laney's 
supervision. 

Hutchison, Merritt L., the well known .superintendent of mails at Rochester, and 
son of William Hutchison, was born in Waterport, Orleans county, N. Y., where he 
received his preliminary education. He removed with his parents to Lyndonville, 
N. Y'., and was graduated from the old Yates Academy in 1872. He learned the 
trade of shoemaking, which he followed for eleven years in Lyndonville. He then 
received the appointment of United States mail clerk, running between Syracuse and 
New York, which position he filled for eight years, when he was transferred to 
Rochester as superintendent of the mails, which position he now holds. November 
2i'>, 1870, Mr. Hutchison married Lizzie E., daughter of Francis Daniels, of Lyndon- 



;^06 LANDMARKS OF MOMROE COUNTY. 

ville, and they have one son, Roy D. Mr. Hutchison is an active member of the 
Rochester Whist Club and Corinthian Temple No. 805, F. & A. M. 

Hoyt, David, was born in Rochester, and has had an experience in the banking 
business from his j'outh up. He first became connected with the Monroe County 
Savings Bank in 1865 as bookkeeper, and rose to the position of secretary and 
treasurer in 1883, a position he has held ever since. He was at one time a director 
of the Safe Deposit Company, and took an active part in obtaining a new charter. 
He is a trustee of the Chamber of Commerce, and has always been active in pro- 
motmg the commerce and development of Rochester. He is also one of the gov- 
ernors of the Rochester Homoeopathic Hospital, and was lor a time its secretary. 
Mr. Hoyt has always taken an active interest in athletic sports, has long been a 
member of the Bowling and other popular clubs, and is widely known and much 
esteemed as one of the progressive spirits among the young business men of Roch- 
ester. The Monroe County Savings Bank, of which he is secretary and treasurer, 
commenced business June 'S, 1850, in the office of the Rochester Bank, on Exchange 
street. The first board of trustees consisted of Levi Ward, Everard Peck, Freeman 
Clarke, Nehemiah Osburn, Ephraim Moore, Daniel H. Barton, George W. Parsons, 
William W. Ely, William N. Sage, Alvah Strong, Martin Briggs, Thomas Harvey, 
Lewis Selye, Moses Chapin, Ebenezer El}', Daniel E. Lewis, Amon Bron.son, Joel P. 
Milliner, Charles W. Dundas, George Ellwanger and Theodore B. Hamilton. 
Everard Peck was the first president, and Freeman Clarke the first treasurer. In 
1854 the bank was moved to the building on Buffalo street known as the " City Hall 
Building," and in 1858 removed to the Masonic Hall block, corner of Exchange and 
Buffalo streets. In 18G2 the premises on State street now occupied were purchased, 
and a handsome, substantial building was erected. In 1867 additional ground was 
secured and the building greatly enlarged and improved. 

Edington, I. C, D.D.S., son of Abram P. Edington, was born in Parma, Monroe 
county, N. Y., February 11, 1864, and received his preliminary education in the 
schools of his native town. In the fall of 1886 he commenced the study of dentistry 
in the office of Dr. Charles A. Davis, in Rochester. He was afterwards, for three 
years, with the late Dr. G. U. Gleasou, of this city, and in the fall of 1888 entered the 
dental department of the Howard University of Washington, D. C, from which in- 
stitution he graduated with high honor in 1890, being president of his class. The 
same year he resumed the practice of his profession in Rochester, N. Y., where he 
has since resided. He is a member of the Seventh District Dental Association 
and president of the Rochester Dental Association, which position he has held for 
two terms. 

Grossman Brothers. — Charles W. Grossman, the senior member of this well-known 
seed firm, was born in Rochester, January 13, 1847, while his brother, George F. 
Grossman, was born July 14, 1851. Their father, Charles F., born November 3, 1802, 
came to Monroe county from Vermont about 1838. He had at one time the largest 
market gardening business in this vicinity, and in 1840 founded what is now the 
great seed establishment of Grossman Brothers. He also conducted a nursery, and 
was one of the foremost citizens of the time. Upon his death in 1865 his two sons 
succeeded tothe entire business, from which they .soon sold ofT the nursery and garden- 
ing departments. Since then they have devoted their attention wholly to the pro- 



Family sketches. 



301 



duction, handling and selling of all kinds of seeds, developing one of the most ex- 
tensive concerns of the kind in America, enjoying a trade to which foreign lands 
contribute, and having retail stores in South Clinton street, and wholesale and gen- 
eral office headquarters on Monroe avenue. They also have two large houses in 
Canada, one being in Coburg and the other at Wellington. They have under culti- 
vation, of their own or on contract, about (5,000 acres of land, keep fifty traveling 
men on the road, and employ during the busy season from 350 to 400 people, main- 
taining a business which extends all over the world. Keeping pace with the times 
and their extensive trade, they have put in all new and improved appliances, and are 
now making and pasting many millions of seed paper bags and envelopes by ma- 
chinery. The firm is a member of the Chamber of Commerce. Charles W. Cross- 
man is a thirty-second degree Mason, being a member of Rochester Lodge and 
Monroe Commandery and intermediate bodies, and is also president of the Ameri- 
can Seedsmen's Protective Association, of which he was one of the organizers. He 
is a member of the American Seed Trade Association, and a life member of the New 
York State and Western New York Agricultural Societies February 6, 1884, he 
married a daughter of the late Capt. Charles W. Godard, of Brooklyn, at one time 
captain of the Port of New York. They have two children : Lillie Louise and Helen 
Josephine. George F. Grossman is also a thirty-second degree Mason, being a mem- 
ber of Frank K. Lawrence Lodge No. 797, F. & A. M., Hamilton Chapter, R. A. M., 
Doric Council, Monroe Commandery, K. T., Mystic Shrine, and Veiled Prophets, 
and Master of the Lodge of Perfection of the Scottish Rite bodies. He is a member 
of the Rochester Club, and a life member of the New York State and Western New 
York Agricultural Societies. In 1879 he married a daughter of Ira Todd, of ISrighton, 
and they have two children: Clara M. and Beatrice E. 

Belding, Dr. Homer, was born at Careyville, N, V., in January, 18:53, and is a son 
of Dr. Almond V. Belding, of Medina, Orleans county, one of the oldest practicing 
dentists in Western New^ York. He attended the district schools imd finished hi» 
education at the old Millville Academy. Leaving home at the age of thirteen he fol- 
lowed the occupation of a wholesale drug clerk in Chicago and New York citv for 
fifteen years, and then studied dentistry with his father, with whom he subsequentlv 
formed a partnership. He practiced alone for a time, and in 1H65 came to Rochester, 
where he has ever since followed his profession. While in Medina he was a member 
of the Western New York Dental Society and also a delegate to the American Den- 
tal Association. November 6, 1861, Dr. Belding married Miss Amelia F. Sherwood, 
daughter of Gu}^ Sherwood, one of the pioneers of Orleans county and ex-president 
of the Orleans County Pioneer Association. They have three children; Bertha, Dr. 
F. Sherwood, and Florence. " Dr. Belding has had an experience as varied and 
successful as any dentist in the country, and his work as a practitioner of the dental 
art has always received the highest approval of a discriminating jniblic." 

Brickner, Max, born in Welbhausen, Bavaria, Germany, May 4, 1842, was edu- 
cated in his native country, and at the age of .seventeen came to America and located 
in Alabama, where he remained until the breaking out of the civil war. July i, 
1H61, he came to Rochester and entered a wholesale hat and cap store as salesman. 
In the fall of 1862 he engaged in the manufacture of cl<Jthing as amemberof the firm 
of G. 8: J. Wile, Cauffman &• Co., with which he has ever since been loiiiu-itid .iml 



302 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

which is now styled, the Wile & Brickner Company, Mr. Brickner beingits president 
and treasurer. This is one of the largest clothing manufacturing concerns in West- 
ern New York and is known throughout the country, and its almost unparalleled 
success is largely due to Mr. Brickner's management and enterprise. He is a busi- 
ness man of wide influence and one of the best representatives of the clothing in- 
dustry in the United States. He is president of the Rochester Clothiers' Exchange, 
which includes every clothing manufacturer in the city. He was president of the 
Chamber of Commerce in 1892-93, and is now vice-president of the Rochester & 
Irondequoit and the Rochester & Lake Ontario Railroad Companies, i)resident of 
the Photo Materials Company, a director in the Post-Express Printing Company, 
and the Rochester vSafe & Trust Deposit Company, and a member of the Board of 
Health of the city. 

Brown Brothers Company. — This concern was originally established in January, 
1885, under the firm name of Brown Brothers, comprising Charles J. and Robert C. 
Brown, natives of Rochester and sons of John S. Brown, who came here with his 
father, Robert, when a boy, from near Boston, Mass., .settling in the eastern part of 
the city. In 1890 the business having assumed extensive proportions, the present 
company was incorporated under the law^s of the State, with a paid up capital of 
8100,000. and with Charles J. Brown, president; Robert C. Brown, treasurer; and 
l^^dward C. Morris, secretary, all of whom still hold their respective position:^. They 
conduct one of the largest and most successful nursery establishments in the country, 
and have branch offices in Chicago, 111., and Toronto, Canada, with headquarters in 
Rochester. '1 heir American nurseries, comprising several hundred acres, are located 
in the town of Irondequoit, Monroe county, while the Canadian nurseries, containing 
between 200 and 300 acres, are situated in Ridgeville, Ontario. Their name and 
stock have reached the remotest parts of this country and even foreign lands. The 
company is also interested in the Herrick Seed Company, which was incorporated 
in 1894, and which had been operated for several years by Rufus L. Herrick, the 
present president. 

Bartholomay, William, was born in Rochester, and represents the fourth genera- 
tion of a family of brewers. His great-grandfather and father were manufacturers 
of lager, and he not only studied in his father's brewery, but also in Chicago and 
Milwaukee.- Returning to Rochester in 1874, he was made head brewer, but subse- 
quently supplemented the knowledge he had obtained by a course of practical 
studies in German breweries. Returning again to this city he became the brewer of 
tlie Bartholomay plant, and in 1889 was made general manager. The Bartholomay 
brewery, the largest concern of the kind in Western New York, was founded by 
Henry Bartholomay and Philip Will in 18.")3, the latter soon withdrew, but became a 
member of the Bartholomay Brewing Company upon its incorporation May 1, 1894. 
He died in 1887. On May 29, 1889, a company was incorporated with a capital of 
S'), 000, 000, and three breweries were consolidated under one general management, 
viz. : The Bartholomay, the Rochester (established in September, 1878), and the 
Genesee (established in June, 1878). The directors managing these vast interests are 
Frederick Cook, president; William Bartholomay, vice-president and general man- 
ager; Philip Bartholomay, treasurer;' Frederick (ioetzman, secretary; and Mathias 
Kondolf, Jacob (ierling, E. H. Satterlfee and Russel H. Monro. The combined 
capacity of the three lireweries is over 000,000 barrels of beer annually. 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 303 

Aldridge, George Washington, was born in Michigan Ctv, Ind.. December 28 
hs.,b, and ,s the oldest son of George W. and Virginia (De O^sev) Aldridge. natives 
respectively of Chazy, N. Y., and Cincinnati, Ohio. He finished his education at 
Lary Collegiate Seminary at Oakfield, N. Y., and the De Graff Military Institute in 
Rochester, and was associated with his father, a noted contracter and 'builder until 
the latter's death in 1877, when he continued the business on his own account In 
politics he has been especially active and prominent, and has filled manvof the more 
responsible positions within the gift of his party, the Republican. He was four times 
elected to the executive board, the first time in 188:5, and in March, 18fl4, was chosen 
mayor of the city, which he resigned on January 22, 1S95, to accept the appointment 
by Governor Morton of state superintendent of public works. Pie has been an active 
member of the Republican State Committee since 1887, and is also a member of 
the National Fire Association (of which he was for two terms vice-president), the 
Exempt Firemen's Association of Rochester (of which he has been president five 
years), the Rochester Club, the Rochester Whist Club, the Rochester Athletic Asso- 
ciation, the Rochester Historical Society, and the new Manha^ttan Club of New York 
city. He is a trustee of the Rochester Chamber of Commerce and of the Firemen's 
Home at Hudson, and was a leading candidate for lieutenant-governor at the Sara- 
toga Convention in 1894. 

Gardiner, Richard F., was born in Rochester, N. Y., November 6, 18(57. He was 
educated in the common schools, finishing at No. (j, and then learned the shoe- 
maker's trade. In the spring election of 1892 he was elected school commissioner 
and at the same time was appointed city overseer of the poor by the Common Coun- 
cil, resigning as school commissioner. He is now serving his .second term. 

Langslow, Fowler & Co. — This firm consists of H. A. Langslow, P. A. Fowler. 
and S. C. Lang.slow, and was established in 1886 for the business of manufacturing 
all kinds of rocking chairs. In 1887 they utilized 700,000 feet of hardwood lumber; 
since then they have used as high as 2,000 000 feet, and now employ about 200 haridi 
The firm, whose trade extends throughout the United States, is one of the most ex- 
tensive manufacturers in this State, and is a member of the Rochester Chamber of 
Commerce. Its members are all furniture men of long practical experience. H. A. 
Langslow has been continuously the financial manager, while the other partners are 
the traveling representatives. Mr. Langslow was born in England and has been 
engaged in the furniture business for twenty years. His father. Capt. Richard 
Langslow, made a journey through the Genesee country in 1817, and kept a journal 
of this and other trips in various parts of the United States. Mr. Langslow came to 
Rochester in 1860 from New York city, where he had lived eleven years. 

Roth, George F., was born in Rochester, N. Y., September 7, 1H.")6, and is a son of 
Frederick and Frederica Roth. He received his education in this city, where he has 
been prominently identified with business and other matters. He is a director of tli< 
Rochester Carting Company, a corporation doing the most extensive business of it.s 
character in this city. Mr. Roth is a member of the Monroe Club, the Kochester Whisl 
Club, the Rod and (run Club, the Masonic order, and the Chamber of Commerce. 

Brown, Henry H., was born in Austerlitz, Columbia county, N. Y., July 14, 1S41, 
was educated in the public schools, and came with his parents to Rochester. X. Y. 
Vi>v manv vears he was a farmer and market gardener, and for the past six years has 



304 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

been foremen of the men who are working on the new Seneca Park. January 24, 
18<i5, he married Elizabeth A. Thomas, of Rochester, and they have seven children: 
Henry T., Mary M. Ida E., Burt D., Lottie E., Elizabeth A., and Branch S. Mr. 
Brown's father, Gilbert, was born at the old home in 1815, and he married Malinda 
Spencer, of his native place, and they had four children: Henry B., Anson G., George 
D., and Lottie M. Mr. Brown died in 1881, and his wife, in 1891. Mrs. Brown's 
father, John W. Thomas, was born in Devonshire, England, and he married Mary 
Cox, by whom he had eleven children: John R., Samuel W. , William C, Joseph W., 
Henry W., David W., Charles W., Mary J. George W., Elizabeth A., and Robert W. 
The family came to the United States and located in Rochester in 1834. The ances- 
try of the family is English, Welsh, and Scotch. 

Potter, Everett ()., was born on a farm in the town of Le Ray, Jefferson county, 
N. Y., April 15, 1856. His grandfather, John Potter, settled there very early in this 
century, where Orris J., sou of John, and father of Everett O., was born in 1826. 
The Potter family in that section subsequently became prominent and influential in 
various parts of the United States, and many of its members are noted as wealthy, 
enterprising citizens. Everett O. Potter received a classical education at the Potts- 
dam (N. Y.) State Normal School, and after leaving that institution taught district 
school for two years. Reared on a farm be acquired not only a strong constitution, 
but habits of thrift and frugality which have characterized his life. In 1881 he came 
to Rochester without money, but with energy, per.severance and enterprise, and for 
one year was a clerk in a physician's office. Following this he was for five years 
chief bookkeeper for Michael Doyle & Co., and afterward for about two years acted 
as salesman for H. F. Drake & Co., coal dealers. In May, 1892, he associated him- 
self with the Miller Brewing Company, and six months later was elected its secre- 
tary, which position he has since held. In the fall of 1894 he was also made a mem- 
ber of the Board of I)irectors. He has been very successful; starting without a 
dollar, he has accumulated a competency. In the spring of 1894 he was elected sec- 
retary of the Ale Brewers Association of Rochester, a position he still holds. He is 
a member of Yonondio Lodge, No. 163, F. & A. M., and of Hamilton Chapter, R. 
A. M. November 3, 1886, he married Clara E. Hancock, of Rochestei , by whom he 
has two daughters: Fannie B. and Hazel (t. 

Perrin, William H., was born on the old homestead, April 21 1835. He was edu- 
cated in the district schools, Genesee Wesleyan Seminary at Lima, N. Y., and two 
years at their college. He is engaged in farming, surveying, and carries on a nur- 
sery. June 13, 1865, he married Marion J. Bailey, of Ludlow, Vt. She was a school 
teacher in the public schools of Rochester, N. Y. They have had five children : Car- 
rie, Norman, Roy, Jessie, and William, who died in infancy. Mr. Perrin is superin- 
tendent of the Irondequoit Central Sunday school. His father, Ransford, was born 
in Rehoboth, Mass., in 1798 and came to Western New York with his parents when 
a child, settling in Palmyra, Wayne county, where they died. He was then bound 
out and lived in Brighton for a while. He was educated in the schools of the day, 
afterward teaching school for several terms, then engaged in farming. He married 
Harriet Dinsmore, a daughter of one of the first settlers of the town, by whom he 
had eleven children: Gertrude, Abel, Maryetta, Mary A., Ransford. Esther, William 
H., Russell, Harriet, Edward, and Winfield. Mr. Perrin died July 23, 1892, and his 



FAMILY SKETCHES. nOri 

wife in September, 187;l Mrs. William H. Perrin's father. Ira Bailey, wa.s born ,„ 
Ludlow, Vt., September 25, 180G. He was educated in the district schools and en- 
gaged m teachmg for several terms, afterwards followed farming. He married 
Julia A. Martm, of Baltmiore, Vt., by whom he had two children: Marion J and 
Louisa A., who died in St. Paul, Minn.. May 16, 1894. Mr. Bailev died May :{() 1870 
and his wife February 24, 1885. The ancestry of the family is Scotch and English! 

Livingston, Henry C, was born near the homestead, .Mav 14. 1840. His education 
was obtained in the public schools and he has since been engaged in gardening and 
farming. March 27, 1865, he enlisted in Co. G, 8th Cavalry. N. Y. Vols, and was 
honorably discharged at the close of the war. August 12, 1868, he married Malinda 
Burnett, of the town of Webster. Mr. Livingston's father, Henry, was born on 
Navy Island, Canada, in 1809. He married Emily Dinsmore of this town. She was 
a member of one of the oldest families in the town. They had six children : Aurelia 
Monroe, Betsey A., Harriet, Silas, and Henry C. The latter died in 1846 and his 
wife December 18, 1891. Mrs. H. C. Livingston's father, Robert Burnett, was born 
in Phelps, Ontario county, N. Y., in 1814. He was educated in the schools of his 
day and was a farmer. He married Caroline Mesick. of Utica, N. Y., by whom he 
had ten children, five of whom grew to maturity Eliza, Samuel, Bradley A., Malinda. 
and Mary E. Mr. Burnett died in 1887 and his wife in 1882. Mr. Livingston is a 
member of Thomas Farr Post No. '.75, G. A. R., department of New York. He is 
of Scotch and Dutch descent. 

Miller, Ransom, was born in Brighton, on the land where the county house now 
stands, in 1819. He is a son of ICli Miller, who came from Connecticut in 1812 and 
had four sons. Ransom married at the age of twenty-one and settled in Gates, 
where he was engaged in farming until 1891, when he retired from active lousiness 
and moved to Rochester. By his energy and perseverance he has accumulated a 
large fortune, owning farms in Riga, Chili, and (iates. He has six sons, five of 
whom are living on farms their father has given to them. ^ 

Harris, Selah M., is the only son of the late Prof. Joseph Harris, and the grandson 
of James Harris who came from England to Gates in 1849, and settled on the farm 
where S. M. Harris now lives. He had three sons: Edward, Joseph and Thomas. 
Joseph Harris graduated from Cornell University, and was widely known as a writer. 
For several years he was editor of the Genesee Farmer, and also associate editor of 
the American Agriculturist. 

Renouf, William, was born in Gates, in 1842, son of Benjamin B. Renouf, who 
came from Troy, N. Y., and settled on the farm where his son now lives. He died, 
leaving one son, William, who married Hattie Luttindton, and they have three sons. 
Benjamin, William J., and Edward; also Hve daughters: Caroline E., Martha, Hat- 
tie, Grace and Alice. 

Robinson. William L., was born in Morristown, St. Lawrence county, June 16. 
1832. He was educated in the common schools, then learned the carpenter's and 
joiner's trade, which he followed until 1871. January 2S, 1854, he married Annie 
Harris, by whom he has five children: Willette B. , who married Eva Gale, of Erie 
county, by whom he has three children : Pearl, Gale, and Alice; Benjamin L., who 
married Mary Hyland, of Buffalo, by whom he has six children: William, Thomas, 



206 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY 

Edward, Joseph, Benjamin, and ; Dowaiuc E., who married Lottie Greshmier, 

of Chicago; Thomas J., who married Jennie Jiles, of Hatavia, by whom he has two 
children; Anna L. and Francis A. ; and Annette, who resides at home. Mr. Robin- 
son came to Charlotte in 1871, where he is engaged in contracting. His father, 
James, was born near Little Falls, Herkimer county, and married Lucy Goodwin, of 
Mornstown, by whom he had fourteen children, six of whom are now living: James, 
Lydia, Gardiner, William L. , Benjamin, and Reuben. Mr. James Robin.son died in 
1874. Mrs. Robinson's father, Thomas Harris, was born in Ireland in 1804, and 
married Bedelia McKehoe, by whom he had seven children. The family came to 
the United States in 1S46. He died in 1888 and his wife in 1882. 

Porter, Chauncy, was born in the town of Riga, Monroe county, N. Y., December 
9, 1858, and came to the town of Irondequoit, with his parents, in 1859. He was 
educated in the district schools, and in early life learned to be a market gardener. 
He married Susie E. Fisher, of Parma, by whom he has two children : Charles F. 
and Aura M. \Villiam Porter, father of Chauncy, was born in Cambridgeshire, Eng- 
land, July 8, 1837, and came to the United States, with his parents, when sixteen 
years of age. He married Phoebe Howard, of this town, formerly of England, by 
whom he had seven children: Chauncy, as above, Sarah, Mary, Charles, Hattie, 
Alfred, and Phoebe. Mr. Porter has ten acres of garden in a thorough state of cul- 
tivation. He is a member of Garden Tent, No. 365, K. O. T. M. Mrs. Porter's 
father, John Fisher, was born in England, in 1836. and came to the L^nited States 
when a young man, locating in the town of Greece. He married Mary Burling, of 
Greece, by whom he had five children: Susie E., as above, Clara L., Anna M., Will- 
iam J., and Raymond. 

Penney, Benjamin F., was born in Ellisburg, Jefferson county, N. Y., in 1822, and 
came with his parents to Rochester when he was ten years of age. He was educated 
in the public schools and for forty years has been engaged in various occupations, 
chiefly in the wood and coal business. He is now retired, residing in this town, near 
Sea Breeze. In 1842 he married Alvira, daughter of Henry Ordway, by whom he had 
five children: Francis A., Sanford A., Wilber G., George S., and Mary. Mrs. Pen- 
ney died in the fall of 1864, and for his second wife he married Emeritta, sister of his 
first W'ife, by whom he had one son, Irving A. His two older sons were soldiers in 
the late war, and the youngest of the two was wounded in the battle of Shiloh and 
was honorably discharged by General Grant when he was sixteen years old. Mr. 
Penney's father, Edward, was born in Jefferson county, N. Y., in 1794. He was an 
inventor by occupation, and was in the battle of Sackctt's Harbor, in the war of 1812. 
lie married Amanda Spencer of his native county, by whom he had nine children: 
Harriet, Daniel, Benjamin, Oliva, De Loss, Helen, Mary, Laura, and Caroline, Mr. 
Penney died in 1836 and his wife in 1856. Mrs. Penney's father, Henry Ordway, 
was born in the town of Bow, New Hampshire, in 1790. He married Harriet Walker, 
by whom he had nine children: Almira S., Mary J., Caroline, Lavina, William W., 
Emeline, EiVieritta, Cornelia, and one baby, who was not named. Both j^arents are 
dead. The family came to New York State and to Batavia in 1821. 

Pease, George M., was born in 1855, son of Charles and Ann Pease, who came 
from Yorkshire, England, and settled on the farm, now occupied by his son George 
M., in 1845. Charles Pease was killed by a horse in 1885, leaving two sons, George 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 3u7 

and Gilbert, and two daughters. Mr. Pease is a farmer and runs a dairy, as did his 
father, who furnished milk for the first milk peddlers in Rochester. Mr. Pease lias 
never married, but lives on the farm with his sister. 

Perry, William S., was born in Genesee county, N. Y., in 1838, son of Rowland 
Perry, who came from Vermont and settled in Genesee county among the early set- 
tlers, and was in the war of 1812. He died in 1872, leaving one son, William S., who 
remained on the homestead until 1870, when he came to Gates; he settled on the 
farm where he now lives in 1880, and engaged in farming. Mr. Perry has Ijeen 
poormaster of the town for five years, a position which he still holds. He married 
Eunice Raymond who died leaving one daughter. He married again. 

Smith, Jeremiah, was born in Hamlin in 1849. son of Warren and Matilda A. 
(Lockwood) Smith, and grandson of Abraham Smith, who settled in Gates in 1824, 
and died in 1828, where Mr. Smith has lived .since 1883. Mr. Smith, after attending 
the district school, took a course of study at the Cazenovia Seminary, and later at- 
tended the State Normal School at Oswego, N. Y. He taught school for several 
years, and in 1880 was elected superintendent of schools, which office he held until 
1890, when he resigned to take the principalship of No. 17 school of Rochester, which 
he still holds. 

Schwartz, Jacob F., was born in Germany in 18o6 and in 18(J2 came lo Chili with 
his father, who is a gardener. Jacob F. came to Gates in 1889 and bought a farm, 
carrying on market gardening. He married Mary Schafer, of Rochester, by whom 
he has two children; Fred C. and Pearl. 

vStatt, John, was born where he now lives in 1848. Adam J. Statt, his father, came 
from Germany in 1839, and settled on the farm now occupied by his son. He died 
in 1892, and left three sons: John, Joseph, and George A. John bought and re- 
mained on the homestead, and is a farmer and milkman. He married a daughter of 
Charles Ming of Rochester, and they have five sous: Theodore, Sylvanius, Josepli^ 
Charles and Clarence; also six daughters: Cora, Bertha, Rose, Lucy, Hilda, and 

Titus, Stephen B,, was born on the homestead in the town of Irondequoit, January 
22, 1849. He was educated in the public schools and has been a market gardener all 
his life. His father, George W. Titus, was born in Canada in 1820, and the family 
came to the United States in 1823, locating near Scottsville where he was educated 
in the public schools, and in 1834 they moved to the town of Irondequoit. He mar- 
ried Sophia Oyler, of London, England, by whom he had six children: Julia L., 
Stephen B., Frank C, Emma E., Jennie (deceased), ann Samuel (deceased). Mr. 
Titus died June 12, 1891. Mrs. Titus's father, Samuel P. Oyler, was born in Kent, 
England, in 1793, was educated in the public schools, after which he was postmaster 
in Burnett's distillery, England. In 1814 he married Sophia Ralson, of London. 
England, by whom he had eight children: John, Elizabeth, Samuel P., Charlotte. 
Sophia, Charles, Caroline and Eliza. The family came to the United Stales in 1834, 
and located first in Irondequoit and afterwards in Indiana. Stephen B. Titus has 
about twenty-two acres of garden in a high state of cultivation, and is in ])artnership 
with his brother, Frank C, under the firm name of S. S. Titus & Bro. 

Cramer, |. George, son of Henr^^ and Katherine Cramer, was born near Stra.sburg, 
Germany, January 30, 1833, and came to America with his parents when four months 



308 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTT. 

old, settling first in Buffalo, and in 1835 in Rochester. He attended No. 14 school 
in the latter city, then only a one room building on the corner of East Main and Scio 
streets, which gradually grew to a three room building before the move to a larger 
building and site on Scio street, with Mr. Vosburgh as principal, who held this posi- 
tion many long years. After school days he drifted into the printer's trade; was 
employed on the Daily American, under Lee, Mann & Co., later the Jerome Bros., 
of New York fame later on, also with A. Strong & Co., at the time of the burning of 
the Eagle Bank block, which wiped out their office completety, leaving nothing but 
the name of the paper for stock in trade. This led to the consolidation of the Dem- 
ocrat and American into one paper. Being imbued with a military spirit he became 
a member of the Rochester Life Guards, under Captain Fairchild, and served in the 
grades of non-commissioned officer until the breaking out of the civil war and 
the formation of the 54th Regt. X. Y. S. M., when he was elected captain 
of Co. H, and served as such until the call for 800,000 men in 1882, when 
the officers of Co. H tendered their services to the War Committee to raise 
a comjjany for the Monroe county regiment, which afterwards became the 
KlStli X. Y. Yols., Col. (). H. Palmer. In recruiting for this company a then 
novel idea was adopted for the first time, of putting up tents in front of the court- 
house for this purpose, which proved a perfect success, and was followed by others 
for years afterwards. As captain, Mr. Cramer and his men were mustered into ser- 
vice, August 16, 1862, as Co. D, 108th X. Y. Vols., at Camp Porter, near the rapids 
on the Genesee River. On the 19th they left Rochester for Washington by way of 
New York city ; arriving there they were quartered at the Park Barracks, the site of 
the present post-oftice building. Here they received their guns and "equipments and 
had their first drill under arms. While here Chester Dewey and other Rochesterians 
tendered the officers a banquet at the Astor House. Arriving at Washington, they 
went into camp at Fort Albany on the Virginia side, and two days later were trans- 
ferred to Fort Corcoran, opposite Georgetown, and assigned to duty in the forts on 
that line. The second battle of Bull Run and Lee"s invasion into Maryland changed 
the tide of affairs here, and they w-ere ordered to join the army under (General Mc- 
Clellan at Rockville, Md., where they were assigned to French's Division, Second 
Army Corps, and moved with the Army of the Potomac towards South Mountain, 
thence to Sharpsburg. and participated in the battle of Antietam on September IT, 
1862. Their position here was directly in front of the renowned " Bloody Lane " on 
the Roulette farm. Moving afterwards to Harper's Ferry, they camped at Bolivar 
Heights, and thence followed the fortunes of the Army of the Potomac through the 
battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg and back into Virginia. At 
Warrenton Captain Cramer was taken ill, and, with three officers and six men, was 
sent to Elmira, where he remained in draft service, and as acting quartermaster of 
the rebel prison on its opening there; also, in command of the barracks and other 
positions while there until the war closed and his regiment was mustered out. Re- 
turning to Rochester in 1865, and putting in a few months at his old home, he took 
the "oil fever" and spent one year in the oil regions m Pennsylvania in various 
pursuits. Returning to Rochester in 1866, he engaged in the manufacture of paper 
flour sacks, which at that time was an entirely new business. At first he met with 
much opposition, but persevered until he saw theru come into universal use. To this 
he has added other lines— grain liags, paper bags of all kinds, manilla paper, etc. 



FAMILY SKETCHES. 309 

He is a member of Valley Lodge No. 109, F. & A. M., since 18fi2. and is also a mem- 
ber of Hamilton Chapter No. 62, R. A. M., Doric Council No. 19, R. A. M. Monroe 
Commandery No. 12, K. T., the Rochester Yacht Club, Old Light Guard. George H 
Thomas Post No. 4, G. A. R., and the 108th Regt. Veterans N. Y. Vols. He was 
chairman of the committee of arrangements in placing the monument of the 108th 
Regt. at Gettysburg, and suggested the design for the same, which was accepted 
In 1856 he married a daughter of Richard Parker of Rochester, and they have three 
daughters: Lizzie, Anna, and Kittie. 

Reichel, Rev. George Valentine, was born in the city of Brooklyn on June fi, 18f5:i 
He is a son of Richard L. Reichel, a native of Cassel, Germany, who came to America 
in 1850 and settled in this country, where he soon became engaged with the Bureau 
of Emigration in New York city. George V. was educated in Boston and New 'i ork, 
and in 1883 entered the Auburn Theological Seminary, from which he was graduated 
with honor in 1886. In the same year he located at Dryden, N. Y., as pastor of the 
First Presbyterian church. In 1890 he received a call from the First church of Brock- 
port, where he now is, and where his efforts have met with much success. His 
church has a membership of over three hundred, great activity prevailing in all its 
departments of work. He is an entirely self-made man. Some years ago he received 
several honorary degrees in recognition of special attainments, and in 1895 received 
the degree of Ph.D. He is also a well-known writer on religious subjects and a con- 
tributor to our current literature. In 1895 he published a work on object teaching, 
entitled " What shall I Tell the Children?" In 1885 he mai-ried Miss May L. Arnett, 
of Auburn, N. Y., daughter of Silas H. Arnett. Their children are May. Haines, 
Paul and Christabel. Mrs. Reichel is a graduate of the Auburn Young Ladies' 
Institute, and is an efficient co-laborer with her husband in church work. 

Westun, John Porter, was born in Youngstown. Niagara county. New York, Octo. 
ber 25, 1854. His parents were of New England origin, and have always taken au 
active j^art in national and State affairs, as the following testifies. Mr. Weston i * 
the elde.st son of the late Sidney Owen and Evaline Hill Weston. Upon the out- 
break of the war in 1861 Mr. Weston's father enli.sted in Co. F, 151st Regiment, New 
York Volunteers, Colonel Emerson commanding, serving as sergeant (afterward 
being promoted to lieutenant) throughout the war, passing through some of the most 
exciting battles. His grandfather, William Andrews Weston, was in the war of 
1812, and six brothers of his great-grandfather's family were in the war of the Revo- 
lution. Edmund Weston, the progenitor of this branch of the family, who settled in 
Plymouth colony, came to Boston in the ship Elizabeth and Ann in the year 1635. 
In 1640 he had a grant from the colony of four acres of land at Stony Brook, Du.\- 
bury, and a tract of land near Green Harbor. From this time his name frequently 
appears in connection with town affairs and in various public matters. Mr. Weston 
received his education in his native county. His first venture was buying and 
shipping the famous Niagara county fruit to Canadian ports. 'I'he years 1872 and 
1873 were epent in Michigan and the West. In 1878 he entered the employ of E. iV 
B. Holmes, lumbermen of Buffalo, and on Marck 6, 1881, came to Rochester, when 
he engaged in the manufacture of ladies' hats under the lirm name of Whiting & 
Weston, afterwards changed to Weston & McDonald. In 1S85 he accepted a position 
in the office of the late Henry S. Hebard, and upon the latter's death. March 11, 



--A 



310 LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY. 

1890, he purchased the business, which was established by Zebulon Hebard, father of 
Henry S., in 1831. It is the oldest establishment of the kind in Western New York 
and has continued in the family for more than sixty-four years. Mr. Weston is an 
extensive dealer in mantels, tile, grates, and granite and marble monuments, etc., 
and does all kinds of contracting work in his line, marble floors, wainscoting, etc. 
He is a prominent member of the First Methodist Episcopal church, vice-president of 
its board of trustees, chairman of its building committee and first assistant super- 
intendent of its Sunday school. He is a member of Valley Lodge No. 109, F. A. M., 
and is also president of the Maple, Birch and Beech Flooring Company, which was 
incorporated in July, 1894. June 10, 1886, he married Emma J. Hebard, eldest 
daughter of Harriet M. and the late Henry S. Hebard. 



INDEX. 



■ Abend-Post und Beobachter," the, ll(j 
Academy of Science, Rochester, 179 
Achilles, Charles P., 80 

Henry L., 96 
Adams Basin, ■^24: 

Elbridge L., 189, 219; sketch of, 459 

Ida, ITB 

jr., John, Dr., 228 

Leonard, 206, 218 

Myron, Rev. Dr., 179, 182 

Olivers., 114 

R. A., Dr., 230 
Adlington, Joseph, 217 
Agricultural society, Monroe county, 92 
Aldridge, George W., 126, 188 
Allan, Ebenezer, 53-58, 104 
Allen, Charles M. , sketch of, 470 

Frederic P., 91, 186 

George E., 144 

Harvev, Dr., 224 

John, i26 

John G., 138 

Mary B., 135 

Ray, Rev., 181 

Samuel P., 114 
Ailing, D. C, Mrs., 170 

Joseph T., 174 

William, 156 

William, Mrs. 171 
Allis, Hubbard S., 109 
Allyn, Maria, 135 
Almshouse, Monroe countv, 90 
Almy, Allen, Dr., 223 
Amsden, Christopher T. , 126 
Amusements in Rochester, 182 et seq. 
Anderson, F. L., Rev. Dr., 181 

M. B., Dr., 155, 179 
Andrews, Atwater and Mumford bridge, 
the, 110 

E. R., 177 

Julius T., 154 

Samuel G., 80. 109, 126, 218 

William H., 96, 97 
Andros, Sir Edmund, 25 
Angevine, Edward, 127 
Angle, James L., 157, 206, 213 
Anstice, Henrv, Rev. Dr., 172, 18(l 

Josiah, 179 
Anthony, Susan B., 165 
Anti.sdale, Louis M.. 116 



Anti-slavery monuments, 145 
Architecture of the Iroquois, 8 
Armbruster, Julius, 98 
Armstrong, E. W., Dr., 226 
Arnold, Cieorge, 159 

Helen D., 16S 
Arrival of Rochester, Fitzhugh and Car 

roll, 105 
Art Exchange, the, Rochester, 174 
Arthur, F. P., Rev., 182 
Artillery, Eleventh, the, 101 

F'ourleenth, the. 101 
Ashby, William. 206 
Ashley, W. J., 186 
Asylum for insane poor, 91 
Athen;cuin and Mechanics' Institute, 

Rochester, 176 
Atkinson, H. F., 72, 183 

William, 91 
Atrocities committed in Sullivan's expe 

dition, 82 
Attorneys and judges, 442 et seq. 
Atwater. John, 178 
Atwood, H. F., 183 
Austin, E. C, 95 
Avery, George W., 94 

Babbitt, Charles R., 99 * 

Roswell, 206 
Babcock Alexander, 218 

Charles H., 186 
Backus, Frederick F., 80, 91, 228 
Bacon, Alice, 178 

Theodore, 179, 219; sketch of, 451 
Bahn, P. E., Rev., 181 
Bailey, James I)., 95 
Baker, A. L., 175, 180 

Charles S., 80, 95; sketch of, 458 

Jason, 79 
Baldwin, D. A., Dr.. 228. 329 

James, 77 
Balkam, William F., 114 
Bamber. O. S., Dr.. 280 
Bank of Monroe. 121 

of Rochester, 120 
Banks, first, 120 

of Rociiester, 185 et seq. 
Bar Association of Rochester, 2 IN 

of Monroe county, 205, 490 

roll of the Rochester, 487 



312 



INDEX. 



Barber, I). S., S)."") 

&• Benjamin, 117 
Barbour, C. A., Rev., 181 

N. H., Rev., 182 
Barhite, John A., sketch of, 463 
Barnard, Daniel D., 80 

Jehiel, 111 

William W., 18il 
Barnes, Charles R., 130 

J. 1)., 94 

J. Warren, 101 

William B., 1((1 
Barry, Geortje II., 2\s 

Patrick, 156, Hi!) 

William C, 92 
Barton, Benjamin, 10:} 

David R., 230 
Bates, W. W., 95 
Battery, Barnes's Ritle, 101 

Macks, 101 

Reynolds, the, 100 
Baur, W., Rev., 181 
Bayer, Wendel, 127 
Beach, Daniel Beers, sketch of, 456 

Frank N., 184 

Robert K., 116 
Beadle, Chauncey, Dr., 223 
Becker, E. P., 95 
Beckley, John N., sketch of, 457 
Beers, A. S., 127 

Bell telephone contention, the, 151 
Belknap, George, 189 
Bellows, Ira, 206 

M. A., Miss, 172 
Bemish, Samuel, 127 
Bender, Hastings R., 206 
Benedict, Abraham, 219 

Nehemiah W., 138 
Benjamin, C Smith, 115 

W. II., 99, 162 
Benton, George A., 217, 219 
Bentzien, John, Rev., 181 
" Beobachter am Genesee," the I 16 
Betz, Carl, 176 
Biegler, Joseph A., Dr., 230 
Big Tree, treatv at, 50 
Bishop, J. R., l'32 

Thomas E., 95 

William S., 80, 217 
Bissell, Josiah, 111, 143 

Josiah W., sketch of, 157 

T. D., Rev. Dr., 181 
Blackall, B. F., 130 
Bliss, James, 100 
Block, Alvin, sketch of, 477 
Bly, Myron T., sketch of, 464 
Bohrer, (Jeorge, 189 
Boodv, Azariah, 80 
Boon^ William, 189 



/ 



Booth, James E., 186 
Boppel, J. B., Rev., 181 
" Boston Ten Towns," the, 39 
Bowman, John P., 219 

William H , 217 
Boyd, A. J., 97 
Brackett, James, 126, 186 
Bradley, Samuel B., 223 
Bradstreet, Xehemiali C, 12(5 
Brandt, Louis W., 116 
Brayer, John F., 177 
Brewster, Henrv C, 80, 1S5 

Horace C, 184 

Simon L. , 185 
Brick, George, 101 

house, the first, 120 
Brickner, Max, 185, 189 
Bridge at Carthage, 73 
Bridges at Rochester, 109, 187 
Briggs, Charles W., tSUF-. / Q_ 

Franklin H., 89 

James E., sketch of, 468 

W. H., Dr., 226, 227 
Brighton, annexation of, to Rochester 
122 

churches of, 242 

first settlers of, 235 

population of, 238 

schools of, 244 

town officers of, 238 

village, 241 ; incorporation of, 243 
Brockport, 413 et seq. 

Business Men's Association, 417 

churches of, 422 

newspapers, 421 

Piano Co., 418 

shoe factory, 41 7 

State Normal School, 419 

the reaper industrv in, 415 
Brockway. Zenas R., 8S 
Bromlev, Isaac H., 115 

Pliny M., 81, 12«t 
Brooks, Ilervey, 211 

Hugh T., 211 

Micah, 211 
Brown, Charles C, 95 

Dyer D. S., 218 

D. D. S.,& Co., 114 

Francis, 111, 112 

Lebbeus, 94 

jr., Matthew, Dr., 7(), 77, 112, 120 

Selden S., sketch of, 476 

W. B., Dr., 228, 229 
Brownell, William, Dr., 230 

W. G., Dr., 230 
Bruff, Charles A., 183 
Brule, Etienne, the first while man in 

Monroe county, 1(> 
Buchan, Patrick C... 12:. 216 



[NDEX. 



313 



Buckley, Charles, Dr. , 227 

John, 97 
Buell, Eben N., 126 

George C, Mrs., 169 

Walter, 114 
Bunnell, Mark J., 95 
Burgess, E. B., 189 
Burke, Charles J., 1,^59 

E. J., 189 
Burlingame, James K., 218 
Burnham, Ebenezer, Dr., 223 
Burns, John D., sketch of, 484 
Burroughs, Daniel, 206 
Burtis, Charles H., 97 
Burton, H. P., 175 
Burying-grounds, early, m Rochester, 

138 et seq. 
Bush, Barzillai, Dr., 223 

John P., Mrs., 107 
Butler, George D., 144 

William, sketch of, 463 

William Mill, 115 
Butts, Isaac, 113 

Cale, Hume H., 117 
Callister, Prank A., 100 
Campbell, Charles S., 218 
Henry, 109 
James C, 81 
Joseph B., 218 
William P., 97 
Canals, 83 
Carnahan, George A., 217, 219; sketch 

of, 449 
Carpenter, Davis, 80, 224 
Carr, A. B., Dr., 230 
Carroll, Charles, Major, 105 
Howard, 9(i 
William, 126 
Carter, Rev., Dr., 156 

Robert, 114 
Carthage, 72, 82, 83 
Cartier, Jacques, 15 
Cartter, David K., 81 
Casey, James, 189 

J. W., Dr., 226 
Castle, Isaac, 72 

Castleman, John Warren, sketch of, 483 
Castleton, 72 

Catholic .schools in Rochester, 136 
Cavalry, Third, the, 98 
Eighth, the 99 
Twenty-first, the, 100 
Twenty-second, the, 100 
First Veteran, the, 100 
Cawthra, John, 95 
Cemeteries, Catholic, 139 et setj. 
Cemetery, Mt, Hope, 139 
Central Librarv,^he, Rochester, ITS 



Chace, Benjamin B., sketch of. 482 
Chadsey, John H., .sketch of, 479 
Chaffee, D. J., Dr., 229 
Chamber of Commerce, the, 184 
Chamberlain, Octavius P., 218 

Phiietus, sketch of, 460 
Chamberlin, James R., 99 

J. R.,Mrs., 172 
Champlain, Samuel de, 15 
Champlin, M. H., 206 
Chapin. Israel, 53, 54 

Moses, 121, 136, 169, 216 
Theodore, 127 
Chapman, Alonzo, 21S 

James, 99 
Charlevoi.x, Pather, travels of, 26 
Charlotte, 279 et see]. 

churches of, 2h1 

defense of, in the war of 1812, 73 et 
seq. 

incorporation of, 280 

schools of, 283 
Charter of Rochester, changes in, 12m 
Charters, conflicting, 36 et seq. 
Chase, Benjamin E., 185, 186 

William P., 217 
Chateaubriand's "Voyage en Amcric|ue," 

extract from, 65 
Chanmonot, F'ather, 17 
Cheney, A. Cole, 144 
Chester, Thomas, Mrs., 16s 
Chichester, Isaac, Dr., 223 
Child, Jonathan, 126, 136, 140, 210, 211 
Children's Aid Society, Rochester, 17:! 
Child s, TTrnbthy, 80, 119, 122, 217 
Chili, churches of, 251 

first settlers of, 246 

population of, 249 

schools of, 2,53 

Seminary, 251 

town officers of 24H 
Chipman, Lemuel, 70 
Cholera, 125 
Chumasero, John T., 96 

John C, 216 
Church. Charles. Mrs., 171 

Frederick P. . sketch of, 476 

Home, the, Rochester, 172 

organizations, first, in Rochester, 
117 ct seq. 

Sanford E.. 206,207, 213 

William. 101 
Churches of Brighton. 242 

of Brockporl, 422 

of Charlotte, 281 

of Chili, 251 

of Churchville, 393 

of Fairport, 368 

of tiates. 267 



314 



INDEX. 



Churcbes of Greece, 275 

of Hamlin, 288 

of Henrietta, 297 

of Honeoye Falls, 31? 

of Mendon, ;518 

of Mum ford, 440 

of Ugden, ;}2S) 

of Parma, :M4, :}4(i, :349 

of Pen field, 356 

of Pittsford, 883 

of Rochester, 180 ct seq 

of Rush, 400 

of Scottsville, 439 

of Spencerport, 32S 

of Sweden, 411 

(jf \Vel)Ster, 429 
Churchill, Frederick L., 1S3 
Churchville, 391 

churches of, 393 
City government of Rochester, 18S et 

seq. 
Civil war, the, 145 
Clans, Ii'oquois, 2 
Clark, Charles H., 126 

George R., 172 

IraC, 97 

Mary J., 172 

W. J., 97, 98 
Clarke, Freeman, 80, 114, 142 
Clarkson, churches of, 259 

Center, 258 

first settlers of, 254 

population of, 258 

schools of, 259 

town officers of, 257 

village, 258 

George G., 90, 126 
Cleary, James P., 189 

Joseph P., 102 
Clifton, 250 
Clubs, 182 et seq. 
Cobb. F. D. H., sketch of, 485 

Gideon, 72 

jr., John, Dr., 223 

Lyman, 135 

William, 111 
Cochrane, Joseph, 218 
Coglan, Thomas, 95 

Cogswell, William F., 206, 219; sketch of, 
451 

William F., Mrs., 173 
Cohn, Herman C, 183 
Coit, Charles P., Rev. Dr., ISO 
Colby, E. C, Prof., 177 
Cole, George W., 99 
Coleman, Anson, Dr., 223 
Collectors of the port of Charlotte, 81 
Collins, A. vS., 179 

Charles S., 115, 1 10 



Collins, T. B., Dr., 226 
Colvin, Isaac, 117 

Commissioners, app(jintment of, to settle 
confiicting territorial claims of New 
York and Massachu.setts, 38 
Compson, Hart well B., 99 
Comstock, O. C, Rev. Dr., lis 
Conant, T. J., Dr., 176 
Confederacv, formation of the Iroquois, 
3 

the Iroquois, divided allegiance of 
the, during the Revolution, 30 
Congressional districts, 80 
Connor, W. W., 95 
Conquests of the Iroquois, 12 
Conrad, C. N., Rev., 181 
Cook, Frederick, 91, 186 

Henry, 114 
Cooke, Martin W., 219; sketch of, 453 
Cooley, E. M., 95 
Cooper, A. Galley, 95 

George G., 113, 156 
Corinthian hall, 133 
Cornell, Silas, 139, 169 
Corning, Clarence A., 101 
Council of the Long House, the, 3 
Counties of the State, the original twelve, 

75 
Country club, the, 183 
County clerks, 218 

judges, 216 

treasurers, 79 
Court of Appeals, 197 

Chancery, 200 

Common Pleas, the old, 203 

County, 201 

Municipal of Rochester, 204 

Special Sessions, 204 

Supreme, 198 

Supreme, general terms of the, 199 

Surrogate's, 203 
Court-houses, 86 et seq. 
Courts, evolution of the, 196 

organization of, in Monroe coimty, 
205 
Cowles, James, 127 
Coxe, Arthur Cleveland, 179 
Craig, Oscar, 162 

Mrs. Oscar, 168 
Cramer, J. G., 96, 97 
Crandall, Philander M., 81 
Crapsey, A. 8., Rev., 180 
Crennell, William IL, 81, 97 
Crittenden, George S. , 115 

T. F., 92 
Cronise, Adelbert, 219 
Crooks, Samuel J., 99, 100 
Crowley, Bartholomew, 97 
Culver, Oliver, 82 



INDEX. 



315 



Cuming, Francis H., Rev., 117 
Cumniings, Scott, sketch of, 481 
Curran, Richard, 126, 188 
Curtis, Eugene T., 185 

George S., 101 

Joseph, 113 

P. H., 178 
Cutler, A. K., 96 

James G., 185 

* Danby, Augustine G., 118 
Dane, Jesse, 20(5 

Danforth, George F., 207; sketch of, 442 
Daniels, Henry C, 115 

Henry G., 219 
Darling, George, 168 
Dawson, George, 118, 211 
Davis, Benjamin F., 99 
George P., 101 
John A.. 127 
jr., Noah, 80 
Thomas, 95 
Davison, Christopher C, 217 

J. M., 180 
Davy, Benton H., 318 

John M., 80, 81, 216, 217; sketch of, 
442 
Day, EH, Dr., 224 

Jefferson, Dr., 224 
Dayfoot, Herbert M., Dr., 162 
Dayton, Asa, 72 
Dean, H. W., E)r., 89, 226, 227 
Henry C, 98 

Theodore S., sketch of, 485 
Decker, J. D., 97 
Delano, Mortimer F., 206, 217 
De Land & Co. Chemical Works, 371 
Deming, George N., 80 
Dennis. J. H., Rev., 173, 180 
Denonville, Marquis de, 21-24 
De Regge, Hippolyte, Rev., 181 
Descent, Iroquois line of, 4 
Desmond, John, 219 
Deverell, Joseph, 96 
Dewey, Chester, Dr., 185, 175 
Chester P., 115 
D. M., 154 
D. M., Mrs., 172 
W. S., Mrs., 172 
Dickey, David, Dea., 157 
Dickinson, Pomerov P., 189 
Dinkev. John F., 174 
Dinehart, Miss, 169 
Directory, first, of Rochester, 123 
District attornevs, 217 
Dodge. C. W.. 175, 180 
Doolittle, Arabella, 136 
G., 176 
M. A., Miss, 172 



Doty, W. D'Orville. Rev. Dr., 180 
Douglass, Frederick, sketch of 99. 164 
Dowling, KatherineJ., 178 

Patrick J., 97 
Downs, Judson, 99 
Drake, I'red ICbert, sketch of, 475 

John X., sketch of, 4S8 
Draper, George B. , ]H!) 
Drummoud, John X., 127 
Dryer, R. K., 186 
Dugan, Christopher, 104 
Duncan, Alexander, 121 
Durand, Henry Strong, Dr., 226 

John E., 178 
Durfee, Daniel, Dr., 223 
Dutch riglits of conquest, 37 

East Brighton, 245 

Hamlin, 288 

Henrietta, 296 

Rush, 400 
Eastman. J. A., 127, 155 
Edson, Freeman, Dr., 22? 
Elliot, George W., 156, 1H7 
Ellis, S. A., 90. 178 
Ellwanger, George, 179 

Ge(jrge H., 115 
Elwood, Alfred, 97 

Frank W., 180; sketch of, 473,/ 

Isaac R., 127; sketch of. 473 

John B., Dr., 107, 126, 223, 230 
Ely, Alfred, SO, 159 

Alfred, Mrs., 170 

Elisha, 123. 217, 218 

Ehsha D., 211 

George H., Mrs., 170 « 

William S., 96 

W. A., Rev. Dr., 181 

W. W.. Dr., 227 
Emerv, Isaac .S. , 156 
Emerson, William X., SO, 81, 98 
Engineers, Fiftieth, the, 107 
English claims to Iroquois territorv. 21 

efforts to secure grants of land from 
the Indians. 27 
Enos. B. Frank. 127. 189 
Erie canal, S8 et seq. 
opening of. 118 
Ernst. Charles B., 188; sketch of, 550 

Louis, 97 
Eureka club, the. 183 
Evans, Charles, Rev., 180 

Daniel, 140 
Explorers, the first, 15 

Failing, William, 141 
Fairchild, H. L.. Prof.. I7(t, 1S(» 

Harrison S.. 96. 102 
Fairport, 360 et seq. 



316 



INDEX. 



Fairport, churches of, 368 

"Herald," the, 371 
Farley, Marv A., 173 

Porter, 97 
Farrar, Lysander, 80 
F'arron, Owen, Rev., 181 
Fatzer, Solomon, 97 
Fellows, Henry, 77 
Female Charitable Society, the, 167 
Fenn, Albert ()., 186 

Charles H., 96 
Fenner, E. B., Mrs., 169 

Edward S. , 217 
Field, Joseph, 126. 141 
Filon, Michael, 126, 16(1 
Finucane, Thomas W., 189 
Fire alarm telegraph of Rochester, 130 

department, beginnings of Roches- 
ter, 124 

department of Rochester, 129 
Fires, notable, in Rochester, 101 
Firemen's Benevolent association, 130 
Fish, Henry L., 126, 166 

lames M., 126 

Josiah, 70, 104 
Fisher, George W., 165 

Jacob, 100 

William, 148 
Fisk, W. H. H. Dr., 229 
Fitch, Charles E., 114 
Fitzhugh, WiHiam, Col., 105 
Fitz Simmons, Charles, 98-100, 102 
Fleckenstein, George Y., sketch of, 481 

Valentine, ]09,"l27 
Floods, disastrous, 148 
Foote, Homer, 95 

Israel, Rev. Dr., 172 

Nathaniel 219; sketch of, 452 
Forbes, George W., 175 
Force, George B., 96 

Isaiah F., 97 
Ford, Charles P., 185 
Forsyth, George D. , 217 

Daniel W., sketch of, 470 
Fort des vSables, erection of, by the 

French, 26 
Fowler, William J., 115 
Fox sisters, the, 147 et seq. 
"Frankfort," 111 
Free Academy, Rochester, 137 
Fremin, Father, 17-19 
French and English jealousy, 21 

claims to Iroquois territory, 21 

visitors, noted, 67 

Charles D., Rev., 169 

Porter M.. 219 
Friederich tV Sous, 88 
Fritzsche, Frank, 189 
Frost, Edward A., 218 



Frost, Sarah, Mrs., 168 
Fuller, Jerome, 80, 206, 216 

E. P., 96 
Fulton, Levi S., 88, 89 

Galvin, John, 97 

Gannagaro, 23 

Gannett. William C, Rev., 165, 181 

Garbutt, John, 77 

Gardiner, Addison, sketch of , 207 

Gardner, C. B., Rev. Dr., 180 

Richard, 189 
Garland, 259 

Garlock, James S., sketch of, 463 
Gamier, Father, 18, 19 
Garrard, Jephthah, 99 
Gates, churches of, 267 

first settlers of, 262 

population of, 264 

schools of, 268 

town officers of. 265 
Gay, Horace, 217 
Genesee vallev canal, 85 

club, the, '182 
Genzmer, G. A., Rev., 176, 182 
Geology of Monroe county, 192 et seq. 
Gibbard, Isaac, 89 
Gibbons, Washington, 127 
Gibbs, Everett 0^ sketch of, 477 

Orrin E., Dr., 217,233 
Gibson, Law S., 127 
Gilbert, E. S., 95 

Jasper W., 127, 217 
(iildersleeve, William, Dr., 223 
Gillette, Berkley, Dr., 223 

Willis K., sketch of, 476 
Gilmore, J. H., 175 
Gleason, Sheppard, 95 
Gleeson, William, Rev., 181 
Godlev, William, 100 
-Goff, H. H., 89 
Goodwin, William F., 101 
Gordon, John H., 164 
Gorham, Nathaniel, 42 
Gosnell, James, Rev., 181 
,Goss, Ephraim, 80, 206, 218 
Gould, E. P., 95 

Jacob, 81, 126 

Seward F., 101 
Graebe, William, 96 
Graham, Ilosmer, Dr., 224 

James S., 95, 100 

M. E., Dr., 230 
(irand Army of the Republic, 102 
Granger, Eli, 70 

Zadock, 68 
Grant, R. C, Dr., 230 
Grantsynn, William S., 97, 98 
Graves, William, 218 



INDEX. 



317 



Gray, Abijah C, 98 
Greece, churches of, 275 

first settlers of, 270 

population of, 273 

schools of, 278 

town officers of, 273 
Green, Charles A., 2o0 

James D., Rev., US 

Nursery company, 250 

Seth, 154 
Greene, C. H., Dr., 229 
Greenhalgh, Wentworth, 8 
Greenleaf, Halbert S., 80 

H. S., Mrs., 177 
Gregory, David, Dr., 223 

Isaac M., 115 

John, 99 
Gregg, Henry W., 127, 1()(), 219 
Greig, Sherman, 99 
Grosvenor, O. D., 91 
Guernsey, James A., 206 

Hadley, Alfred B., 97 
Hahnemann Ho.spital, 232 
Hahnemannian Society, Rochester, 
Haight, Fletcher M., 112 
Hale, William B., 219 
Halsev, William L., Mrs., 172 
Hall, Elizabeth P., 105 

John, 92 

Theodore F., 97 
HaLstead, Reuben H., 97 
Hamilton, Adelbert, 175 

E. F., 95 

John B., 80 

Lewis, 97 

T. B , 127 
Hamlin Center, 287 

churches of, 288 

first settlers of, 284 

minor villages in, 288 

population of, 288 

schools of, 289 

town officers of, 287 
Handsome Lake, 6 
Hanford's Landing, 69 
Hannan, John W., 218 
Harford. Charles, 106 
Hargather, M. J., Rev., 181 
Harlan, Richard D., Rev., ISO 
Harmon, Benjamin F. , 97 

Ezekiel, Dr.. 223 
Harrar, George E., Dr., 224 
Harris, Albert H., 219 

Benjamin F., 95 

Edward, 1S(> 

George B., 127 

George H., 9, 160 

James, 80 



IHl 



186 



Harris. Joseph, 159 

Joseph S., 96 
Hart, E. Kirke, 80 

E. P., Rev., 90, 181 

George, 2!8 

Roswell, 80 
Hartman, Ernst, Rev., 
Haskell, Aretas, 77 
Haven, Albert R., 114 
Havens, James S., 219 
Hawks, Haywood, 182, 

Thomas, 126 
Hawley, Jes.se, 81, 83 
Havden, Charles J., 126 

'John C, 189 
Hayes, A. W., Rev., ISl 
Hays, David, .sketch of, 454 
Hebard, Charles W., 115 

Henry S., 109, 155 
Hebing, Henry, 81 
Hedding, M. E., Rev., 181 
Hedges, Job C, 95, 101, 102 
Helmkanip, J. F. W., Rev., 181 
Hencher, William, 67 
229 Heuckcll, Emil, Rev., 181 

Hendrick, Thomas A., Rev., 173. IMl 
Hennepin, Father, 20 
Henrietta, churches of, 297 

first settlers of, 291 

population of, 294 

schools of, 298 

town officers of, 293 
Henry, John D., Dr., 224 
Hermance, Ale.xander C. , Dr., 230 

S. George, Dr., 230 
Herriman, Wallace J., Dr., 227 
Heveron, John J., 189 
Hickey, Thomas, Rev., 181 
High school, the old, 137 
Hiidreth, Samuel, 71 
Hill, Charles E., 95 

Charles J.. 120, 124, 126, 218 

David Jayne, 175, 17i» 

David L., 114 

Henrv M., sketch of, 4N3 
Hills, Isaac, 89, 126, 230 
Hincklev. Wat.son S., 206 
Hines, W. J.. 95 

Historical Society, Rochester, 180 
Hoard, Volnev A., Dr., 230 
Hobble, I. S.,'178 
Hodge, John, 87 
Hodgson, Thomas C, 218 
Hoekstra Jacob A., 115. 189 
Hogoboom, H. S. , 96 
Holbrook, Daniel, 178 
Holland Land company, the. 4i» 
HoUev, Myron, 1-15 
Ilollistcr, 'Monroe M.. 97 



318 



INDEX. 



Holmes, IClias B., 80, 206 

Holtou Janna, Dr., 223 

Home for the Friendless, Rochester, 171 

of Industry. Rochester, 172 
Homicopathic Medical Society of Monroe 
County, 22S 

list of officers and members of, 229 
Hone, Frank J., sketch of, 46^3 
Honeoye Falls, ;309 et seq. 

churches of, 312 

"Times," 312 
Hooker, Bertha, 173 
Hopkins. Caleb, 81 

Ivdith, 173 

John Hampden, sketch of, 450 

J. H.. Mrs., 172 
Hospital, Hahnemann, 232 

Rochester City, 230 

Rochester Hom<jeopathic, 232 

St. Mary's, 231 
Hospitals, Rochester, 171 
Houck, (Tcorge H., 81 
House, Flisha, Rev., 117 
Hovey, B. L., Dr., 220 
Howard, Eugene H., Dr., 91, 227 

S. P., 97' 

William R., Dr , 227 
Howe, John B., 116 
Hoyt, David, 186 

Henry B., 97 

& Porter, 113 
Hubbard, W. C, Rev., 87, 180 
Hubbell, Walter S., 219; sketch of, 454 
Hughes, Michael, 136 
Hulett, Pierson B., 216; sketch of, 449 
Humane Society, the, Rochester, 173 
Humphrey, George H., 173; .sketch of, 
455 

Harvey, 210; sketch of, 444 
Ilunn, Jo.seph S., 219 
Hunt, Daniel T., 109, 115, 179 
Huntington, Andrew, Dr., 224 

H. F., 187 

II. F., Mrs., 171 
Hurd, E. H., Dr., 157,228 
Husband, Thomas H., 2S() 
lluson, Calvin, 217 
Hutchinson, F. B. , 97 
Ilutchins, Stephen C. 114 
Ilutchi.son, James, 95 
Hutton, A. S., Rev. Dr., 103 
Hyland, jr., (ieorge, 95 

Imo, Peter, 98 

Indian nomenclature, lOetseq. 

title, extinguishment of, by Phelps 

& (iorham, 44 
traditions, 2 
Indians, fraud practiced ujxju, l)y Phelps 
and others, 45 et seq. 



Industrial .School, Rochester 170 
Infantry, Thirteenth, the, 94 

Twenty-fifth, the, 95 

Twenty- sixth, the, 95 

Twenty-seventh, the, 95 

Twenty-eighth, the, 90 

Thirty-third, the, 90 

Eighty-ninth, the, 90 

(3ne Hundred and Fifth, the, 90 

One Hundred and Eighth, the, 90 

One Hundred and Fortieth, the, 97 

One Hundred and Fifty first, 98 
Infants' Summer Hospital, Rochester 

171 
Ingersoll, J. M., 184 
Inhabitants, the earliest, 1 
Irondequoit, lirst settlers of, 300 

population of, 303 

schools of, 304 

town officers of, 303 
Iroquois architecture, 8 

attitude of the, during the Revolu- 
tion, 29 et seq. 

cession of lands to tiie English in 
1701, 25 

claus of the, 2 

coming of the, 2 

confederacy, population of the, 13 

line of descent, 4 

the " new religion " of the, 

policy towards the contending na- 
tions, 22 

religious beliefs of the. 5 

rights of women among the, 4 

territory, French and Engli.sh claims 
to, 21 

territory occupied l)y the, 14 

trails, 9 

treatment of captives by the, 13 

tribal divisions of the, 3 

victories of the, 12 

Jack, Lewis II., sketch of, 407 

Jails, 80 

James, Thomas, Rev., 157 

William, Rev., 118 
Jayne, Frank A., 189 
Jemison, Mary, 58-01 
Jennings, (iilbert S., 95 

John S., 100 

P. W., 127 
Jerome, Lawrence R., 114 

Leonard W., 114 
Jesuit missions, establishment of, 10 

Relations," the, 16 
Jewell, John O., 97 
Jewett, (ribbons, 77 

Simeon B., 200 217; skctcli of, 445 
Jewish temple, dedication of, 101 
John.son, F:iisha, 109, 112, 120, 140, 148 



INDEX. 



319 



[ohnston, W. W.. Dr., 230 
Jones, C. A., 141 

Jonas, Dr., 22(i 

Reuben D., 115, 178 

William Martin, sketch of, 474^ 
[ordan, Thomas, 95 
Joy, Walter S., 91) 
judges and attorneys, 442 et sen. 
Judson, Alfred, 127' 

Silas, 77 

Kalbfleisch, E. A., 1S9 

Karnes, Abram, 12(i 

Katz, A. J., 185 

Kearney, Patrick, 2o() 

Keeler, Charles A., sketch of, 407 -^'^ 

Rufus, 126 
Keenan, Edward Arthur, sketch of, 478 
Kelly, Claude, Rev., 181 

James H., 81 

Patrick, Rev., 118 
Kelsey, Ale.xander, Dr., 22:5 
Kempshall, Thomas, 80, 12(5 
Kendrick, Asahel C, 175 

Ryland, 175 
Kennedy, John B., 97 
Kidd, William, 79 
Kiernan, J. P., Rev., 181 
Kimball, William S., 166, 185 
King, Gideon, 68 

Mary B. Allen, Mrs., KiO 

Moses, 132 
King's Landing, 69 
Kingsley, H. A., 92 
Kinnie, E. O., 101 
Kmnev, John F., 217, 219 
Kirby,' Micajah W., 80 
Kirkland, Samuel, Rev., :!() 
Kirkpatrick, O. M., Rev., 182 
Kislingbury, F. F. , Lieut., 150 
Klein, Charles P., 97 
Knickerbocker, Derrick, Dr., 223 
Knox, James H., 97 
Koenig", ()., Rev., 181 
Kuborn, Mathias, Rev., 181 
Kuichling, Emil, 187 

Sarah H., 89 
Kurtz, W. L., 116 

Lacy, John T.. 218 

La grippe, 155, 156 

Lake navigation, 82 et sec). 

Lamb, George W. , sketch of, 478 

Land claims, conflicting, 36 et .seq. 

sales, early, on the site of Rochester, 
107 et seq. 

transfers of, from Oliver Phelps to 
Chapin and Allan, 53 et .seq. 
Landsbcrg, Max, Rev. Dr.. 170, 179, 182 



Lane, George H., 114 
Laney, C. C., 187 
Lange, John, Rev., 181 
Langworthy, A. J., 127 

H. H., Dr.. 148, 154, 226, 227 

Harvey P., 126 

Lyman B., 81, 92 
Lanigan, George T., 115 
Lantern works fire, the. 153 
La Salle, visit of, to the Senecas, 20 
Lathrop, W. E., 126 
Latta, Samuel, 81 
Lattimore, S. A., 90, 175, 179 
Lawrence, H. E., 175 
Lavvrenzis, Dietrich, Rev., 181 
Leary, J. J., Rev., 181 
■ Le Boutillier, G. T., Rev.. 181 
Lee, Samuel D., 115 
Deeper, Joseph M., 97 
" Lessees," the, 40, 44 
Lester, Ralph, 230 

Robert J., 98 
Lewis, George, Dr., 22s 

George W., 94, 99 

Mertou E , 126. 188; sketch of, 466 
Leyden, Maurice, 99, 218 
Lindsay, Peter, Rev., 180 
Literary clubs of Rochester, 1H4 
Little, Charles. 189 

David, Dr., 94, 95, 226, 22: 

Elijah, 77 

Julia, 170 

Seel ye W., Dr., 169 
Livingston, James K., si, 121. Kid. -JIn 
Locke, A. J., 67 
Loder. Edwin A., 100 
Lodge, Clarence V., 91 
Lomb, Henry, 89, 95. 177 
Long House, the council of the. 3 
Loomas, Joseph. Dr., 223 
Loomis, Isaac, 163 
Lord, Frank N., 127 

Jarvis, 80 

M. L., Dr., 91, 98 
Lowe, Samuel H.. 115 
Luckey, Jo.seph L., 117 
Ludolph, Andrew, sketch of, 47"J 
Lusk, John, 235 
Lusks, settlement of the, 63, (i( 
Lutes, John, 126 
Lynch, J. R.. Rev., 181 
Lynn, John D., 216. 219 

McAlpine, H. R., 178 
McCallum, D. C, 89, 148 
McClintock, |. V., 185, 189 
McConnell. A. K., 101 

D. W.. 101 
McCormick, Patrick, Rev., lis 



1 



320 



INDEX. 



McCort, James H., Dr., 226 
McElhinney, J. M., Rev., 180 
McGarry, P^dward, 145 
jMcCilachlin, Ambrose, 12(i 
McGonesjal, George E.,91 
McGraw'; Hugh. 'JT 
McKay, L., 220 
McKinnon, W. R., 95 
McKnight, William, 79 
McLeod, Alexander H., 97 
McMahon, John, 102 
McMannis, James T. , 127 
McxMullen, John, 127 

Patrick A., 97 
McNab, Anson Stuart, sketch cf, 459 
McNaughton, Daniel. 179 

Donald, 80, 160; sketch of, 485 

Henry D., 218 
McPhail, Percy R., 186 
McQuaid, Bernard J., Rev. Dr., 181 
McSweeney, Edward, 189 
Mc\'ean, Alexander, 80 
McWhorter. Alexander, 88 
Mabbett, Alonzo L., 17S, 218 
Machin, Charles, 97 
Mack, Albert G., 101 

Daniel. 111. 124 

Isaac F., 178 
Macomber, Francis A., 160, 214 

F. S., 189, 219 
Maginnis. J. S., Dr., 176 
Mail service, early, 71 
Maine, Henry C, 114 
Makk, Edward H., Dr.. 116 
Malcolm, James, 127, 189 
Mandeville, Lucius M., 127 
Mann, Abram S., 189 

Alexander, 114 

N. M., Rev., 17:3 
Marble, Daniel, Dr., 224 
Markell, William L., 99 
Marks, John, 95 
Marsh, Darius A., sketch of, 465 

Ednor A., sketch of, 468 
Marshall, E. F., 126 

E. G., 95, 101, 102 
Martin, Edw^ard, 95 

John W., 81 
Martindale, John H., 102 
Marvin, (ieorge, Dr., 223 
Massachusetts, a conspiracy to defraud, 
49 et seq. 

and New York, contention between, 
86 et seq. 

and \ew York, settlement of conflict- 
ing claims of, ;}9 
Mastick,'^John, 206 
Mathews, M. M., Dr., 228. 229 

Vincent, Gen., 91, 119, 126, 217 



Maude, John, extract from the journal 

of, 69 
Maurer, Edward W. , sketch of, 472 
Maxwell, Hugh, Col., 46 
Meade, Winslow M., 189 
Medberv, Joseph, 112 

J., & Co., 113 
Medical science, dawnings of, 221 

Society, Monroe County, 223 

list of officers and members of, 

227 
list of presidents of, 225 
list of present members of, 225 

Societ}', Rochester, 226 
Mendon Center, 314 

churches of, 313 

first settlers of, 306 

schools of, 314 

town officers of, 308 

village, 3:3 
Menzie, George L., 98 

Herbert J., sketch of, 481 
Mercer, William L., 186 
Merrill, Henry P., 101 
Messmer (ieorge, 189 
Mexican war, the, 145 
Meyer, August, 97 
Michaels, Henry, 162 

Joseph, 183 
Millard, J. W., Rev., 181 

Nelson, Rev. Dr., 180 
Miller, C. H. H., Dr., 226 

Joseph, Rev., 181 

Samuel, 80 

W. J., Rev., 181 
Mills, the Allan, 104 

the first, 52, 54 
" Mill-Yard " tract, the, 44 et seq. 
Missums among the Senecas, 18 et seq. 

Jesuit, establishment of, 16 
Mitchell, W. G., 186 
Mix. John, 99 

Simon H., 99 
Mixer, A. H., 91, 175 
Monroe Academy at Henrietta, 296 
Monroe Count}' Agricultural society, 92 

almshouse, 90 

assessed valuation and taxes of, 92 

bar, 205, 490 

Bible .society, 91 

evolution of, 76 et set[. 

first church in, 70 

first county buildings of, 78 

first deed recorded in, 81 

first events in, 64 

fir.st general election in, 70 

first mail service in, 71 

first recorded deed in, (i2 

first school in, 70 



INDEX. 



;r.'i 



Monroe, first town meeting in, 70 
first white inhabitant of, 52 
in the Rebelhon, 93 et seq. 
insane poor asylum, 91 
"Mail," the, 371 
Medical society, 323 

list of present members of, 225 
list of present officers of, 226 
list of presidents of, 225 
meeting of the first bord of supervis- 
ors of, 77 
organization of the courts of, 205 
Penitentiary, 88 
population of, 79 

representatives m Congress from, 80 
Sharpshooters, 98 
State senators from, 80 
"Monroe Republican," the, 113 
Montgomery, Harvev, 120 
H. F., Dr., 226 ' 
W. R., 127 
Moore, Caleb, 100, 218 

E. M., Dr., 179, 180, 187, 226. 227, 
230 

D. D. T., 126, 159 
Richard M., Dr., 189 
S. W. D., 126 

Morey, George P., Dr., 227 

John E., 113, 184 

W. C, 175, 179 
Morgan abduction, the, 121 et seq. 

Co., the D. S., 417 

John S., 154, 216 

Lewis H., 80 

William H., Dr., 223, 224 
Morris, Charles E., 81 

David Z., 139 

Robert, 48-50 

Thomas, 70 
Morrison, William F., 127 
Morrow, J. I., Dr., 224 
Morse, Adolphus, Mrs., 168 

Ezekiel, 77 
Moseley, J. B., 186 
Moses, Schuyler, 154 
Moss, George, 114, 185 

George, Mrs., 171, 173 
Moulson, T. G., Mrs., 172 
Moulthrop, S. P., 189 
Mudge, Alfred G., 217 
Miihlhauser, John, Rev., 182 
Mullen, Isaac V., 95 
Mulligan, Edward W., Dr., 227 

E. W., Mrs., 169 
Mumford, 440 

churches of, 440 
George E., 159, 172, 179 
George H., 101 
George H., Mrs., 173 



Mumford, W. W.. 172 
Munger, George E., 80^ 

George G.. 216 
Munn, Henrv C , 189 

Henrv C, Mrs., 172 
Murphy, jolin M., 189; sketch of, 450 

Tmiothv, Rev., 181 
Murray, W.'E., Rev., 182 

Naphiha explosion disaster, the, 152 
Nash, Chauncey, 127 

John C, 126, 218 
"National Republican," the, 114 
Nellis, James H., 100 
Neville. Thomas J,, 189 
Newspapers of Rociicster, 112 et seq. 
Newton, Martin S. 217 
New York and Massachu.setts, contention 
between, 36 et seq. 

and Massachusetts, settlement of 
conflicting claims of, 39 

Genesee Land company, the, 40 
Niagara Genesee company, the, 44 
Nichols, James, Rev., 96, 136 
Nicum. John, Rev. Dr., 176, 181 
Nichols, Sarah J., Mrs., 136, 177 
Nolte, Adolph, 94, 116 
Nomenclature, Indian, 10 et seq. 
Norman, Alfred. Dr., 230 
Northampton, the town of. 70 
Northfield, organization of the district 

of, 69 
North Chili, 250 

Greece, 275 

Hamlin, 288 

Parma, 342 

Rush, 400 
Norton, Henry P., 217 

Nathaniel, 70 
Notabaert, Alphonse, Rev., 181 
Noyes, Milton. 17S 

Oaks, George, 98 

Oakes, George J., Dr., 227 

Oberholzer, F. C, Rev.. 181 

O'Brien, John Charles, sketch of, 455 

O'Connor, Josc])h, 114, 115 

Ogden Center 324 

churches of, 329 

first settlers of, 318 

schools of, 332 

town officers of, 323 

Samuel B., 104 

William b., 99 
O'Gradv. James M. E., 219 
O'Hare! James F.. Rev.. 181 

T. A.. Dr.. 227 
Oliver. William, 218 
Olm.stead, Jeremiah, 106 



322 



INDEX. 



O'Loughhn, C, Rev., 181 
Onderdonk, H. U., Rev., 117 
One-hundred-acre tract, the, 103 et seq. 
Oothout, John W., 168 
O'Reillv, Bernard, Rev., WJ 

Henry, 109, li:}, 143; sketch of, l.")!, 
210 
O'Rorke, Patrick H., 97 
Orphan Asjduni, Jewish, 170 

Asylum, Rochester, the. 168 

asylums, Roman Catholic, 169 
Osburn, Nehemiah, 159 
Osgood, Howard, 179 
Otis, Elwell S., 97, 103 

IraL., 185 

Paine, Cyrus F. , 179 

Nicholas E., 109, 126,217 

O. Sprague, 97 
Palmer, Charles H., 185 

O. H., 96,102 

Peter, 165 

William H., 99 
Pancost, Edwin, 175 
Pardee, Charles S., 218 
Parker, George T., 166 

Jane March. Mrs.. 180 

Joel, Rev. Dr., 118 
Parkhurst, F. S., Rev., 181 
Parks of Rochester, 186 
Parma Center, 346 

Corners, 347 

churches of, 344, 346, 349 

first settlers of, 335 

Institute, 348 

schools of, 350 

town officers of, 341 
Parsons, Cornelius R., 80, 126 

E. Bloss, 99 

EzraM., 218 

George W., 127 

Thomas, 80, 81 
Partridge, Samuel S., 95 
I'ascalar, Fridolin, Rev., 181 
Patch, Sam, 124 

Pathological Society, Rochester, 227 
Patriot war, the, 144 et seq. 
Patterson, Henry, Dr., 223 

John E., 80 ' 

John T., 218 

Josiah M., 114 

Thomas J., 80 
Paviour. Robert S., 174 
Peck, Everard, HI, 143, 169 

Everard, Mrs.. 167, 169 

Everard, & Co., 112 

G. W., Rev. Dr., 181 

Harriet Prindle, Mrs., 163 

William F., 115, 16S, 177, 179, 180 



Peepels, H. C, Rev., 181 
Peer, G. W., Dr., 228, 229 
Pellett, S. S., 144 
Pen field Academy, 355 

Center and hast Peufield, 356 

churches of, 356 

lirst settlers of, 352 

tf)wn othcers of, 354 

population of, 354 

schools of, 358 

village, 355 
Penitentiary, Monroe County, 88 
Perinton, first settlers of, 360 

town officers of, 360 

topography of, 364 
Perkins, 'Erickson, 182, 183 

George IL, 109 

Gil man, 183 

Oilman H., 90, 179, 180, 182, 186 

(Oilman H., Mrs., 170 

(xilman N., 1S6 

J. H., Rev., 181 

William, 79 
Perrin, Darius, 109, 162, 218 
Perrine, D. M., 101 
Pfafflin, Herman, 116 
Phelps, Oliver, 47 

Oliver, survey of the site of Roches- 
ter by, 43 

& Gorham, hrst .sales of land by, in 
Monroe county, 62 et seq. 

<S: Gorham purchase, the, 42 

remarkable error in the survev 

of. 46 
reversion of, 47 
.sale of, to Robert Morris, 48 
Phinney, H. K., 175, 180 
Phvsicians, early facilities for, 222 
Pierce, Francis E., 96, 97, 102 

Horace G., sketch of, 458 

Samuel C, 99 
Pierron, Father, 19 
Pitkin, William, 89, 91, 126, 183, 230 
Pitts, Edmund L., 80 
Pittsford, churches of 383 

first settlers of, 377 

population of 380 

schools of 385 

town (officers of, 379 

village, 380 
Piatt, Ward, Rev., ISl 
Plumb, William T., 189; sketch of, 477 
Pomeroy, C. R., 138 

Enos, 91, 120, 206, 217 
Pond, Charles F., 90 

Elias, 81, 218 

Nathan P., 99 
Pope, Ivdmuud M., 99, 102 
Populationof the Iro(juois confederacy, 13 



INDEX 



32.} 



Porter, Mary S., Mrs., 172 

Samuel, 97 

Samuel D., Mrs., 109, 171 
Posselt, Otto, Rev., 1S2 
Post, Amy, Mrs., 154 
Postmaster, the first, at Rochester, 108 
Pastmasters of Rochester, 109 
Potter, Marion Craig, Dr., 226 
Pouchot, Captain, memoir 28 
Powers, Charles J., 94, 9(), 97, 102, 18(5 

218 
Pratt, Abner, 217 

A. , Dr. , 22G 
Prentice, Alexander, Mrs., 17:5 
Preston, Albert W., 95 

B. I., Dr., 227 

E. S., Di\. 229 
Price, Peter, iT- 
Prideaux's expedition against the French 

fort at Niagara, 28 
Prisoners, treatment of, by the Iroquois, 

31 
Prizer, Edward, 174 
Public schools, Rochester, 177 
Pultney estate, the, 48 et seq. 
Pulver, Theodore S.. 127 
Purcell, Pierre, 114 

William, 113, 114 
Purchase, the Phelps & Gorham, 42 
Putnam, Earl B. , sketch of, 47S 

Israel H., 99 

Quinby, Isaac P., (xen., 94, 102, 157, 175 

Raffeix, Father, 19 

Railroad, Auburn &: Rochester, 141 

Carthage, 148 

facilities of Rochester, 188 

Genesee Valley, 142 

New York Central, 141 

Tonawanda, 140 
Raines, George, 80, 87, 217 

Thomas, 216, 219: sketch of, 44S 
Randall, Theophilus, Dr., 223 
Rauber, Frederic, Rev., 181 
Raw.son, George W., 213, 216 
Raymond, Edward A., 217 

John H., 175 

W. H., 97 
Rebasz, Charles B., 177 
Rebellion, Monroe countyin the, 93etseq. 
Redderoth, August, Rev., 176 
Redfern, Frederick, Rev., ISI 
Redman, Henry S., 102 
Redmond, Owen, 166 
Regenbogen, Hubert, Rev., 181 
Reid. Eliza M., Mrs., 166 
Religious beliefs of the Iroquois, 5 
Remington, Frederic, Dr., 226 



Remington, Harvey F., sketch of, 471 
Representatives in Congress, 80 
Revolution, the close of the, 34 
Rew, Francis S., 115. 127 
Reynolds, Al^elard, 108 

Abelard, Mrs., 152 

Gilbert IL, 100 

John A., Col., 100, 102, 109. 158 
Library, the, Rochester, 178 
Linus H., 229 

Mortmier F., 159, 178, 179 

William IL, 101 
Richardson, H. F., 97 

John F., 175 

J. M., 95 

Samuel, 126 
Richmond, Henry E., 97, 218 
Rider, C. E., Dr.. 226. 227 
Ridge Road Creamery Company. 258 
Ridley. Benjamin. 97 
Riga Academy. 391 

churches of, 390 

first settlers of, 387 

schools of, 394 

town officers of, 390 
Riggs, H. C. Rev. Dr.. 182 
Riley, Ashbel W., 153 

George S.. 178 
River navigation, 85 
Roads, early, 71 
Roberts, Benson H., Rev., 251 
Robinson. E. G., Dr.. 176 

Jane H., Mrs., 168 

Otis H., 175 

O. H., Mrs., 179 
Roby, S. B., Mrs., 169 • 

Rochefoucault-Liancourfs "Travels," 

extracts from, 66 et seq. 
Rochester "American," the, 114 

amusements in, 132 et see]. 

Bar Ass(jciation, 218 

bar, roll of the, 487 

banks of. 185 et seq. 

beginnings of settlement at, 105 et 
seq. 

Catliolic schools m, 136 

celebration of fiftieth birthday of, 149 

cemeteries of, 139 et seq. 

Chamber of Commerce, 184 

changes in the charter of, 128 

churches of, 180 et seq. 

city clerks of. 127 

citv government, 188 et seq. 

City^Hospital, 230 

citv treasurers of. 126 

Club. the. 183 

clubs of. 182 et seq. 

"Daily Advertiser," the. 113 

" Daily Chronicle," the, 115 



324 



INDEX. 



Rochester " Daily Courier," the, 113 
" Daily Democrat," the, 114 
•• Daily Times," the, 116 
" Daily Union," the, 113 
" Democrat and Chronicle," the, 114 
early bridges at, 109 
early burying-gnnmds in, 138 et seq. 
early schools m, 134 et seq. 
events of semi-centennial year of, 

150 
" Evening Express," the, 115 
events of 1885 in, 150; events of 1886 

in, 151; events of 1887 in, 152; 

events of 1888 in, 153; events of 

188!) in, 154; events of 1890 in, 155; 

events of 1891 in, 156 ; events of 

1892 in, 158; events of 1893 in, 159; 

events of 1895 in, 163 
expenses of, 189 

extension of the boundaries of, 128 
Female academy, 136 
fire department, 129 
first board of aldermen of, 125 
first birth on the site of, 107 
first city officers of, 126 
first directory issued in, 123 
first events of the second year of 

settlement, 111 
first log cabin at, 108 
first postmaster of, 108 
"(jazette," the, 112, 113 
Hahnemannian Society, 229 
Homctopathic Hospital, 232 
incorporation of, as a city, 125 
"kuockings," the, 148 et seq. 
mayors of, 126 
Medical Society, 226 
"Mercury," the, 113 
miscellaneous statistics of, 190 
"Morning Herald," the, 115 
Municipal Court, 204 
notable fires in, 131 
newspapers of, 112 et seq. 
parks, 186 

Pathological Society, 227 
list of officers and members of, 227 
population of, 112 
"Post-Express," the, 115 
postmasters of, 109 
Printing Company, 114 
private schools in, 137 
public schools, 177 
railroad facilities of, 188 
"Republican," the, 113 
sewers and water system of, 190 
statistics of, at time of incorporation 

of, 125 
"Suudav Morning Herald," the, 117 
"Sunday Tunes," the, 116 



Rochester, "Sunday Tribune," the, 117 

"Sunday Truth," the, 117 

"Telegraph," the, 113 

village, division of, into wards, 123 

village fire department, 124 

"Volksblatt," the, 116 

water works, 149 
Rochester, C. L., Miss, 168 

Henrv E., 92, 154 

Jane E., 91, 180 

John H., 172, 180, 186, 187 

Montgomery, 94 

Nathaniel, Col., 76, 77, 105, 120, 218 

Thomas H., 126, 169, 230 

William B., 80, 119 
Roche.sterville, incorporation of the vil- 
lage of, 111 

president of the village of, 112 
Rodenbeck, Adolph J., 189; sketch of 

457 
Roe, Charles, sketch of, 460 

John O., Dr., 227 
Rollings, Henrv, Rev., 181 
Root, J. S., Rev., 180 
Rose, Eben, Prof., 177 
Rosenthal, J. W., 183 
Ro.sin, Abraham, Rev., 182 
Ross, E B., Dr., 230 

Lewis P., 177. 185 
Rossiter, Nathaniel, 112 
Rowell, Nathaniel, Dr.. 223 
Rowland F. S., Rev., 181 
Rowley, William C,, 178, 206, 216 

W. C, Mrs., 168, 172 
Royce, Phineas, Dr., 224 
Rush, churches of, 400 

first settlers of, 395 

population of, 398 

schools of, 401 

town officers of, 399 
Ruppert, V. J., 482 

vSage, William N., 175, 218 ' 
St. John, Charles M., 126 
St. Mary's Hospital, 231 
Samson, William H., 115, 184 
Sampson, Ashlev, 206, 216 
Sankey, J. P., Rev. Dr., 91, 180 
Saxe, Asa. Rev. Dr., 163, 182 
Sayles, Emma L., Dr., 230 
Schermerhorn, Abram M., 80. 120, 12" 

126, 140 
Schmidt, Julius, Dr., 227, 230 
Schctffel, Francis A., 94. 95, 218 
Schoen, John C, 98 
Schofield, Samuel, 79 
Schooley, Richard H., 127 
Schools, early, in Rochester, 134 et seq 
private in Rochester, 137 



INDEX. 



325 



Schroth, John U., 189 
Scott, James, Dr., 321$ -"^ 
Scottsville, 437 -- - - 

churches of, 489 
Scoville, David, 1G9 
Scrantom, Edwin, 118 

Elbert, W., 126 

Hamlet, lOS 

Hamlet D., 126 
Sedgwick, Theodore, 126 
Selden, Henry Rogers, 2()o, 207; sketch 
of, 210 

Samuel Lee, 178, 207; sketch of, 209 
211 

Samuel L., Mrs., 171 
Selye, Lewis, 79, 80 
Seneca and Mohawk atrocities 81 

traditions, 2 
Senecas, Denonville's invasion of the, 22 
et seq. 

La Salle's visit to the, 20 

present locations of the, ."il 

Sullivan's expedition against the, 82 
et seq. 

the first Jesuit mission among the, 17 

towns and population of, 8 
Seward, James W., 162 

Jason W., 186 

Sarah T., 136 

William R., 168 
Seymour, James, 120, 141, 218 
Sliarpe, Daniel A., 96 
Sharpshooters, Monroe County, 98 
Shaw, James B.. Rev., 156 
Shedd, Eugene H., 98 

KendrickP., 175, 218 
Sheffer, Peter, 64 
Sheffers, setttement of the, 64 
Sheldon, WiUiam H., 101 
Shepherd & Strong, 114 
Shepardson, E. B., 127 
Sheridan, Peter, 127 
Sheriffs, 217 
Sherman, J. H., 92 

S. M., 127 

T. E., Rev., 180 
Shuart, Denton D., 217 

Denton G., sketch of, 446 

W. Dean, 217; sketch of, 446 

William H., 219; sketch of, 48C 
Siebenpfeiffer, Carl, Rev., 168 
Sibley, Hiram, 158^178, 218 

Hiram, Mrs., 172 

Hiram W., 183, 186 

Joseph, 77, 81 

Levi W. and Derick. 118 

Perry B., 97 

Wallace, Dr., 189, 226 
Sibleyville, 314 



Signor, David A.. 100 
Simmons, C. N., 127, 178 

Isaac, 97 
Simpson, William T., 81 
Sinclair, F. H., Rev., 181 
Skeelc, Amos, Rev., 180 
Skinner, Aaron, 182 

John S., 211 

Slayton, William C, 97 
Sloan, Samuel, 179. 1H6 
Smelts, Andrew, Rev.. 181 
Smith, Archelaus G., Dr., 224 

li. Darwin, 90, 118, 207; sketch of, 
212 

Erasmus D., 126 

Edward M.. 109, 126 

Edward M., Mrs., i72 

Elijah P., 126, 136, 280 

E. Peshine, 175 

Franklin P., 116 

Frederick W., 219; sketch of, 4S8 

Hiram, 94, 218 

H. A., Mrs., 169 

H. F., Mrs., 169 

James, 77, 81 

James W., Dr., 97, 218. 224 

Joseph, the Mormon, 124 

J. Moreau. 186 

Milton H., 99 

Samuel, Melancton, 79 

Silas ()., Ill, 169 

Sidney, 114 
Smythe, Frederick J., 219 
Society for the Organization of Cliaritv, 

the, 168 * 

Soldiers' Monument, dedication of, 158 
South Greece, 274 
Spahn, Jacob, sketch of, 4(>1 
vSpakhng, Erastiis, 82 
Speare,'M. B., Dr., 227 
Special county judges, 216 
Spencer, John C, 12H 

Joseph, 206 
Spencerport, 325 cl secj. 

churches of, 82S 

•'Star, " the, 828 
Sperry, James, 92 

Moses, 217 
Spiehler. Adolph. 189 
Spies, Christian, 97 
Spt)or, Gustav, 95 
Sprung, William H., 127 
Stanton. William P.. 186 
Starks. Milo L., 97 
Starkweather, S. W.. 178 
Starr. Charles S.. Dr.. 227 

Frederick, 280 

Henry P.. 100 
State Industrial School, the, 81- 



326 



INDEX. 



State senators, 80 

Stearns, Alonzo, 90 

Stebbins, H. H., Rev. Dr., 10r>. ISO 

John W., 109 
Steele, John M.,20f) 
Steffcns, CorneHus M., Rev., IHO 
Stephan, Paul, 94 
Stephens, Jobn B. M., 219 
Stevens. Hestor L.,217 

Linus, Dr., 223 
Stevenson, James, 95 

Robert, 97 

John A., 117 

John P., Rev., 181 

J. W. A., Rev. Dr., 181 
Stillson, George D., 139 
Stihvell, Hamlin, 126 
Stoddard, E. V. Dr., 168, 226, 227, 231 

E. V. Mrs., 173 
Stoll, Julius, 116 
Stone brothers, arrival of the, 67 

Enos, 106, lOS 

Isaac W., 107 

James Stoddard, 107 

M. ()., 187 

Newell A., 127 

Simon, 77, 206 

2d, Simon, 218 
Storm, Francis, 206 
Strattou, Hubert, Dr., 230 
Straus, Marcus, 183 
Strauss, Maurice D., 183 
Street car troubles and changes in Roch- 
ester, 154 
Strong, Alvah, 211 

A. H.. Dr., 176, 180 

Elisha B., 77, 120, 216 

E/.ra, Dr.. 223 

Iluldah M., Ill 

lohu W., 112 

Joseph, 81 

Maltby, 126 

Theron R., 207 

Allen & Huntington, 114 
Stull, Joseph A., 217 
Suggett, Joseph H., 97 
Sullivan, Jerry A., 95 

Patrick H., 97, 127 
Sullivan's expedition against the Sene- 

cas, 32 et seq. 
Sumner, Charles R., Dr., 1S9, 228, 229 
Surrogates, 217 

Sutherland, Arthur E., 216, 217, 219; 
sketch of, 447 

Isaac v., 218 
Swanton, Thomas J., 186 
Sweden, churches of, 411 

first settlers of, 406 

population of, 410 



Sweden, town officers of, 405 
Sweet, Clarence II., 126 
Swinburne, G., Dr., 226, 227 
Szadzinski, Theophilus R., 181 

Talman, John T., 120 
Tanner, G. A., 116 
Taylor, Joseph W., 217 
' Robert P., 94, 96, 100 

Wdliam G., 206 

W. R., Rev. Dr., 165, 180 

Zachary F., 138; sketch of, 465 
Telegraph, the first, 143 et seq. 

Western l^nion, 144 
Territory, surrender of northwestern, 35 

et seq. 
Terry James, 183 

Oliver L., 94 

SethH., Mrs., 170 
Thayer, George W., 186 
Theater, the, in Rochester in early days, 

132 
Theological Seminary, Rochester, 176 
Thomas, Horace J., 94 
Thompson, George H., 141 - 

James R., 81 
Thorn, Jacob, 112 
Thresher, G. W., 181 
Tobey, jr.. Philander, 224 
Topham, John A., 189 
Tower, A. K., 100 
Town Pump, 324 
Towns, devastation of, 77 
Traditions, Seneca, 2 
Trails, Iroquois, 9 
Transportation, growth of, upon the 

canal, 119 
Traugott, Chris, 97 
Travel, means of early, 1 19 
Treaty at the Big Tree, 50 
"Triangle tract," the, 48 
Tryon, James S., 127 

Town," 72 
Tubbs, J. Nelson, 149 
Tucker, Luther, & Co., 113 
Tuckerman, George S., 114 
Tulley, William F., 94 
Twenty-thousand acre tract, the, 62 et 
seq, 

Udell, Parsons (i.. Dr., 227 
" Underground railroad," the, 146 
University of Rochester, 174 et sev. 
Updike, Scott W., 109 

Van Allen, James H., 99 

Van Dake, Franklin, 101 

Van Dyke, L. B., 140 

Van Ingen, John A., Rev. Dr., 99 



INDEX. 



327 



/an Ness, J. G., Rev., 181 
Van Rensselaer, Killian, 127 
Van Voorhis, Eugene, 210 

John, 80; sketch of. -451 
Van Zandt, C. D.. Mrs., 172 
Varnum, Jonas P., 21!) 
Viele, P. B., 186 
V^osburg, John B.,205 
Vought, John G., Dr., 223 

Wadsworth, James, 142 

Wafer, F. M., 97 

Wagner Memorial Lutheran College, 

Rochester, 17(5 
Walker, Henry A., sketch of, 484 

the Tory, 52 
Wanzer, George G., 95 
Ward, Henry M., 92 

Levi, Dr., 71, 91, 120 

Levi, Mrs., 167 

Levi A., 126, 187, 178 

William H., 126 
Warner, F. W., 180, 185 

George E., 189; sketch of, 450 

Horatio G., 11:! 

H. H., 185 

J. B. Y., 173 

J. Foster, 88 

Matthew G., 126 
Warren, Aldice Gardner, sketch of, 479 

George F., 114 

James H., 218 
Washburn, Louis C, Rev., 168, 181 
Washington's instructions to General 

Sullivan, 31 
Waters, William A., 185 
Watson, Don Alonzo, 159, 179 

James S , 182, 183 

Weaver, Zachariah, 127 
Webb, Charles IL, Mrs., 168 
Webster, churches of, 429 

first settlers of, 425 

population of, 428 

schools of, 431 

town officers of, 427 

village, 428 

Charles A., 88 

Edward, 91, 138 

M. R.. Rev. Dr., 181 
Weed, John, 95 

Thurlow, 113, 114. 124 
Weigel, L. A., Dr., 227 
Wentworth, Ariel, 127 

Delos, 156 
Wenzel, C, 176 

Werner, Christopher C, sketch of, 466 
William E., 216; sketch of, 443 
West, Ira, 111 
Westcott, James, 97 



Western House of Refuge, 89 

New York Horticultural Society, 92 

New York Institution for Deaf 
Mutes, 89 
Westervelt, Z. F., Prof., 90 
Weston. Daniel, Dr., 223 
West Brighton, 244 

Greece, 274 

Rush, 400 
Wheatland, first settlers of, 433 

population of, 436 

schools of, 441 
. town officers of, 43(5 
Wheeler, Edward, 174 
Whist Club, Rochester, 183 
Whitbeck, John F., Dr., 76, 226, 227 

John W., Dr., 189,231 
White, Richard E.. sketch of, 460 

T. C, Dr., 228, 229 

Woman of the Genesee," the 5.S-61 
Whitford, Alfred H., 174 
Whiting, Addison N., 97 
Wliitnev, J. Eugene, 1H() 
Whittlesev, Frederick, 79, SO, 140. 14S, 
175, 206 

Frederick A., 179, 220 

William S., 79 
Wiedner, Frederick, Rev.. ISl 
Wiggins, J. P., Col., 91 
Wilder, A. Carter, 126 

A. Carter and D. Webster. 115 

Caleb, 145 

George, 183, 186 

John N., 175 
Wilev, Louis, 115 

Wilkin, George A.. 169 * 

Willard, Ernest P., 114 

William, 8H 
William.s, Charles M., 219; sketch of, 45H 

Comfort, Rev., Ill 

George D..99, 126 

Henrv B.. 94, 9(i. ](t| 

Henrv T., Dr., 226 

John,' so. 126. 230 

J. Elliot. 95 

Samuel B.. 127. ISS 

Stalham L.. 101 

W. Barron, 218 
Williamson, Charles, 104 
Willev, Reuben, 77 
Wilson, John H.. 95. 2is 

John M., 99 

Nathaniel, Dr.. 224 
Wiltsie. Charles \V.. 180 

Winant.s. H. L.. 127 
Winget. F., Rev. IMl 

Women, rights of, among the Irocnicns. 4 
Wood. Samuel. 89 
Wot)dworth. Chaunccy I', "is 



328 



INDKX. 



Woodworth, C. C, 185 
Worden, Samuel C, lfi4 
Works, Samuel, 120, 126 
Wright, G. W.. Rev., 1S2 

Hiram, 126 

Pardon D., 127 



Yale, T. B., 96 

Yeoman, George F., 215, 219; sketch of. 

443 
Young Mens' Christian Association, 

Rochester, 173 
W. B., Dr., 230 



PART II. 



Archer, (ieorge Washington. 89 
Ayrault, Allen, 78 
Ayrault, John, 77 
Bal:)cock, A. Emerson, 5 
Bubcock, William J., 3 
Baker, Jeremiah S., 75 
Bausch, J. J., 34 
Brewster, Simon L., 93 
Bromley, Pliny Miller, 74 
Butts, Isaac, 52 
Carroll, Charles H., 18 
Clark, George W., 53 
Clement, Frank H., 49 
Cleveland, Merritt A., 48 
Collins, Alphonso, 67 
Cook, Frederick, 89 
Craig, Henry H., 29 
Crippen, Oliver, 7 
Crouch, Charles T., 50 
Deavenport, Daniel, 55 
De Land, Daniel Brown, 101 
Dunning, Johw D., Dr., 15 
Eddy, Thomas H., 36 
Edgerton, Hiram II., 82 
Edson, Freeman, Dr., 61 
Ellwanger, George, 58 
Elwood, Isaac R., 60 
Ernst, Louis, 68 
Field, Reuben L., 37 
Gerling, Jacob, 71 
Goss, George A., 65 
Gott, Frederick E., 43 
Hannan, John W., 44 
Harding, Bryan, 76 
Harris, James, 21 
Hayes, M. D. L., 85 
Hebard, Henry Stead, 32 
Heughes, Frederick L., 98 
Hobbie, Isaac S., 78 
Huntington, Elon, 93 
Jones, Frank M., 96 
Judson, Junius, 71 



Kimball, William S., 88 
Langslow, Henry A., 72 
Leonard, Ichabod, 20 ~ 
Leyden, Maurice, 83 
Lighthouse, Charles F., 27 
Likly, Henry. 56 
Lincoln, Andrew, 13 
Lincoln, Josiah K., 14 
McLean. Charles D., 95 
Moore, E. M.. Dr.. 80 
Oaks, George J., 30 
Powers, Daniel W., 56 
Randall, Stej)hen W., 28 
Rochester, John H., 42 
Rochester, Nathaniel, Col., 40 
Rogers, Hosea, 63 
Ross, Austin P., 59 
Rowe, Frederick A., 57 
Salmon, George, 8 
Scribner, John C, 97 
Shantz, Moses B., 51 
Sheldon, Judson F., 45 
Sibley, Hiram, 86 
vSibley, Rufus Adams, 27 
Snyder, Henry J., 66 
Stanley, Henry E., 19 
Starkweather, Chauncey G., 46 
Stokes, W. A.. 24 
Taylor, George, 69 
Thatcher, lames H., 25 
Todd, Dav'id, 17 
Vogt, Albrecht. 80 
Watkins, (ieorge Benton, 47 
Watson, Don Alonzo, 92 
Whalen, Harvey, 9 
Whipple, John D., 31 
Williams, Samuel B., 38 
Woodworth, Chauncey B., 100 
Wright, Alfred, 64 
Wright, Charles S., 10 
Yates, Arthur G., 33 



INDEX. 



331 



HAMLIN. 



Allen, John, 294 
Burke, James, 290 
Elliott, Frank, 263 
Hamil, Aaron H., 277 
Manly, Howard, 249 
Palmer, Isaac, 208 
Pease, J6seph, Dr., 248 



Randall, Amos C, 262 
Redman, James H., 262 
Richman, A. L., Dr., 250 
Swanson, T. O., 248 
vSingleton, Daniel R., 276 
Storer, (Jeorge W., 2C)i 
Timmerman, Albert T., 2(53 



HENRIETTA. 



Bailey, David L., 188 
Brown, Cyrus E., 195 
Caswell, Warren, 86 
Clark, Herbert M., 40 
Ely, Darwin S., 88 
Farrell, James, 98 
Friend, Joseph W., 48 
Hodges, Charles H., 200 
Howard, Judson, 24 
Jackson, Morris S., 108 
Jones, Thomas O., 121 
Leggett, Charles, 44 
Lincoln, George W. , 52 
Little, Elijah E., 206 
McNall, James, 122 



Mason, Daniel G., Dr., 207 
Newton, William, 51 
Nichols, Almond F., 207 
Peets, Lemuel H., 218 
Post, Sarah A., Mrs., 49 
Reeve, Thomas, 212 
Schuyler, Benjamin D., 84 
Search, Charles W., 19 
Search, Lewis, 80 
Sperry, Henry H., 222 
Starkweather, Chauncey G. 
Stone, Franklin E., 97 
Stone, Harvey, 104 
Webster, Albert, 227 



IRONDEQUOIT. 



Aman, Joseph, 293 
Brown, Heurv B., 808 
Cole, Josiah H., 280 
Colt, Sarah A., Mrs., 264 
Cooper, George, 294 
Costich, Gilbert, 246 
Doyle, Joseph, 248 
Fritz, Martin, 245 
Garnish, John, 246 
Grant, Theodore W., 236 
Hill, William, 241 
Livmgston, Henry C, 805 
McGonegal, George E., 215 
Markel John, 244 
Neuhart, Michael, 238 
Pardee, Edwni S., 246 
Payne, Erwin C, 285 



Penney, Benjamin F. , 306 
Perrin, William H,, 304 
Porter, Chauncy, 306 
Rudman, William T., 241 
Simpson, Benjamin F. , 281 
Sours, William H., 241 
Southworth, Edwin M., 242 
Snyder, Myron T., 244 
Standemnaier, Marv, 295 
Titus, Adelbert, 294' 
Titus, Frank C, 231 
Titus. Stephen B., 807 
Tone, Joseph C, 237 
Vanauken, George W., 2:>1 
Walz, John, 249 
Weisner, Adam, 295 
Whitlock. George L., 235 



MENDON. 



Bellinger. Moses C, 196 
Brooks, Charles D., 42 
Burton, Leonard, 28 
Cole, Clair M., 115 
Corbv, Stephen L., 27 
Davis, Martin, 21 
Dutton, (u'orge K.. SO 



Graves. Allen S., 58 
Hauford, Frederick S. 
IKirris Erastus T., 67 
Holden, Alexander M. 
Lord, Nathan, 204 
Murray. William, 16 
Olnev, Harrison, 56 



332 



IXDEX. 



Otis, Charles F., Dr., 95 
Pierce, Martin, ;"> 
Probst, Frederick, 86 
Ritzenthaler. Stephan, 32 
Sheldon, Abner, 130 



Adams, James, 55 
Anderson, John, 21 
Arnold, William B , 12 
Barker, Albert N., 185 
Barnard, John, 4(i 
Blackford, Samuel, 18(5 
Boughton, Orrin, 77 
Bri.i(ham, John, 96 
Brigham, Orville P., 20 
Brown, Samuel, Capt., 66 
Brown, William B., 48 
Buell, sr., Bela, 35 
Burritt, Isaac, 184 
Chapman, Ansel, 20 
Clinton, Richard, 110 
Colby, Ephraim, 184 

Cole, Cornelius S., 105 

Cromwell, James, 182 

Danforth. Robert, 29 

Day, Eliphalet, 103 

Doty Family, the, 189 

Fincher, John Alexander, 192 

Flagg, Henry S., 69 

Fowler, Joshua, 37 

Garretsee, John R., 83 

Gillett, John, 199 

Goff, Henry H., 9 

Gott, John, 87 

Handy, John D., 199 

Harroun, Oliver, 21 

Hicks Family, the, 45 

Hiscock, George W., 52 

Hodges, George H.,'69 

Arnold, Aaron, 193 
Bartlett, Thomas J., 94 
Bass, Loring, 187 
Beebe, Asa,' 138 
Berridge, William R., 186 
Burritt, A. C, 89 
Burritt, Sylvester, 76 
Bush, Conrad, 186 
Butcher, Ephraim, 13 
Castle, Isaac, 182 
Chase, James Darwin, 181 
Childs, Rufus, 41 
Collins, J. Byron, ISl 
Cross, Elam'A., 70 
Curtis, Elias, 101 
Curtis, James, 180 
Denniston, W. H., 12:5 
Frazer, Allan B., Ill 



Stayman, George, 60 
Tinker, John E., 82 
Worden, Amos, 83 
Yorks, William R., 67 



OGDEN. 



Hoy, Patrick, 199 
Hubbell, William, 27 
Jones, Edwin A., 141 
Killip, Patrick, 75 
Kincaid, John, Rev., 102 
McDonald, David, 2:!5 
Mason, John, 3it 
Millener, Joel P., 105 
Nichols, Barnabas A., 66 
Nichols, Isaac, 11 
Nichols, Solomon, 50 
Parmele, James, 214 
Rich, James M., 211 
Robinson, Aaron, 211 
Spencer, Joseph A., 18 
vScribner, Albert G., 62 
Sla ., William C, 218 
Sm .,, Henrv, 53 
Smith, jr., John, 37 
Smith, John B., Dr., 217 
True, George E., 4o' 
Udell, Par.son G., 118 
Van nest, James C, 68 
Van Voorhis, James, 17 
Vroom, Hendrick D., 47 
Wansey, Lyman S., 25 
Webster, John, Dr., 46 
Whittier, J. Newton, 33 
Willey, Sylvanus C, 18 
Williams, John H., Rev., 33 
Wilmot, Servetus, 29 
Voung, Hiram, 79 



PARMA. 



Goold, Albert H., 37 
Gorton, Ezra, 197 
Hillman, H. Benjamin, 22 
Hiscock, James W., Rev., 198 
Huber, Clement, 198 
Huber, Frank, 77 
Knickerbocker, Benjamin 204 
Losey, William, 239 
Meserve, Samuel II. 25 
Miller, William, 116 
Sweeting, John L., 217 
Tracy, Allen D., 224 
Truesdale, James T., 224 
Webster, William and John, 55 
Wheeler, Benjamin, 114 
Williams, W^illiam Wilbur, Dv,, 8-1 
Woodmansee, C. N. , 225 



INDEX. 



i33 



PRNFIELD. 



Adams, Franklin and Leon F. , 193 
Allen, James N., 134 
Andrus, Fairchild, VSi 
Beardsley, Warren F., 127 
Boardman, Washington, 148 
Brailer, Leo, 185 
Bridgeman, Robert, 119 
Brooks, Frank J., 172 
Brown son, Isaac, 185- 
Burrows, Walter E., 91 
Busch, Frederick, 131 ^ 
Butler, Preston W., 195 
Clark, George W., 180 
Clark, Henry S., 130 
Cornel], Walter, Mrs., 179 
Crippin, Sarah, Mrs., ri9 
Eldredge, George I., 143 
Eldridge, Irving B., 147 
Eldridge, W. G., 94 
Emberry, A. J. and Willis, 277 
Emberr}% Christine, 247 
Fahrer, John, 191 
Fellows, John B., 140 
Fellows, William, 191 
Frost, Henrv, 135 
Fuller, C. Lacy, 147 
Fuller, Harrison C, 129 
Gaston, Daniel D., 125 
Gaston, Joseph H., 146 
George, David and James, 12(1 
Gray, David S., 164 
Harris, George F., 127 
Harris, James, 89 
Harris, Robert, 201 



Hebbs, James, 201 
Herrick, C. Elbert, 146 
Migbie, Abijah Peck, 166 
Humphrey, Nathan M., 201 
Keith, Linus, 228 
Kennedy, James K., 89 
Landon, Daniel, 205 
Leonard, Charles N.. 273 
Leonard, George R., 274 
Loyd, Orin, 127 
Ockenden, Frank E., H4 
Osbon, William, 2(I9 
Northrop, Burr S.. 167 
Parker, Clark, 213 
Parmenter, George W. , 89 
Peet, Norman C, 129 
Peterson, Axel, 213 
Ravmond, Charles C, 167 
Reddick, Robert, 215 
Rich. Noah F., 145 
Rundel, Jerome, 85 
Sam])son, Howard, 221 
Schlieman, C. and H., 221 
Schuelcr, John A., 221 
Spear, Richard W., 221 
Turrill, Edward, 128 
Watson, George W., 131 
Weaver, William, 128 
Weeks, William H., 164 
White, John F. 93 
Whiting, Lawson J.. 128 
Willson, M. v.. Rev., 143 
Worden, Edward, 2H7 



PERIXTON. 



Adams, Orlando C, 194 
Aldrich, J. G., 64 
Ayrault Allen. 194 
Baird, Byron, 60 
Baker, J. S., Mrs., 38 
Baker, Nathan C, 196 
Baker, William, 196 
Barnhart, Mary E., Mrs., 78 
Barnhart, Orrin B., 197 
Benedict, Allen, 8 
Billinghurst, J H., 119 
Birch, Benjamin, 196 
Bly, William B., 24 
Bown, George G., 12 
Brown, Olivia, 195 
Brydges, H. H.. 120 
Bumpus, William II.. 113 
Butts, Truman, 72 
Case, Nathan, 29 



Chadwick, Jeremiah, 33 
Cobb, F. I). H.. 73 
Conover, L. A., 92 
Corni.sh. Clement, 7 
Cowles. J. B., Dr., 183 
Crocker, A. J., 183 
Davis. G. W., 70 
Davison, Ezekicl, 189 
De Witt, C. G., 49 
Dobbin, William H.. 124 
Downer, Maria, Mrs.. HS 
Drake, John N., 10 
Edgett. Harriet Roscoe, C 
Efner. Charles, 15 
Filkins, George S., 19() 
Fisk. E. T.. 51 
Fok'v, Thomas, 82 
Fo.sk'ett, William A., 10 
Gardner, Melvin, 46 



334 



INDEX. 



Gordon, James, 202 
Green, George W., 108 
Gunsaul. John S., 30 
Harris, J. D., 113 
Ilenrv, Robert W., 203 
Higbie, Myron R., 201 
Higbie, Nathan, 203 
Hobbie, Isaac S. ,85 
Hodskin, Egbert L. , 67 
Howard, D. J., 43 
Howard, John E., 76 
Howard, S. P., Maj., 203 
Howell, Harvey H., 239 
Ives, Lydia R., 20 
Jordan, Edwin, 78 
killmer, Harry A., 5 
Leisher, Jacob H., 205 
Loclnvood, M. E., Mrs., 109 
Loud. William P., 91 
McGill. J. W., Dr., 12 
McMillan, James, 110 
Moseley, L. P., 208 
Newman, Arthur B. , 17 
Newman, J., 47 
Newman, William M., 10 
Olney, hranklin, 22 
Palmer Familv, the, 54 



Pannell, Silas J., 75 
Patterson, W. H., 214 
Peacock, Charles L. , 105 
Perkins, Asa P., 118 
Peters, Isaac E., 214 
Price, George S., Dr., 215 
Rightmire, N. A., 212 
Schummers, F. P., (51 
Scribner, O. C, S 
Shaw, L. M., 2 Hi 
Storms, W. S., 210 
Stubbs, Joseph, 111 
Taylor, Creorge C. , 20 
Walker, Henry A., 1:5 
Warner, Fred, 74 
Warner, Samuel, 35 
Watson, W. S., 7 
-Wells, I. S., 38 
Wilbur, Smith, 51 
Wilbur, W. Montague, 31 
Wilcox, Chester E., 225 
Wilcox, Glezen P., 61 
Wilcox, Mortimer R.„ 225 
Williams, Charles A., 238 
Wood, Giles S., 36 
Wvgant, T. B., 77 



PITTSFORD. 



Bacon, John B., 240 
Barker, William H., 22 
Barrett, T. E., 187 
Cole, Mary I., 4 
Doane, W. H., Dr., 188 
Drake, sr., Elihu, 188 
Farnum, George W., 104 
Finucan, A. N., 116 
French, M. D., 191 
Garland, Morev C, 31 
Gaskin, E. W.,'25 
Gomph, George H., 26 
Goss, George A., 56 
Guernsey, Duane L., 91 
Hopkins, J. W., 126 
Hopkins, Robert M., 202 
I lutchinson, S., 76 
lohnson, Walter W. , Dr., 



202 



Light, Marv Helen, Mrs., 23 
Lord, Huld'ah, Mrs., 209 
Loughborough. Ira E., 23 
Malonc, Patrick. 28 
Marsh, Jonathan E., 209 
Matthews, Irving E., 65 
May, Jane A., Mrs., 68 
Merkel, Henry, 209 
Reeve, John, 29 
Rogers, Charles Spencer, 75 
Rogers, Charles W., Mrs., 210 
Schoen, Charles, 221 
Spiegel, Thomas, 220 
Stone, Samuel H., 220 
Wilmarth, Louisa, 220 
Wiltsie, James M., 122 
Woolstoii, W. I., KM 



RKtA. 

Smith, Oliver, 79 



INDEX. 



329 



PART III, 



BRIGHTON. 



Boardman, Emily, Miss, 102 
Boothe, Reuben N., 117 
Brown, Thomas A., Dr., 99 
Buckland, Leonard, 184 
Butterfield, Clarence E., 174 
Caley, Mary G., Mrs., 179 
Chapman, George, 98 
Charlton, John, 179 
Cogswell, Pierce J., 108 
Craib, James, 180 
De Floo, Jacob, 173 
Down, Charles B.. 100 
Edmunds, James M., 192 
Frank, George, 167 
Guenther, Frederick, 174 
Howes, George E., 197 
Jones, William H., 100 



Kellv, Charles E.. 204 
Le Clare, J. F., 206 
Manning, William L., 12:5 
Meitzler, Charles, 99 
Michel, Albert, 167 
Nash, J. Sidney. 205 
Norris, J. Frank, 205 
Peck, Henry J., 272 
Rowerdink, William H., 95 
Sheehan, Daniel F., 221 
Shelmire, James D., 101 
Teare, Eliza J., Mrs., 174 
Terrill, Erwin, 167 
Todd, Stanley, 22:} 
Wilson, M. II., 226 
Wing, Benjamin, 96 



Allen, Lucia, Miss, 192 
Carpenter, Lewis B., 180 



CHILI. 



Hubbard. Richard P., 11(» 
Humphrey, W. S., 197 



CLARKSOX. 



Allen, Chauncey, 19B 
Allen, Isaac, 193 
Bellinger, Charles H., 185 
Campbell, E. H., 82 
Crary, Eli, 182 
Freeman, Daniel C, 'Sii 
Gallup, Andrew J., 115 
Garrison, Elias, 197 
Goodberlet, Joseph, 116 
Hiler, William H., 119 
Hixson, Fred R., 93 
McBain, James W., 115 
Miner, John E. , 8 
Minot, Morton, 92 
Moore, Adam, 117 



Perry, Alfonso, Dr.. 213 
Prosser, Cicero ]., 95 
Reed, John J.. 211 
Rockwell, Washington L 
Shafer, Jonas, 218 
Sigler, James, 218 
Silliman, Wyllis A.. Dr., 
Smith, George C, HI 
Steel, John W.. 218 
Smith, Orrin C. 219 
Snider, Denton G., 50 
Spurr, Samuel. Capt., 43 
Truman, Lawrence, 224 
Warren, James H., Capt. 
Williams. Charles S., 115 



110 



84 



GATES. 



Avery, Edwin B., 223 
Barhydt, Edwin, 292 
Beaman, Cassius, 291 
Brayer, Frank N., 216 
Curry, John C, 296 
(iates, Henry P., 295 
Ilaight, Jacob S., 234 



Harris. Selali M.. 305 
llinchev, Franklin, 227 
Leddy, 'Thomas J.. 292 
Miller, Ardean R., 2o3 
Miller. Ransom, 305 
Niven, William D. 248 
Patten. E. S.. 231 



330 



INDEX. 



Pease, George M., 306 
Perry, William S., 307 
Renouf, William, 30."i 
Roe, Thomas, 232 
Schwartz, Jacob F. , 3(iT 
Smith, Charles, 216 



Smith, Jeremiah, 307 
Sperry, George B., 223 
Statt, John, 307 
Terrill, Harmon, 230 
Waring I'amilv, the, 251 
Woodworth, Clark, 234 



GREECE. 



Allen, John M., 142 
Baldwin, Addison R., 131 
Barnev, John S., 290 
Beaty^ Thomas, 289 
Bingham, James R., 290 
Bolton, William R., 289 
Brown. Edward S., 134 
Budd, Daniel D., 136 
Burling, George, 289 
Butts, 'Daniel.' 135 
Butts, Simon. 157 
Canfield, James P., 288 
Casburn, George, 238 
Chandler, George A., 125 
Clark, George C., 288 
Conterman, Adam L., 275 
Copsey, Albert, 136 
Corbitt. jr., Robert C, 288 
Crane, John H., 232 
Croft, James, 234 
Davis, Benjamin F. , 274 
Davis, Thomas S. , 142 
Defendorf, Frank J., 124 
Deming, Howard C, 139 
Denise, Daniel S., 278 
Dvson, Robert. 278 
Kstes, James W., 290 
Fallesen, Andrew P. , 137 
I'^arnan, James, 236 
Ferguson, Alexander, 145 
Fetzner, John, 223 
Fillmore, Sarah A., Mrs., 273 
Fleming, Joseph, 242 
Flynn, Jeremiah, 279 
Foster, Ozias, 233 
Vy\, Thomas J., 279 
Gallery, Michael, 138 
Gallusser, John,* 279 
Gray, George N., 127 
Hed'ditch, Robert, 280 
Henchen, Virginia, 280 
Hillman, Walter B., Dr., 280 
Hincher, Wheeler, 287. 
Jones, Charles B., 281 
Keene, William 11., 77 
Kintz, John, 282 
Kintz, Milton W.. 281 



Knipper, Peter, 137 
Lane, Almira, 282 
Lascell, Jo.shua B., 136 
Latta, Frances M., Mrs., 283 
Lotz, John, 128 
Luke, T. John, 282 
Manning, P^ ranees, Mrs., 284 
Markham, M. A., Mrs., 130 
Miller, Jorgen 1., 283 
Miller, Laura A., Mrs., 284 
Mitchell, William, 283 
Nelson, William, Mrs., 284 
Northrup, George W., Mrs., 285 
Oliver, George, 19 
Olmsted, Harry A., 85 
Paine, John, 140 
Payne, George W., 14 
Pearson, Harry M., 126 
Petten, John J., 173 
Pollard, Emma M., 129 
Rashe, Louis, 135 
Roberts, Julia E., Mrs., 134 
Robinson, William L., 305 
Rowe, Lucian A., 141 
Schwartz, Peter M., 233 
Seibel, Mrs. J. B., 250 
Sexton, Lawrence, 286 
Sheldon, Luther G., 138 
Shepard, John H., 285 
Skinner, George W., 287 
Slater, William J., 286 
Smith, Jacob, 286 
Stace, Stephen, Mrs., 237 
Stone, George B., 128 
Stone, S. A., Mrs., 140 
Taft, Horace, 287 
Tennison, David, 145 
Tennison, jr., John, 293 
Todd, David, 58 
Todd, Sophia, Mrs., 51 
Vick, Henry IL, 166 
Warner, Etta E., 270 
Weber, Frank, 274 
Wilder, Meriou R., 2r2 
Wood, Thomas, 245 
Woodham, James, 143 



r 



INDEX. 



ROCHESTER. 



335 



Adams, Abner, 2(i(i 

Adams, Reuben A., Dr., 248 

Adler, Levi, 25(i 

Alden, John F., 2G."» 

Aldridge, George Washington, :')03 

Allen, Charles M., ITS 

Allen, Frederic P., 170 

Almy, Elmer E., 201 

Ashley, William J., 259 

Ashton, John H., 144 

Atkinson, Hobart Ford, 15!) 

Atwood, H. Franklin, ITS 

Babcock, John W., 270 

Barber, Charles Russell, Dr., 227 

Barhite, John A., 163 

Barnes, Charles R. , 151 

Barnum, William R., 288 

Barr, William, 253 

Bartholomay, William, ;)()2 

Bausch, E. E., 205 

Beach, Daniel Beers, 16!) 

Beahan, James, Dr., 168 

Belding, Homer, Dr., 801 

Bissell, Elmer Jefferson, Dr., 229 

Block, Alvin, 154 

Ely, Myron T., 161 

Bohachek, Edward, 174 

Brewster, Henry C, 159 

Brickner, Max, 801 

Brinker, Henrj% Gen., 44 

Bntenstool, Jacob A., 254 

Brown Brothers Company, 802 

Brown, Le Grand, 375 

Brown, Richard, 171 

Brownell, Frank A., 262 

Bryson, Robert, 254 

Buck & Sanger, 268 

Buckley, James, Dr., 270 

Buell, Jesse W., Dr., 168 

Burke, Fitz Simons, Hone & Co., 271 

Carnahan, George Alexander, 168 

Chadsey, John H., 169 

Chamberlain, Philetus, 162 

Chapin, Charles Hall, 291 

Chapin, Louis S., 257 

Clark, Brackett H., 66 

Clark, Charles H., 157 

Coggswcll, William F. , 164 

Cook, John C , 154 

Craig, Oscar, 251 

Cramer, J. (ieorge, 807 

Creelman, John A., 258 

Crittenden, William Butler, 152 

Crossman Brothers, _ 800 

Cummings, Scott, loj 

Cutler, James G., 147 



Dann, Archibald, Dr.. 228 
Davis, William (J., 162 
Decker, Richard J., Dr., 255 
Eastman, George, 176 
Edington, I. C, Dr., 800 
Ellsworth, Henry Mason, 27(i 
Elwood, Frank Worcester, 174 
Enders, John C, 245 
Ernst, Charles B. , 240 
Evans, John Joseph, Dr., 250 
Everest, Charles Marvin, 177 
Evershed, Thomas, 268 
Fenn, Albert ().. 159 
Finnessy, James H., Dr., 171 
Fleckenstein, George V., 146 
Foote, \athauiel, 156 
Forsyth, Daniel W., 178 
Friederich, A., & Sons, 258 
Fuller, George R., 274 
Gaffney, Owen, 270 
Gardiner, Richard F. , 808 
Garlock, James S., 149 
Garson, Charles, 158 
Gee, Horace B. , 9 
Gibbs, Everett ()., 159 
Graham, Merritt E., Dr., 175 
Grant, Justus Herbert, 269 
Grant, Kolla C, Dr., 17<> 
Graves, J. William, 254 
Greenleaf, Halbert S. Co!., 271 
Hamilton, John B., 168 
Hannan, John W., 144 
Hawks, Haywood, 250 
Havden, J. Alexander, 252 
Hays, David, 170 
Hebing, Henry, 155 
Hccnan, Martin M., 16^ 
Hcughes, Frederick Lee, 160 
Hofhcinz, R. H.. Dr.. 164 
Hone, Frank J., 158 
Hopkins, John Hampden, I7u 
Houck, George H., 168 
Howard, Eugene H.. Dr., 229 
Howk. Loron Whitney, Dr., 236 
Hoyt. David. 800 
Hulett, Pierson B., 158 
Hutchison, Merritt L., 299 
Jones. Frank A., Dr.. 25s 
Keeler, Charles A.. 249 
Keenan, iCdward Arthur. 162 
Kempc, Julius, Dr., 70 
Kent, J H., 266 
Kinney, John F., 148 
Kleind'iensl, Henry, 248 
Kohimetz. Charles E., 254 
Kondolt, Mathias, 267 



336 



INDEX. 



;^03 
170 



Kuichling. Emil, 152 
Lamb, George W., 164 
Laney, Calvin C , 299 
Langslow, Fowler & Co 
La Salle, B. F. & C. W., 
Lee, John Mallory, Dr., 178 
Lewis, Merton E., loS 
Lindsay, Alexander M., 29H 
Lodge, Clarence V., 151 
Loomis, George W., 2'-iH 
Ludolph, Andrew^ 177 
McClintock, J. Y., 292 
McPhail, Percy R., 259 
Macy, Silvanus Jenkins, 144 
Mallev, James, 144 
Mann'; Frank C, 294 
Martin, Bernard F., 298 
Maurer, Edward W., 170 
Mead, iJarwin W., 260 
Menzie, Herbert J., 162 
Miner, Arthur M., 257 
Murphy, John Martin, 160 
Myers,'RobertM.,267 
O'Brien, John Charles, 152 
Otis, Lyman M., 268 
PaJiera, George W., Dr., 176 
Paine, Cyrus F., 156 
Paine, L. C, 177 
Palmer, Griff D., 269 
Palmer, sr. , James, 292 
Parker, Orin, 259 
Paviour, Robert S., 171 
Plumb. William T., I()8 
Potter, Everett O. , 304 
Putnam, Earl B., 165 
Remington, Harvey F. , 229 
Rochester, John H., 154 
Roe, Charles, 142 
Ross-Lewin, George W. , 172 
Roth, George F., 308 



Scofield, Warren D., 260 
Security Trust Company, 298 
Seymour, H. Franklin, 256 
Shantz, Moses B^ 161 
Shedd, Kendrick P.. 261 
Shuart, Denton G., 172 
Shuart, William Dean, 146 
Shuart, William H., 172 
Bible V, Rufus Adams, 155 
Sibley, Wallace, Dr., 228 
Sloan, Samuel, 147 
Spader, Willard B.,298 
Spahn, Jacob, 149 
Sprague, George W., 152 
Smith, Frederick W., 243 
Stern, Morley A., 257 
Swanton, Thomas J., 259 
Taylor, Zachary P., 160 
Teall & Sons, 297 
Telfair, William, Dr., 4 
Thayer, George W., 171 
Tubbs, Joseph Nelson, 164 
Van Zandt, Clarence D , 260 
Vick, Joseph S., 255 
Vogel, Charles, 263 
Voshall, Charles Watson, 251 
Walbridge, Edward N., 297 
Walter, John A. P., 151 
Warner (ieorge E., 150 
Warner, J. Foster, 158 
Watkins, George B., 148 
Weston, John Porter, 309 
Whitcomb & Downs, 296 
White, Richard E., 169 
Williams, Charles ]\I., 150 
Williams, Henry T., 256 
Williamson, William A., 252 
Woodworth, Frank J., 273 
Yawman & Erbe, 296 
Yeoman, George F., 153 



RUSH. 



Diver, Byron A., 112 
Fishell, Henry, 190 
Martin, Henry R., 59 



Snapp, Archibald T., 
Stull Family, the, 97 



49 



vSWEDEN. 



Adams. J. W., 6 
Aldridge, Erastus, 193 
Allen, G. H., 15 
Allen, Lewis B., 71 
Andrews, L. E., 108 
Barnett, George F., 43 
Beedle, Ichabod, 187 
Beedle, Zenas Paine, 56 



Benedict, Edgar, 26 
Berry, Thomas C, 9 
Boyd. Andrew, 57 
Bnggs, Elroy W. , 107 
Brown George S., 72 
Bulkeley, H. L., 187 
B.urlingame, Herman G., 137 
Burns, John D., 69 



INDEX. 



337 



Burns, William H., Capt, 185 
Capen, Franklin F., 14 
Chamberlain, Nelson, 89 
Chapman, 11. D., 16 ' 
Chappel, Guy, 48 
Clark, Francis, 181 
Cook, R. J., 182 
Cook, WilHs C, Dr., 11 
Cornes, George T., 79 
Cottar, jr., James, 79 
Courtney, Lewis B., Capt., 112 
Curvin, John, 111 
Dailey, William, 30 
Dean, Theodore S., 99 
Decker, Charles, 35 
Doty, Anson, 24 
Dunn, W. S., 189 
Edmunds, William J., 53 
Ewer, Spencer, 7 
Fisk, Nathan, 88 
Frost, S. P., 191 
Gallup, George, 79 
Gleason, Benjamin F. , 63 
Gleason, Samuel W. , Dr., 31 
Goodridge, Joseph H., 66 
Gordon, George C, 3 
Harrison, Edward, 201 
Harrison, Henry, 110 
Hartshorn, John, 200 
Heinneh, WilHam, 114 
Henion, E. B. , 15 
Hines, Daniel C, 201 
Holbrook, Silas H., 121 
Holmes, Daniel, 4 
Holmes, Harris, 14 
Hovey, Cassius M , 63 
Hovey, Treat J., 90 
Howard, Seymour W., 73 
Johnson, Benjamin F.,114 
Johnson, Frank P., 68 
Johnson, H. N., 202 
Ketchum, Byron C, 132 
Kimball, Joseph, Rev., 109 
Kingsbury, John H., 9 
Lennon, W. H., 73 
Lester, Julius, 208 
MacLachlan, Hugh, 62 
Madden, H. S.,23 
Mann, William B., Dr., 88 



Merritt. F. G., 208 
Morgan, I). S., Mrs.. 157 
Moore, Wilson H., 95 
Owens, John, 4 
Page, W. L.. 118 

Palmer, Fred, 19 

Palmer, William, 74 

Park.s, William H., 40 

Patten, J. E., 117 

Pease, Levi J., 212 

Peckham, Frank L, 213 

Raymond, Alonzo H., 3 

Reed, J. B., 87 

Reichel, George Valentine, Rev.. 309 

Reynolds, Linus H., 113 

Richards, Dorwain, 4 

Richards, Gurdon, 210 

Root, Frederick P., 57 

Root, Henry, 45 

Root, Sevniour H., 210 

Roberts, 'William H., 19 

Rowe, A.sa, 74 

Rowe, George H., 109 

Schlosser, Fred, 219 

Secor, C. O., 219 

Seymour, William H.. 39 

Shay, James, 219 

Sime, George W., 27 

Skinner, James Avery, 120 

Smith, George W., 219 

Smith, Heur'v, 220 

Smith, John,' 220 

Smith, Orril, 240 

Stanley, William, 22(i 

Staples, Robert, 13 

Stedman, George L., 112 ' 

Stickney, Edwin I., 219 

Tooley, Norman, 20 

Tozier, Joseph A. , 224 

Underbill, Lucius T., 224 

Wadsworth, John, 227 

Ward, George R., 109 

Way, George H.. 71 

White, A. M., 15 

White Charles J., 74 

Wilco.x, Elias, 59 

Williams, George E., s7 

Young, Elijah "\V., 227 



WIvBSTER. 



Abercrombie, John, 194 
Aldridge, Jenuett A., 34 
Allen, Lemuel, 113 
Baker, Charles J., 124 
Bancroft, Ellis W., 197 
Bass, John E., 80 



Billings, Lewis J., 217 
Bradsluuv, Isaxic Leonard, 195 
liurnett, CJiles, 92 
Conster, Bladwin. 1M3 
Eaton. Wilber, 7(5 
Eldred, Franklin, 7i> 



338 



INDEX. 



Fehr. Jacob, 190 
Fox, George W., 190 
Glasser, John M., 60 
Goetzman, Charles, 14 
(irinnell, J. W., 42 
Hallauer, George, 47 
Hams, William, Mrs., i:}') 
Hawley, William S., 5 
Hen dee, Peter, 88 
Hettler, William, 72 
Hollev, Andrew M., 199 
Hopkins, Freeman A., 200 
Hosenfele, Dionisius, 200 
Jones, Edwin, 200 
Ketchum, Joseph H., 60 
Kircher, jr., Charles, 119 
Klein, Bernard A., 2(i8 
Klem & Hendricks, 18 
Knight, Andrew M., 71 
Leake, C. Leverne, 113 
McLaren, John, 42 
Martin, A. N„ & Brothers, : 
Mason, George G., 98 
Middleton, George H., 208 



Middleton, Harriet. 208 
Morlev, John, 208 
Odell,' Hiram, 210 
Pellett, James, 73 
Pitt, Thomas, 21:5 
Pitt, William, 119 
Randolph, Joseph, 212 
Reitz, Charles, Dr., 99 
Shaw, Alice E., Mrs., 123 
Smith, Uziel B., 291 
Spavin, ?Ienry, 80 
Sperrv, Burton E., 216 
Stokes. William H., 74 
Sudbury, Mark, 216 
Thatclier. James H., 7s 
Thayer, Preston, 71 
Thomas, Ann E., 80 
Wagar, Dexter S., 27 
Wager, Philetus. 226 
Wager, P. Kel.sey, 34 
Weeks, Benjamin B., 226 
Wolf, John F., 72 
Wright, Hiram W., 226 
Van Ingen, Bart, 71 



WHEATLAND. 



Allen, (Jliver, 80 
Bennett, vStephen, 120 
Bowerman, Luther, B. 



18 



Brown, D. D. S., 106 

Brown, Frank M., Prof., 92 

Cox, Frances E., 183 

Cox, John, 117 

Freeman, James and Patrick, 189 

Garbutt, Philip, 86 

Garbutt, Robert R., 86 



Grant, Archibald S, 72 

Howe William J., Dr , 32 

McAmmond, John ¥., Dr., 206 

Martin, James, 69 

Rafferty, William and Thomas, 21 1 

Salyerds, Isaac W., 140 

Shirts, William A., 217 

Skinder, Almond, 222 

Slocum, (ieorge E., 65 

Warren, Newman, 117 



PORTRAITS. 



Angle, James Lansing, facing 213, Part I 
Archer, George Washington, facing 16, 

Part I 
Ayrault, Allen, facmg 78, Part H' 
Ayi'ault, John, facing 360, Part I 
Babccjck, A. Emerson, facing 243, Part I 
Babcock, William J., facing 336, Part I 
Baker, leremiah S., facing 364, Part I 
Bau.sch," J. J., facing 24, Part I 
Brewster, Simon L., facing 32, Part I 
Briggs, James E., facing 468, Part I ' 
Bromlev, Pliny M., facing 40, Part I - 
Carroll,' Charles IL, facing 48, Part I - 
Clark, George W., facing r)3. Part II 



Clement, Frank H., facing 56, Part I " . 
Cleveland, Merritt A., facing 48, Part II 
Collins, Alphon.so, facing 67, Part II y 
Cook, F'rederick, facing 64, Part I - 
Craig, Henry H., facing 72, Part l^ 
Cnppen, Oliver, facing 352, Part P'' 
Crouch, Charles T., facing 80, Part I ^' 
Davy, John M., facing 442. Part I •' 
Deavenport, Daniel, facing 55, Part II 
De Land, D. B., facing 372, Part I ^' 
Dunning. John 1)., I )r., facing 424, Part I ' 
Eddy, Thomas H., facing 272. Part I >' 
lidgerton, Hiram II., facing 82, Part II 
Ed.sou, Freeman, Dr., facing 432, Part I 



INDEX. 



330 



Ellwanger, George, facing SIS, Part I 
Elwood, Isaac R., facing 473, Part I^ 
Ernst, Louis, facing 9(5, Part I '- 
Field, Reuben L., facing 2fi4, Part I^ 
Gardiner, Addison, facing 207, Part I 
Gerling, Jacob, facing 104, Part I 
Goss, George A., facing 376, Part 1 ' 
Gott, Frederick E., facing 321, Part I 
Hannan, John W. , facing 44, Part II ^ 
Harding, Bryan, facing 76, Part II ''' 
Harris, James, facing 21, Part II "^, 
Hayes, M. D. L., facing 85, Part iT'^ 
Hebard, Henry Stead, facing 112, Part I" 
Heughes, Frederick L., facing 116 

Part I '^ 
Hobbie, Isaac S., facing 79, Part II "'' 
Huntington, Elon, facing 120, Part V 
Jewett, Simeon B., facing 445, Part I '' 
Jones, F. M., facing 428, Part I '' 
Judson, Junius, facing 124, Part I , 

Kimball. William S., facing 128, Part I 
Langslovv. Henry A , facing 132, Part I 
Leonard, Ichabod, facing 354, Part I ^ 
Leyden, Maurice, facing 136, Part I ^ 
Lighthouse, Charles F., facing 27, Part 

11 / ■ / 

Likly, Henry, facing 56, Part II 
Lincoln, Andrew, facing 368, Part V 
Lincoln, Josiah K., facing 14, Part II '• 
McLean, Charles D., facing 420, Part V . 
McNab, Anson Stuart, facing 459 Part V 
Macomber, Francis A., facing 214, Part I 
Oaks, George J., facing 140, Part I ^ ^ 
Powers, Daniel W., facing 144, Part I ^ 
Raines, Thomas, facing 448, Part I v' / 
Randall, Andrew J., facing 284, Part I'' 



Rochester, John H., facing 148. Part I '^ 
Rochester, Nathaniel, Col., facing 152, 

Part I 
Rogers, Hosea, facing 300, Part 1 
Ross, Austin P., facing 156, Part \ ' / 
Rowe, Frederick A., facing 260, Part I 
Salmon, George, facing 8. Part II -^ 
Scnbner, John C, facing 97, Part 11^ / 
Selden, Henry Rogers, facing 210, Partl^ 
Selden, Samuel Lee, facing 2o9, Part \'^ 
Shantz, Mo.ses B. , facing 51, Part II / 
Sheldon, Judson F., facing 309, Part L 
Sibley, Hiram, facing 160, Part I *" 
Sibley, Rufus A., facing 164, Part V 
Snyder. Henry J., facing 39.', Part l^, 
Stanley, Henry E., facing 356, Part I'' 
Starkweather, Chauncev G., facing 294,^ 

Part I 
Stokes, W. H., facing 24, Part H' 
Sutherland, Arthur E, facing 447, Part I ' 
Taylor, George, facing 168, Part I 
Thatcher, James H., facing 420, Part I 
Todd, David, facing 17, Part II 
Vogt, Albrecht, facing 172, Part I ' 
Watkins, (ieorge Benton, facing 47,- 

Part II / 

Watson, Don Alonzo, facing 176, Part I 
Werner, William E., facing 443, Part \^ 
Whalen, Harvey, facing 9, Part II . 
Whipple, John \)., facing 304, Part I ,^ 
Williams, Samuel B., facing 180, Part I 
Wood worth, Chauncev B., facing 184,'' 

Part I 
Wright, Alfred, facing 64, Part II ' 
Wright, Charles S., facing 10, Part II 
Yates, Arthur G., facing 1H8, Part I • 



"X 



D'i4 



mm 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



014 108 047 7 * 






